Journal Entry 4

When I look back at some of the best games of the past twenty years, I can’t help but think of the Medal Gear Solid series.   The series is known for its incredible stealth action game play, but what really sets these games apart from all the rest is the intense, and some time ludicrous narrative. The Medal Gear games were created by one of the best game directors of all time, Hideo Kojima.  What made Kojima great was the way that he told each of the stories.  The plots were filled with more twists and turns than a Christopher Nolan movie, and each game had some of the most unique and difficult bosses in gaming history.  We’re talking about bosses that wore vests filled with explosives and moved around an oil rig on roller blades, as well as bosses that knew every move you made because the only way to beat him was to switch the controller to the second port.  But what really made these games memorable were the stories told in them.  They were constantly tying together plot lines from the other games to make it one giant story.  The cut scenes were on another level with quality and direction.  They were also known for having some the longest cut scenes in video game history.  I distinctly remember that in the second Medal Gear Solid game there was a cut scene that lasted twenty minutes.  That's insane!  With all that said these games trigger what Kincaid calls the Drama Theory. 

The idea behind the drama theory is that as the plot thickens, people’s emotional involvement increases.  As this emotional involvement with the plot increases, it facilitates identification with the key characters in the story (Kincaid 132-156).  This seems like a very obvious theory, but it rings true.  Throughout the Medal Gear series you are introduced to new characters at different eras in time, but they all are connected to one man, Naked (Solid) Snake.  I never really knew how much I loved the character of Snake more than in the last installment of the game, Medal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.  In this game, Snake is an old, grizzled secret agent that is running his last mission.  The game unfolds with some crazy plot twists but it all comes to a head when Snake beats his arch rival Revolver Ocelot.  Well the ship he is in is equipped with a microwave filled tunnel, and the only way for Snake to make it to the other side is to crawl his way through the deadly microwaves.  The whole time you have your sidekick yelling in your ear and you see images of your friends getting attacked.  It is an incredible scene to say the least.

It had me sitting at the edge of my seat as I had to control a crawling Solid Snake and navigate him through his pain and suffering.  It was intense to say the least and is one of the most memorable scenes in gaming to me.  It was incredible. 

Citations: Kincaid, D.L. (2002) Drama, Emtion, and Cultural Convergence.  Communication Theory, 12: 135-152