| | He was also a radical leftist, with his stories since ''Metal Gear Solid 4'' and to a lesser extent ''Metal Gear Solid 2'' often preferring total anarchy over law and order, promoting post-modernism as well as various nihilistic messages, as well as condemning patriotism. His leftist ideology was especially and most infamously apparent in ''Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker'', which included the [[Sandinistas|Sandinista National Liberation Front]] as being good guys, the [[CIA]] being demonized, various leftist talking points against America, praising the Argentine Marxist terrorist Che Guevara, and to a lesser extent Mao Zedong and Jean Paul Sartre, praising May 1968, and some LGBT themes. He was also a [[Barack Obama]] supporter, and held extreme anti-nuclear and anti-war views (although this did not stop him from deifying the likes of Che Guevara and Mao Zedong, the former of whom actually attempted to start a nuclear war during the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]].). Some of his commentary in Peace Walker and The Phantom Pain also holds an anti-colonial sentiment. He also denies even the existence of absolute morality and the concepts of absolute justice and corruption, as well as the concepts of Good and Evil, and also implied that the only reason war and nuclear weapons exist is because of the Cold War.<ref>http://www.rollingstone.com/glixel/features/kojima-death-stranding-aims-to-be-a-new-sort-of-game-of-war-w499148<br />“Through my interaction with users following the releases of Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2, Metal Gear Solid and MGS2, I learned something interesting. Why is our world this way? If war and nuclear weapons are atrocities, why do they continue to exist? Younger generations didn’t know the answer.”<br />“I decided to portray the era that was the cause of this dilemma in MGS3 (2004). The game is set in 1964 amidst the U.S. and Soviet Cold War. Some young people aren’t even aware that a political state known as the Soviet Union once existed. I felt it was my duty to teach them about this past.”<br />“What caused the U.S. and the Soviet Union, allies in WWII, to become enemies and build nuclear arsenals against one another? Enemies formed from man-made ideologies. Good and evil. There is no such thing as absolute justice or corruption. I wanted to show and have players experience the fates and thoughts of characters who are controlled by the changing status of good and evil across eras. That is why I made Big Boss, the “evil” enemy of the “right and just” Solid Snake in Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2, the hero of the story. I wanted players to experience what it is like to be called evil, just as Christopher Nolan did shortly after in Dark Knight (2008), in which Batman, the symbol of justice, takes upon the mantle of villain for the sake of Gotham City.”<br />“MGS: Peace Walker (2010) is set in Costa Rica 1974. Here I wanted players to think about what armed forces and nuclear armament mean in a country that has no military. If nuclear weapons have the power to destroy the world, then why is having them a deterrent? In the end of the story, the hero Snake, chooses to keep nuclear weapons at his Mother Base for this very reason.”<br />“In MGSV: Ground Zeroes (2014), the Mother Base built in Peace Walker is destroyed by an enemy force, imbuing the player with a sense of loss and a desire for revenge. A relentless enemy leaves the player with nowhere to run, and they are drawn into inescapable conflict.”<br />“The continuation, MGSV: The Phantom Pain, is the execution of that revenge. Players gather a fighting force and resources to build up an army and secure nuclear weapons as protection. As the player progresses through the game they feel their desire for revenge, and their sense of “justice,” that has been a common thread through the series, begin to waver. Additionally, the online game mode offers players the choice to disarm their nuclear arsenal, with the goal of completely ridding the game world of nuclear weapons. As far as I know, this goal hasn’t been achieved yet, but if we can’t disarm ourselves in the real world, at least the fictional game world offers mankind, the creators of nuclear weapons, the unparalleled “experience” of making the conscious choice to create a nuclear free world. Through this experience, players will come to understand what it really means to take a stand against war and nuclear weapons. Players feel the need to acquire nuclear weapons, but then players across the globe choose to disarm themselves. This experience and its process is the chief aim of Metal Gear.”