The Cybernetic Gaze of Solid Snake

I’ve been feeling somewhat post-human lately. Watching the Iran crisis unfold on Twitter, my overstuffed RSS feedreader, and CNN simultaneously makes me feel like I’ve finally entered The Matrix – without the cool sunglasses or the trance music playing in the background. And then a strange thing happened: I thought of Solid Snake. How does Metal Gear Solid relate to Iran? Maybe not directly; after all, Solid Snake isn’t sneaking around Tehran in a cardboard box. But Metal Gear Solid does relate to the broad sweep of electronic data streaming from digitized sensory organs that have steadily infiltrated our daily lives, the ultimate source of the Iranian “Twitter revolution.”

Unlike much of today’s sci-fi, the Metal Gear Solid series offers a trenchant—and pessimistic—commentary on today’s technological assemblage. It’s a paranoid acid trip to the dark side of the information revolution—complete with a malevolent artificial superintelligence, an octopus-armed villain, and enough ninjas to give even Quentin Tarantino a heart attack. Like the similar (but vastly more confusing) anime Serial Experiments Lain,  MGS is about the simulated reality that 50 years of computing and the growth of a networked “global brain” has created.

Modern Information Technology (IT) is the grandchild of Cold War-era sciences such as cybernetics, systems theory, and information theory. Scientists and theorists such as Norbert Wiener, Heinz von Foerster, and Gregory Bateson studied how some biological and mechanical systems adapted to environmental change, using mathematician Claude Shannon’s concept of information—defined here as the message itself rather than its contents—as a biofeedback system that provided guidance and control. When a system faced an environmental change that threatened to take it away from its original state, homeostasis ensured that the system self-regulated itself back to its optimal condition.

This is a gross oversimplification, but captures the essential idea of cybernetics (the Greek term means “steer”) as a method of control. Wiener himself got his start designing Command and Control (C2) systems during World War II. The cybernetic model came to be applied to biology, psychology, genetics, artificial intelligence, and even sociology, allowing us to achieve unparalleled advances in computing and better understand human, social and biological systems.

However, computer scientist Jaron Lanier argues in his famous essay “One Half a Manifesto” that cybernetics has been twisted into “cybernetic totalism.” Totalizers, Lanier maintains, deny that subjective experience exists and reduce people to mere patterns of information in a vast system. Lanier also attacks the totalizer practice of conceptualizing cultural and religious change as a biological process, attacking the idea of  self-replicating units of cultural information called “memes” as reductionist philistinism. Lastly, because totalizers already see the whole of life as an information pattern, they regard the merger of biology and technology as both inevitable and desirable. This process, called the “singularity” will eventually culminate in the birth of a machine superintelligence and the transformation of humanity.

I don’t have time to delve too deeply into the veracity of Lanier’s polemic, which remains highly controversial, nor the impassioned responses it has evoked from eminent scientists and philosophers such as biologist Richard Dawkins, cognitive philosopher Daniel Dennett, and artificial intelligence innovator Ray Kurzweil. I find many “cybernetic totalizers” persuasive and remain very fond of cybernetics and complex systems science. The world depicted in Metal Gear Solid, however, pretty much constitutes Jaron Lanier’s worst nightmare.

The Patriots, a distributed Artificial Intelligence (AI) system, see their task as essentially acting as a cybernetic regulator that keeps American culture at an optimal state through the censorship of all information and the maintenance of a fake social system that gives the illusion of choice. Not surprisingly, the Patriots justify their control through a kind of information-age Social Darwinism. By carefully selecting and controlling memes, they can control the process of cultural evolution. Their justification is the production of a perfect world through the artificial selection of good memes and the censorship of bad ones. However, cybernetic control isn’t restricted merely to the media.

In Metal Gear Solid 4, the cybernetic control regime reaches down to the biological level with the Sons of the Patriots (SOP) system, a homeostatic tool that utilizes nanomachines to regulate and control the actions of soldiers on the battlefield. The similarly controlled Genome Army that Solid Snake fights through in the first Metal Gear Solidgame foreshadows SOP’s grotesque army of puppets. As the scientist Naomi Hunter reveals later in the game, the Patriots planned to extend their information control down to the individual level through the extensive usage of nanomachines based on the SOP military C2 system.

