Reply With QuoteZOE 3 please. Metal gear is done. Dont think anything more worthwhile can be done with it. 4 wrapped things up too perfectly.
Hahaha. So true.Originally Posted by Frogacuda
Ass
ZOE 3 please. Metal gear is done. Dont think anything more worthwhile can be done with it. 4 wrapped things up too perfectly.
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http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager....=1&cId=3170146
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots had an extraordinary amount of hype leading up to its launch over the summer, and many would say that the game nearly lived up to it. But its development wasn't easy. Series creator and codirector Hideo Kojima voiced frustration about developing for the new PS3 hardware on several occasions, and the entire undertaking was on a scale much larger than anything Kojima -- or Konami as a whole -- had ever tried before. As a result, MGS4 was the first Metal Gear Solid game to see a delay. We recently spoke with Kojima about the game's tricky development -- what worked, and what didn't. As you'll see, he's surprisingly candid about the mistakes that were made, and he gives a lot of insight into the process of building such a major game. He also talks a bit about what's next, about what's happening with Metal Gear Solid 5...and if he's ready to step aside this time around.
1UP: Every time I talked with you over the past few years, you were always quite stressed because of Metal Gear Solid 4. You now seem a bit more relaxed. How are things going for you now?
Hideo Kojima: Well, members of the team started to take vacations in April, and some people are on vacation for six months, since they worked straight for such a long period of time. Anyway, people are slowly coming back to the office now. As for me, I'm not a "regular team member," I guess you'd say. I was on the MGS4 world tour, and I had a lot of promotional activities surrounding the launch. Now that it's all over, I might take a vacation. But before I take off, I have to prepare a bunch of homework for the staff that's coming back to work -- prepare a bunch of concepts so they'll have work to do.
1UP: Naturally, you have to make compromises with every game. Looking back at Metal Gear Solid 4, were there many features that you left out from the final product?
HK: There were so many things! I won't say that we made a lot of mistakes, but even with MGS2, the last time I created a game for new hardware, I learned to take steps very cautiously. It was new technology, so we had to take things day by day, moving in baby steps. After MGS3, I couldn't really work like that -- I had a lot of business things that I had to take care of and other projects that were dividing my attention. So the point is, with MGS3 this wasn't so difficult -- we were working on the same platform as before, and I could pretty much just let the staff continue doing what they learned working on MGS2.
With MGS4, however, we were once again dealing with new hardware, and it really pushed us. What I regret is that I should have probably concentrated more on the fact that we were working on a new machine. I let the staff work like it had on MGS3, and we came to a point where we had problems, which I should have recognized earlier. I should've paid closer attention to what the staff was doing. Because of this, it was the first time we delayed a major game. This hadn't happened before with an MGS game, and it was all due to those problems.
1UP: The documentary on the Metal Gear Solid 4 Limited Edition shows some of the behind-the- scenes struggles. It captures what usually goes on during development: programmers telling designers they can't execute what's envisioned and you arguing with your technology director. Was harnessing technology your biggest hurdle with MGS4?
HK: The reason I got so frustrated wasn't necessarily about the technology but more about the mentality -- making the impossible possible. If you don't think you can do that, what are you doing making games? If you only do what you think you can do, then you'll work on a normal schedule, using normal technology, and nobody's going to be surprised with the end result. Some of the staff didn't make the big leap that I expected, and that was what I was frustrated with.
1UP: How did the development of MGS4 pan out for you, since over the years you've kept talking about how you want to share more of your responsibilities with other team members?
HK: That was one of the mistakes in the end. Because I thought that leaving things up to the team members and giving them more responsibility was the only way for them to grow, sometimes that sort of sacrifice can be too much, and in this case it was. Nothing good came of giving them more responsibility. I'm not saying the staff were slackers -- definitely not -- they were working really hard. But it was about the decisions they made.
If I were working on the project and I could experiment [with] a lot of things...how shall I put this...if I think the experiment isn't working, I'll change the story or the sequence and basically just take a different route. Making that sort of decision was probably a bigger barrier for the staff than I thought it would be. They sometimes worked really hard while going in the wrong direction -- if I had been in that position, I would have known better and recognized that it wasn't working. But they wouldn't stop -- they'd keep at it. And I should have stepped in to say that it wasn't going to work. That was my mistake, and looking back, I should have done better.
1UP: But with hundreds of people on the team, it's impossible to keep track of everything.
HK: Two hundred people. And yes, that made management very difficult. A lot of key staff that I've worked with have been with me a long time, but working under them were a lot of new people who hadn't worked on a Metal Gear Solid game before, so the whole family grew, and that brought issues with it.
1UP: But now they're pretty much ready for anything, right?