</ref> | | He was also a radical leftist, with his stories since ''Metal Gear Solid 4'' and to a lesser extent ''Metal Gear Solid 2'' often preferring total anarchy over law and order, promoting post-modernism as well as various nihilistic messages, as well as condemning patriotism. His leftist ideology was especially and most infamously apparent in ''Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker'', which included the [[Sandinistas|Sandinista National Liberation Front]] as being good guys, the [[CIA]] being demonized, various leftist talking points against America, praising the Argentine Marxist terrorist Che Guevara, and to a lesser extent Mao Zedong and Jean Paul Sartre, praising May 1968, and some LGBT themes. He was also a [[Barack Obama]] supporter, and held extreme anti-nuclear and anti-war views (although this did not stop him from deifying the likes of Che Guevara and Mao Zedong, the former of whom actually attempted to start a nuclear war during the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]].). Some of his commentary in Peace Walker and The Phantom Pain also holds an anti-colonial sentiment. He also denies even the existence of absolute morality and the concepts of absolute justice and corruption, as well as the concepts of Good and Evil, and also implied that the only reason war and nuclear weapons exist is because of the Cold War.<ref>http://www.rollingstone.com/glixel/features/kojima-death-stranding-aims-to-be-a-new-sort-of-game-of-war-w499148<br />“Through my interaction with users following the releases of Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2, Metal Gear Solid and MGS2, I learned something interesting. Why is our world this way? If war and nuclear weapons are atrocities, why do they continue to exist? Younger generations didn’t know the answer.”<br />“I decided to portray the era that was the cause of this dilemma in MGS3 (2004). The game is set in 1964 amidst the U.S. and Soviet Cold War. Some young people aren’t even aware that a political state known as the Soviet Union once existed. I felt it was my duty to teach them about this past.”<br />“What caused the U.S. and the Soviet Union, allies in WWII, to become enemies and build nuclear arsenals against one another? Enemies formed from man-made ideologies. Good and evil. There is no such thing as absolute justice or corruption. I wanted to show and have players experience the fates and thoughts of characters who are controlled by the changing status of good and evil across eras. That is why I made Big Boss, the “evil” enemy of the “right and just” Solid Snake in Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2, the hero of the story. I wanted players to experience what it is like to be called evil, just as Christopher Nolan did shortly after in Dark Knight (2008), in which Batman, the symbol of justice, takes upon the mantle of villain for the sake of Gotham City.”<br />“MGS: Peace Walker (2010) is set in Costa Rica 1974. Here I wanted players to think about what armed forces and nuclear armament mean in a country that has no military. If nuclear weapons have the power to destroy the world, then why is having them a deterrent? In the end of the story, the hero Snake, chooses to keep nuclear weapons at his Mother Base for this very reason.”<br />“In MGSV: Ground Zeroes (2014), the Mother Base built in Peace Walker is destroyed by an enemy force, imbuing the player with a sense of loss and a desire for revenge. A relentless enemy leaves the player with nowhere to run, and they are drawn into inescapable conflict.”<br />“The continuation, MGSV: The Phantom Pain, is the execution of that revenge. Players gather a fighting force and resources to build up an army and secure nuclear weapons as protection. As the player progresses through the game they feel their desire for revenge, and their sense of “justice,” that has been a common thread through the series, begin to waver. Additionally, the online game mode offers players the choice to disarm their nuclear arsenal, with the goal of completely ridding the game world of nuclear weapons. As far as I know, this goal hasn’t been achieved yet, but if we can’t disarm ourselves in the real world, at least the fictional game world offers mankind, the creators of nuclear weapons, the unparalleled “experience” of making the conscious choice to create a nuclear free world. Through this experience, players will come to understand what it really means to take a stand against war and nuclear weapons. Players feel the need to acquire nuclear weapons, but then players across the globe choose to disarm themselves. This experience and its process is the chief aim of Metal Gear.”</ref> |