Hypertexthero / Linked List / November 2019

Linked List: November 2019

Sunday, 10 November 2019

Death Stranding Communication ✶

Hideo Kojima, Metal Gear Solid’s creator, speaking to the Washington Post about his new game, Death Stranding:

20 years ago when I wrote Metal Gear Solid, the Internet wasn’t in full bloom. Back then, I was just predicting what the negative consequences of the Internet could be.

Today, we’re so close together on social media. It’s 24 hours a day, in real time. It may be too close. We’re so close on social media nowadays that people are wearing a mask, saying whatever they want. Because we’ve become so close, people are saying negative things easily. We communicate without considering others, and a lot of that has to do with new technology.

The original meaning of communication is to care and feel for others. Technology and the Internet has sort of carried us in the wrong direction. So in “Death Stranding,” with the indirect connections that the player has, I want people to rethink what communication — and to think about others — is.

…

But I don’t want the players to just feel like, “Oh, that was fun.” I want them to feel something more, because I feel obliged to do so since I’m taking up so much of their time. So what they learn and feel in the game world, I want them to use in the real world as well.