If what we understand as life is a message in a vast information system, then Metal Gear Solid suggests that the surrounding social world and our perceptions of it can be easily distorted and manipulated. The Patriots continuously manipulate information, going as far to breach the fourth wall and actually toy with your PS2 during Metal Gear Solid 2’s climactic level. The player comes to realize that the entire second game is a giant exercise set up to test the information manipulation system and mold protagonist Raiden into a compliant tool.

It should be emphasized that Metal Gear Solidis an obsessively paranoid and vastly exaggerated vision of the future. MGS is populated by wacky and idiosyncratic characters such as Solidus Snake, a knockoff of Spider-Man’s Doctor Octopus, and Revolver Ocelot, a bizarre Russian with a fetish for Old West gun slinging. And yes, there are ninjas, pseudo-vampires, and giant robots. Playing the game is often like taking a trip to your Otaku friend’s apartment and marveling over his bizarre collection of action figures, Gundam models, and Cosplay costumes. It goes without saying that many of the game’s plot twists are completely nonsensical.

Today’s high-tech globalized world isn’t necessarily the information paradise that the totalizers say it is nor the 1984 2.0 that MGS suggests. Complexity science and modern sociology shows us that we’re imperfect, frequently wrong, and prone to being swept up with the irrational crowd. The fragile political, economic, and technological systems we place our faith in are often vulnerable to cascading failure, as the current economic crisis painfully reveals. But no matter how simplistic of a picture it paints, Metal Gear Solid, like the dystopian science fiction epics Blade Runner, Neuromancer, and Ghost in the Sell, is a useful corrective to the info-enthusiast narrative that we hear so often from politicians, business writers, and futurists. And if we have to get that from a video game with ninjas and Doctor Octopus-lookalikes, so be it.

Year in Review (Because it Always Looks Better in Retrospect)

I’m a bit obsessive compulsive and love 3’s and 7’s. In order to keep this relatively brief for your sakes, I’ll be keeping this to groups of three. 2008 was an awesome year in many ways for video games and I think a look back would be a wonderful way to go into the new year:

3 Biggest Bits of News

I – Final Fantasy XIII goes Multi-console

This is big news in a lot of ways. The first thing is the overall importance of this news and what it means for the video game industry. The FF series has, until now, been exclusive to its given console. The sharing of a console for an FF installment on its release is heretofore unheard of and the change shows Square-Enix’s appraisal of a new market and era for videogames. How? Because in the old days, figuring out which console was truly king was an easy matter, and a console being king in the SNES days was a simple matter of it having better out of the box appeal. Thanks to instantaneous dissemination of information and news (this crazy interweb thing), consumer opinion and responses are extremely organic. As such, even if the 360 has a lead on the PS3 in console sales right now, there’s no telling which console will get the better pull when FFXIII is released, or which one will hold onto the lead in the long run (whereas in previous console generations the winner was usually clear after the first full year on the market). Square responded to the new market and showed that multi-platform releases are the best way to do business, and that is what Square is first and foremost.

The other important part of this news was the collective brick shat by gamers around the globe in response to the news. Immediately arguments ensued and discussions about multi-disc format versus the single disc blu ray PS3 owners will have. Longtime Sony stalwarts can attest to multi-disc format not being a big deal (since it was standard in PSone days) and therefore doesn’t really matter. The major bit to emerge in the face of this news is what no one seemed to pay any attention to: the sister game, Versus XIII, remains PS3 exclusive. In all honesty, based on the story and trailers that have been released, I’m more excited for Versus, and can’t wait to see more.

II – PS3 Begins to Best 360 in monthly sales, 360 takes November though

The PS3 finally began overtaking the 360 from Spring onward, and this generated very little buzz beyond the usual numbers spinning that Microsoft PR is wont to do and generated little fanboy buzz by the way of anything more than the reality: the PS3 was finally hitting stride and catching up to the 360.

