Gameplay Journal 1: Technicity Of Metal Gear Solid 2
Metal Gear Solid 2 is a game that deals with our relationship with technology, specifically military technology and the internet. The narrative of the story deals with AI systems and the idea of societal control via information control, not removal of information but through producing a deluge of information via the internet to keep people engaged non substantive confirmative information. We engage with the story mostly as Raiden, a new member of a clandestine organization known as Foxhound. On his first assignment he fits the archetype of “The Cyborg”, he’s trained in VR and uses nanomachines to augment his physical abilities. His identity and memories have even been altered and shaped by technology which fits the definition of the cyborg archetype offered by Kennedy and Dovey “…offered us the idea that our new intimate connection with machines could create a fluid zone of identity.”, Kennedy, Helen W. Dovey, Jon. Game Cultures: Computer Games as New Media.2006. After sometime the game raises the question on whether it the user, Raiden, or the machines that are able to rise to the challenges Raiden faces.
Later in the game we Raiden come into contact and tutelage of Solid Snake and more pertinent it becomes a clash of the Cyborg and the Hacker archetypes. Snake in contrast to Raiden is outfitted with older technology that he has retrofitted to his needs rather than letting the technology create his identity he uses it only to his ends. Snake does also hit against some of the ideas of the hacker, “…this identity is founded on access to computers”, Kennedy, Helen W. Dovey, Jon. Game Cultures: Computer Games as New Media.2006. His identity as the hacker while obviously contingent upon his access to technology, he seizes these means by taking it from the bourgeoise and the military industrial complex. He teaches these things to Raiden and Raiden learns to release himself from his identity that’s integrated with technology and control, and in the final scene Raiden throws away his dog tags with a name on them that is chosen by the player in the beginning.
