None other than Jade Raymond, of Assassin’s Creed fame, interviewed Hideo Kojima, the brains behind the Metal Gear Solid series for a story in Japanese gaming magazine, Famitsu.
Kojima expressed the view that violence in video games weren’t realistic enough and as a result, takes away the impact of doing violent acts in game play.
Kojima said, "If you don’t see the pain, you can’t understand what you’ve done, and you’ll pass through battles without taking responsibility for your actions. I don’t want to ignore that. I want players to think, even if it’s just a little, about what violence and war are."
He feels that sugar coating violence doesn’t really help people to understand the consequences of what is involved. "I don’t think there are many games that tackle violence head-on. When you hit someone or inflict pain, faces get disfigured for example, and I want to make games that show that sort of thing."
Some of Kojima’s philosophy can be seen in his MGS games. While killing the enemy has been a staple of action/adventure games with hardly an eye-blink from anyone, the MGS series forced you to hide the bodies of those you dispatched. Sloppy killing would alert the authorities and your chances of survival were diminished. This game play structure added a new dimension to the experience.
But with all the antagonism against video games within the past few years, Kojima’s point of view in adding more realism to violence in games will surely raise a few eyebrows in the anti-game establishment.
[via 1up]