What was absurd about the year’s NPDs was the November numbers being spun out of proportion to the point where people were claiming the PS3 was a sinking ship and that even sparked rumors of Sony canceling the PS3. The PS3 sold somewhere in the neighborhood of 275,000 units in the US in November, which is not a bad number by any means, just a slip down from their prior month and a decrease from November 2007. These kinds of small facts get blown up until people extrapolate these kinds of absurd notions and it just goes to show that while the masses may have immediate access to all kinds of information thanks to the internet, the masses are still shityourpants dumb sometimes.

Oh, and in addition to this back and forth between the PS3 and the 360, the Wii jerked itself off month after month on both Sony and Microsoft. I hope every Nintendard waggles themselves to a Mii induced seizure.

III – PS Home Release

It may have been released, but damn was it boring. That’s the first issue. I will say that Home has all kinds of potential, but they’re not utilizing it properly enough. The key is to provide additional content (the Uncharted Rooms for example were a big draw) whether it’s a new way to peruse add ons, explore games and get help, or maybe even download cheat patches (I know I’m not alone in missing my Gameshark).

In spite of these evident potentialities to solidify Home, the big news following Home’s release is the removal of voice chat so people can’t go up to little girls and inform them of what fellatio is.

3 Best Games

I – Metal Gear Solid 4

Kojima-San did it again. Up to his usual tricks with plenty fo fourth wall busting, over the top philosophical and societal commentary, and a magnum opus of a sendoff for Solid/Old Snake, Kojima’s game plays like pure poetry. I may have only played through it once, but that’s honestly because I haven’t had time to do a second play through proper justice, that, and I like sleeping.

II – LittleBigPlanet

This one surprised the hell out of me. I went alternately from being psyched out of my mind seeing the level creation potential of it, to subsequently being intimidated and then put off by the depth of level creation online aspect (I’m not much into online communities, although I do take them into consideration and applaud them). I got a copy anyway though, and was blown away. The whole game is a warm, cuddly and welcoming as the posterchild sackboy is. The online aspect a welcoming environment, the add-ons encourage continuous involvement and experimentation, and the game’s story mode was actually as captivating as it was original. I haven’t even busted opne the level creation in full force yet but the story mode has not left me unsatisfied.

III – Fallout 3

Just read my review in the previous posts. What a game, grandiose, visionary, and just so immersive you run the danger of forcing your friends to call an intervention and hide your console power cable so they can get you to shower and eat.

3 Biggest Disappointments

I – Delays, Delays, Delays

Prototype and InFamous were both delayed until next year. I was excited for both of these games, and it seems (based on the timing) that GTA IV’s release scared both developers into putting their noses to the grindstones for creating their open world settings for the games. While Prototype has been flying under the radar (although confirmed for an April release), inFamous was recently previewed with a hands on by ign.com and Greg Miller (a personal hero of mine), gave it nothing short of superb appraisals.

In the realm of delays, I’ll throw FFXIII in that bunch because we’re supposed to already be on our second and third playthroughs of it and since Square isn’t nailing down a date for it, I wouldn’t be surprised if it means very late 2009 or 2010 even. What we know for certain is that there’s a demo coming out (Ironically, the demo is PS3 exclusive) with FF VII: Advent Children Complete in March. If the demo is coming out in March, that means it’s at least 2 quarters until we can reasonably expect Square to finish it’s polish and sheen on the game, hence my prediction of late 2009 or early 2010. The upside that may allow me to err in the favor of earlier than later: The demo is already promised to have roughly five hours of gameplay, which can only mean that the full game will be near completion, and/or the game itself will be even more massive than previous titles. Square has, historically, revolutionized the RPG genre generation to generation, so hopefully FF’s tardiness this generation is not from lack of innovation but rather from surplus.

