MGS4 to have 90 minute long cutscenes?

[HappySqurriel]

Profcrab said:

DTG said:

I suppose that depends on whether you consider Kojima a visionary game designer/artist or not. Those who do would agree that his long and complex methods of storytelling are ingenius and integral to what he is trying to achieve. Those who consider his storytelling bad would obviously be upset, but I think the huge fanbase of the franchise and huge fanbase of MGS2 alone validates him as more than a terrible writer. There have been numerous essays written on his games, if you read them perhaps it will help you see the depth his games actually have. Many non hardcore fans of the series mistake his storytelling as simply being for entertainment value yet taking itself too seriously, but in actuality there is an enormous amount of research, meaning and depth that goes into giving his plots a layered message.

I respect that many may disagree with that, but nonetheless it doesn't invalidate my and others opinions about him being a brilliant writer.

You don't have to go very far to find a large group of people that find a large amount of anime stories to be visionary and genious.  People have a habit of mistaking complexity for art and depth (I think Rocketpig is fond of saying this).  What makes Kojima a bad story teller is that he has to tell you all of his ideas.  He can't work them in.  At some points, his characters literally spout philosphy.  This is where he fails.  There are no layers to the message.  Layers come when the actions of the characters and the decisions they make are left up to the viewer/player/reader to explain.  Kojima can't do that though.  Artistic media doesn't tell you why, it asks you why.

Don't bring up the huge fanbase argument.  Dane Cook has a huge fanbase and if I hear someone compare him to Richard Pryor then someone needs to die. 

Another mistake a lot of people make is they assume something has to be long in order for it to be meaningful ... In fact, I think this is the standard mistake that is made when a movie is trying to win awards.

 

Beyond this, I think that there is a matter of preference that I suppose many of us will have to accept ... I personally prefer it when the storyteller hints at something and trusts us to be smart enough to pick up on it while other people like to be spoon-fed everything.