HK: I have to say that I'm really looking forward to seeing the staff come back and to hear all of their new ideas. I'm really excited about that. This year, or next year, they will have tons of experience that they can utilize in MGS5 if they want.
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1UP: After finishing MGS4, I started reading more about private military companies -- especially stuff about Blackwater from Jeremy Scahill. It's some of the scariest s*** you can read. You touch on some of these issues really well in the game.
HK: I don't necessarily feel afraid, but it's a trend of the times we live in that we probably cannot stop. Militaries belonged to nations before, but now it's become companies because it's more efficient. And let's face it -- the economy grows with that kind of business structure. It's the era that we live in, and we can't stop it. I wanted to make people aware of this reality, and in playing the game you get a glimpse of it.
1UP: I find it scary that companies like Blackwater don't operate under the same laws as the regular military; they could literally get away with murder -- with no repercussions -- but the military deals with real laws, investigations, and possible courts martial.
HK: Think about the police. It's government controlled and always has been. But in the future, maybe the police will be run by a company. They can interpret the law in their own way and make people respect the law as they see fit. That could be economically more efficient.
1UP: And who governs the police?
HK: For example, in the past, if your life was in danger, you went to the police. Now it could be that they tell you to get lost, that they have no time for you. So what do you do? Now sometimes what you do is call a security company and hire them because your life is in danger. I didn't want people to just think that this is all just made-up stories. It's real. So I'm very happy that you got this out of the game.
1UP: Are you happy with the amount of players playing Metal Gear Online?
Kojima: [Laughing] Not at all!
1UP: I think you know where this is heading -- the Konami ID and Game ID registration processes are a pain in the ass and just too complicated.
HK: [Laughs more and shakes head] No comment! That's, er, a difficult matter.
1UP: Understandably, the whole Konami ID and Game ID infrastructure is a Konami-wide initiative that you had to use, and we'll see it in future Konami games like Pro Evolution Soccer 2009.
HK: Honestly, officially, I can't say anything on Konami ID and Game ID. It's a company policy. But frankly speaking, the idea wasn't a very good one. The fact is that Konami's direction was that we create a Game ID and Konami ID for the online components, and now we're seeing that it's not working so well, and we have to think about how to turn it around. It was a concept of an online Konami group thinking, so there's not much I could do at the time.
1UP: I looked at that whole registration process as the only thing you had to compromise on in the game. It's hard for even hardcore gamers to get online.
HK: I assure you that we understand the problems. We can look at the figures, and we can see what's going wrong. A lot of people buy a lot of stuff online in MGO, but we know what the problems are, and as a company we have to turn things around.
We aren't blind. At company meetings we know this is a problem, and we are working on it. Obviously, we have a lot of hardcore online gamers working for us, and we know what makes a good online game. So rest assured [that] we are working on this.
1UP: Will Trophies get added to the game?
HK: I can't speak about that.
1UP: So the next game...is the Kojima Productions slate really clean? MGS4 is done, so is there nothing else in development? Because that's what it sounds like. What happens next?
HK: I would like to just make a new game, and the younger staff can work on the new MGS projects. For MGS5, it's very difficult to explain right now because we haven't announced anything. I have really high expectations of my young staff, though. I hope they have learned from their mistakes and that they won't repeat them this time around. But believe me, I also made mistakes on the decision side of things, and I don't want to make those mistakes again, either. I will step in with more courage if I see the staff going down the wrong path again.
I have three concepts for MGS5 already. What would be ideal for me with MGS5, though, is that we don't do those. If the team picks one of those concepts, I have to get involved again, which I don't want to do.
There are already so many good ideas from the staff, so if we select one of those, that would be really good. At that point I could really rely on them and take the step back to be the producer, which is the ideal situation, I think.
1UP: But what do you really want to make next?
HK: Well, I want to create something new, and it's difficult to explain since no one's seen it before. I don't know if it would sell very well. I've been warming this up for a long time, and I keep thinking that I'll try this idea. But ideas always change, so I really don't know what the final outcome will be.
Enough MSG already.
or GTFO.
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Yes!
I downloaded a rom of Snatcher today. I'm hoping to play it when I get a little more time. I should have never sold that game.
I played the Sega CD Snatcher to completion for the first time last year on my roommate's modded Xbox and I loved every minute of it. Looking forward to the Policenauts translation for PS1. I thought there was supposed to be some new Snatcher content coming in the next year or so, even if not a game...?
A radio drama is coming, I believe.
Where is that translation for Policenauts? I have my copy and a modded PSOne just to play that!
Progress on it had stalled for a really long time, but they got new talent on the project and it looks like it's moving along very quickly now. NZe has a thread on new translation projects here, might be info in there.
Don't care what else, I'd love to see a next-gen ZoE game. I really enjoyed the first one and think a new one could be amazing given the right amount of attention.
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