II – Spider-Man Web of Shadows

Yeah, I’m calling out specific games here. SMWoS, where did you go wrong? The gameplay was fun, the story utilized some unique mechanics peop
le had to love (the power of choice between classic Red n Blue or the Black suit) evil or good path choices in the game, and the most impressive array of Spider-Man canon characters to ever grace a spidey game. The game, unfortunately, suffered terribly repetitive missions and aggravating structure. There were also some clunky cutscenes that made even the vaguest of Spider-Man fans raise eyebrows (why, for example, was MJ constantly calling Spider-Man Peter in public?). While swinging and employing the new battle system was exhilirating, I couldn’t get over the fact that Luke Cage forced me to do a mission killing four thugs in sequence using a specific move on each one that was near impossible to time on its own, but far more difficult to execute on the four moving and shooting thugs. Spider-Man’s Brand New Day in the video game world should have slept in.

III – Resistance 2

What the hell did they do to Nathan Hale? The original game found its footing and appeal in the unique style of setting that it lodged in post would be WWII era that you believed. While the chimaera hideouts took you somewhere farout and truly “Resistance”-y, you never felt as if you had left the 1940’s alternate history Naughty Dog had crafted. This game, however, abandoned that and left you feeling as if you’d been jettisoned to whatever godawful year in the future Halo 3 takes place.

The Best and Worst Video Game Supporting Cast Members Ever:

In the end a hero stands alone… but before he stands alone, he’s usually (except in some rare cases) surrounded up to the neck by supporting cast. Of the various kinds of supporters a hero can have, there are some hits and some misses. Was the hero’s main squeeze lovable or a whiny wench you wanted to strangle? I’ve picked some of the more common types of supporting cast in video games and made a handy “both sides of the coin” breakdown of how things tend to work out.

Horses

It’s a pretty standard motif: The hero riding to the rescue of his damsel and possibly the world, charging bravely and majestically on his trusty steed. The horse is a pretty important thing for a legendary hero because the horse has to be just as legendarily brave as the hero. Think about it: You’re a knight, you’ve got a sword, a shield, and some armor. Your horse has… its legs. It’s bigger than you are so it’s an easier target too. Horses in real life get scared when a gunshot is fired in their vicinity, pop and balloon and your average horse is off to the horizon before you can even call its name. Therefore, having a horse willing to ride you into battle is a big deal, but which game really nailed the horse and which horse left me calling a cab service?

Worst: Epona – Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

This was a surprise when I played TP because Epona was such an awesome horse back in the N64 days. The fact is that in this iteration Epona rides entirely too clunkily (she feels altogether slow and heavy, more like a tank than a horse) and is quickly made moot in the game’s adventure (I can’t remember using Epona after getting the ability to travel as a wolf until the very last battle). Poor Epona, she should have stayed on the ranch for this outing and they should have just compensated by making wolf-Link more Okami like and faster.

Best: Agro – Shadow of the Colossus

Here’s a horse that handles like poetry in motion. Not only does Agro look good, but he’s able to steer himself across narrow passes with good skill, and using him in battles against colossi is a definite aid that is welcome in the heat of battle. Agro’s bravery in the game, following you as far and closely as he possibly could no matter how fierce the colossus, is unmatched. No matter the colossus, Agro comes sprinting at the sound of your call, and after defeating a colossus, when you’re magically brought back to the temple, he arrives promptly to pick you up and bring you to your next challenge. So deep is Agro’s devotion that he selflessly chucks you from his saddle to save your life before he falls from a crumbling bridge and is lost. In a game full of emotion, the horse got his fair share of the heartstring pulls when he fell so nobly.

Leading Ladies/Love Interests

A staple of the standard Hero/Adventure formula, a leading man needs a leading lady. and that lady has to have some dimension in terms of personality, not be a cliche damsel in distress (Peach needs an update), and also be lovable so that you actively want to see your hero score with them (whether or not they actually do). That said, designing a good supporting lady can be more of a challenge than it is to design a good leading man and why we see so many buxom cliches all the time.

