Someone else who's come across META Gear Solid? Holy crap, never though I would see the day.

Either way, I'm glad to see this finally getting some publicity. There is a massive underlying theory that, while extreme, suggests some plausible and overall compelling propositions about the motivations of Kojima and the messages he tries to implement into his games, and how critical reaction both shaped and influenced the way MGS games were and would be made. Sounds like an amalgamation of over-analytical pseudo-intellectual pretentious fluff, I know, but look into it without any severe predispositions and it'll be difficult to, at the very least, not even consider.

Because Raiden reflects the player in the sense that Raiden has been on VR Missions and us, the player, have played as a hero (Solid Snake).
But we are not Snake, we're just bystanders/rookies/raiden ourselves.

Raiden has been trained to kill as a child and so have we in that most of us have played a lot of games as a kid where we take lives. Atleast played MGS1.

We are playing the game on MGS2 just because we want to see what happens next and a lot of it, is really MGS1 copy pasted in some regards.

Infact, the whole game is meant to be unlikable. The beginning of the tanker with Solid Snake like the video says is the ideal sequel. Everything works amazingly. You have a lot of choice, Snake is there, the tech is amazing, gameplay is solid, they have adressed the issue of too many interupptions during gameplay etc. Then the game does a 180 turn and starts to deliberately go back to MGS1. Raiden enters just like Snake does in MGS1. We always see Snake a bit ahead of us and "better" then us.

The thematic of MGS2 is confirmed to be MEME also. Described as =>
"deals with how identity can be affected by the philosophies of one's society (a 'meme') and the effects of censorship on society""
We were censored in that regard that we didn't even know who Raiden was before playing the game ourselves. It was false marketing to show Snake instead. And ours and Raidens identity is brought into question during the game as a result. Kojima really broke the fourth wall with this one.

Raiden has a dog tag on him that you write the name of yourself. Say I named mine "Aldro". At the end, Raiden tosses it which shows that he "walks away" from us. Raiden is no longer us and we are no longer him. We take what we learned and grow from it.

Snake puts it best at the end of MGS2 =>

"Listen dont obsess over words so much. Find the meaning over the words and then decide, you can find your own name, and your own future. And whatever you choose will be you. I know you didn't have much in terms of choices this time around but everything you felt and thought about is yours and what you decide to do with them is your choice."

It's like a way to criticize sequels in general and games in general. Hell anything post modern really. When you play the game, you play the role of someone. The colonel also says it when he's tripping balls because of GW going berserk after Emma uploads the virus.

"This is a roleplaying game."

Theres MUCH more to it and a lot of better explanations in the video(s). Im just trying to make sense of it all myself. But I can see the "meaning" of it and I really really love it :P.

As mentioned above, if you check out META Gear Solid, which is pretty much a site run by one man dedicated to the whole exploration of the series' overarching meta-narrative, your questions will all be addressed there, although the video put up in this thread's OP serves as a good supplement (for the most part, anyway).

He also posts up a few game reviews and reactions to MGS-related news and big game industry happenings; be warned, though, as, in regards to the latter, his stance on the industry and gaming in general is unyieldingly aggressive towards decisions driven by superficiality and greed. Overall, I'd say he's a genuinely smart guy, who really just detests manipulation and stupidity, lol. Though I'm also unsure of how he'd feel if he knew someone was posting about him in some distant forum a good couple sites away.

[EDIT: Oh, and forgot to say, props to Aldro for recognizing this and extending awareness of it to the public. It is something worthwhile to contemplate, and few have really looked at the game (or the series in general) in such a regard.

Though, to be honest, I've felt that keeping only a minority in the loop was, strangely, kind of for the best, as it helped separate it from incoming flamers and thoughtless 'critique' alike; however, I guess that nothing could stay unchanged forever.]

Cheers! The meta-narratives are really one of the main reasons I love MGS.

MGS2 happens to be the one that has the most interesting one imo :3

You into Silent Hill too? That's even more f***ed up.

I personally just find the MGS games quirky and nonsensical. And I like that. A lot. I don't think I've ever even tried to understand anything 'deep' coming out of Japan, but I still very much enjoy a good mindfuck.

Maybe I'll watch this later if I remember, for now I just wanted to say one thing.

Never, I say again, never autoplay embedded videos. It's so annoying when you open a new tab and suddenly a sound starts playing for absolutely no reason. If I want to watch a video, I'll click on the play button, thank you!

This thread is about 10 years too late. No one cares now., it was new when its was new.

This is Funny OP I am playing this Game ATM to show my GF the Series (as i bought the MGS Legacy Collection) and i think i will this video to her after I beat it, as it explains a lot of what the story is about.

But I really did enjoy this game going as far as to say its my second Favorite of all time (MGS4 being the best look at my sig) but i judge the entirety of a series instead of judging just the one game , and Good Post the video really does clear a lot of things up for people who are so confused by what happens in the Game THUMBS UP BRO

@ bolded parts. I don't see any link here whatsoever.

Where is it confirmed that the theme of MGS2 is "MEME"? Even if it was, how was that single word interpreted to mean that Kojima intentionally censored advertisements of the game and intentionally made the Raiden section of the game bad (LOL) to prove some ridiculously deep point?

Also, nothing in Snake's monologue seems to be criticising sequels nor video games at all.

I agree with the rest though.

Nice man, im right there with you. MGS4>MGS2>MGS3 imo xD But its like comparing greatness to greatness.

I only prefer 2 and 4 mostly due to the meta-narrative being more interesting and overall story.

MGS3s was rather simple yet beautiful whereas MGS2 and MGS4 are like convoluted in ways and i actually love that xD Hell I even prefer the focus of Genes on MGS1 over the Scene on MGS3. Nobody quite does it like Kojima in that regard. And I think a part of me prefers the OLD gameplay of MGS. Not sure why. It feels more unique since nobody does that anymore atleast even if its outdated kind of.