Worst: Meryl Silverburgh – Metal Gear Solid 4

I could have gone with a pic of her from the recent, and gorgeously rendered, MGS4, but I think the caption on this picture says it all. This is an example of taking the strong female a little too far. Meryl takes cliche “daddy issues” and whiny extreme, and I just found her altogether annoying throughout the game. By the end of the game, when she’s choosing to (SPOILER) complain to Johnny Sasaki about how she wants to be married while they’re in a gunfight for their lives, I just couldn’t stand her. If it couldn’t get worse, we had to watch her get married in a wedding dress that only showed off a pair of shoulders better suited for a gorilla than a woman.

Best: Elena Fischer – Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune

Here’s a female character people should get behind. Let’s be mature and face it: Elena has none of the amenities that other video game hoochies do: There’s no Itagaki inspired DD breasts, or scant clothing. Elena is, while pretty, normal and just a step above “plain.” She’s dressed the way a woman actually would be in a jungle treasure hunt and keeps up fairly well with veteran adventurer Nathan Drake when the situation calls for some shooting and some acrobatics. While also being admirable and helpful, she’s a very well dimensioned character and at the end when the big kiss finally comes, you want to see her and Nathan hook it up because of how much you’ve come to admire and even love her, not just because it would “fit.”

Villain’s Right Hand

The Villain is always essential, we all remember Sephiroth as he stalked off in the flames, and we’ll all remember Bowser for being as classic as they come. In modern games, where stories are well nigh able to be epic, a villain’s menace is often intensified by those he has around him.

Worst: Bowser Jr – Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island

Bowser Jr. first started as Young Bowser in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island to counter the baby Mario you were trying to get home. The oddity no one seemed to notice, is that this young bowser (always known as Bowser Jr. as if jr. denotes youth) went from being the young version of the classic villain, to the son of Bowser in recent iterations. I had always assumed Bowser wanted to kidnap the princess to, y’know, “make an heir,” but apparently he already has one, which means there’s a Bowserette somewhere that he’s two-timing, or Bowser’s species reproduces asexually. Either way, Bowser Jr. is both annoying and pointless in the Mario Universe.

Best: Naomi – Metal Gear Solid 4

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Naomi played the double cross so well in MGS4, and made her actions in helping to take down the Patriots so heroic that you have to love her by the end of this. Even if Otacon cries more in this game than Tobey Maguire did in Spider Man 3 (Otacon: 4, Tobey : 3), when he cries at his final communication with Naomi, you have to feel for the guy because he’s lost more than just the woman he christened the helicopter cockpit with. Naomi also gets points for not knowing how to button her shirts past her navel and having a religious opposition to wearing bras.

Aide

The aide is a special position, you offer information and tips to the hero, but you don’t actually join in the action. An aide is defined largely by dialogue and has to not only be helpful, but know how to take the backseat and have a lovable personality when he/it is called on to join the discussion.

Worst: Navi – The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time

I know there’s a lot of Navi hate these days, but as far as getting the whole “aide” position wrong, Navi’s constant interruptions, even towards the end of your quest, to tell you how to execute a spin attack just pushed me over the edge. People complain mostly about the “Hey!” and “Listen!” sound bite, in all honesty, those were bearable. What was unbearable was knowing that what would inevitably follow and throw you off your rhythm was some pointless info you already had under your belt twenty hours ago. Thanks Navi, let me tell you how you can go take a flying fuck at the moon.

Best: Issun – Okami

You’ve gotta love it when a game presents a character with personality and depth. From the reasons for his running away and finding Okami, to the beautiful twist and irony that is his failure at the end and ultimate success, Issun’s story in Okami is at once easy to identify with and be inspired by. More than his overall story arc, Issun has a personality and sense of humor all his own that only makes the already vibrant world of Okami all the more beautiful and unique (Issun’s obsession with breasts is a thing unrivaled in video games methinks).

RPG Mages

Inevitably, except in some more modern cases where every character has universal potential, the “main” character is the one with the sword (Cloud, Squall, Tidus, etc.) and the Mage is a supporting role. While a position that can be studied for, the Mage of the group is starts off pigeonholed into the role from having low physical stats, if not also having high magic to boot. A mage has to have a personality that fits with a person willing to isolate themselves and study mystical arts: they have to have a certain knowledgeable gloom and wisdom to them, a meditative and pensive demeanor. They also have to be insightful and caring to an extent because of their knowledge of the intricacies of the spirit. Making a character who is so collected and pristine lovable and interesting is a challenge that hasn’t always been met admirably.

Worst: Rinoa – Final Fantasy VIII

Okay, so I’ve never really been sure about this, and again, maybe someone can debate this one: I always got the impression that, before getting thrown in with Squall and his crew, Rinoa had been doing what she had to so she could get in with the SeeD people and hire mercenaries at discounted rates that her resistance could afford. To my understanding, the way she did this was by being a SLUT. Yep, to what I understood, she couldn’t get to Cid in Balamb, so she polished Seifer’s knob. When that got her to Seifer, it seemed as if Cid, lecherous old fart that he was, cheated on Edea, his wife, and got with Rinoa taking sloppy seconds from Seifer (don’t worry, Cid and Edea were on a break). I won’t even bother to list Rinoa’s other dumbfuck moves throughout the game, but they’re consistent and numerous. When it came time to “save” her towards the end of the game, I really just wanted to let ho-bag get shot into space, but the game wouldn’t let me.

Best: Lulu – Final Fantasy X

Lulu’s got it all in just about everyway possible. Not only was she blessed with the most ginormous rack seen in a Final Fantasy game to date (Maybe there’s someone out there who can prove whether Tifa’s was/is bigger, but Lulu wore a low cut dress/bustier, which nets her the judge’s call), Lulu was also incredibly wise and helpful with her knowledge. She had just the right level of ice and wisdom to her that made you really admire her and wait, expectantly, for the ice to thaw. When the ice did thaw and you found out the whole story to her, she revealed herself in sum total as an altogether deep and wonderful character you at once pitied and loved.

Heavy Hitter/Brawler

This is a tough one to sum up in a single term (tough guy doesn’t even quite hit the nail properly), but it’s that character that is the heavy hitter who’s slower and not as agile, and lacks any skill with magic. He’s a brick wall, take hits and gives them out like he means them. Of course, making another “Strong Silent” type is a cliche tendency, but making a strong man with a story is essential. Sometimes the strong and silent type can work, other times the gentle giant, and, on rare occasions, the virulent and rage infused brawler can work, it’s all a matter of the character being effective as a tool and as a person in the narrative.

Worst: Amarant – Final Fantasy IX

What did I say about cliches? They took the basic formula and just made the dude a bandit. The whole game, every time he appeared, I had to ask myself: Why is he here? I don’t want him here, he doesn’t have any reason to be here and barely seems like he wants to be. Even that stupid Quina thing had more of a reason than he did.

Best: Barret – Final Fantasy VII; Auron – Final Fantasy X

So this is the first tie in the course of this list. Why? Because both me
n have great stories behind them. Barret’s story in Final Fantasy VII not only elevated him well above “just another environmentalist” but made him so lovable and sympathetic that you had to want to see him get back to Marlene in the end of the story. His sense of responsibility and nobility really puts him on a good standing among others in this line. In all honesty though, Auron puts down anyone easily, so easily, in fact, that I gave Barret the tie just because I felt like it was that much of a given that Auron would win this category.

Auron’s devotion to principle, friendship and purity make him a legendary hero in the events that take place before FFX even begins. His journey with Jecht and Braska to defeat Sin was enough to already make him heroic, that he went back after the shit hit the fan to take on Yunalesca by himself would have done it, but then he did it. You find out that Auron had enough of all the right stuff to actually resurrect himself and continue on a journey that he didn’t feel was done yet and start one even bigger than the one he’d already lived. He saved Yuna, travelled in time, came back with Tidus, and saved Spira again. If you didn’t at least get some kind of shiver from watching Auron’s farewell at the end of the game, then you’re obviously an idiot because you weren’t able to fully understand the testicular fortitude of the man.