It's their game. Let them do as they will. If it evokes emotion, then he's doing something right. Disgust is an emotion.

I'm not sure if this has already been brought up in the topic, but so far I've seen people being somewhat upset/angryish/confused about the level of "WHAT THE FUUU----" that Ground Zeroes has presented us... and even if Kojima is being a master ruseman like during MGS2's development and things like GZ being a propaganda film are true, we're playing from the perspective of Big Boss and will be doing so in The Phantom Pain...

but how can the player be immersed into TPP's story of rage and all-out-revenge, making the leap from Naive-ish Heroic Naked Snake into Dastardly Villain Big Boss from Metal Gear 1 and Metal Gear 2? If the players don't have all the real motivation to be just as PISSED OFF and ENRAGED as BB then it's just us being brought along on a ride we watch but don't really want to be part of.

Kojima wants us to be just as enraged, just as wrathful as Big Boss, he wants us to PARTICIPATE with Big Boss's downfall the entire way, he wants us not to be Players being the unwilling tag along, but to be fully with Big Boss screaming "F- yeah Big Boss, I'm with you, gun em down, burn them all to ashes!"

We see what has been done to Chico and Paz, we learn even more, and we are given no option out and in the end we are (possibly) betrayed by Huey, lose Mother Base and MSF (that we actively built and brought up in Peace Walker), and possibly have Chico and definitely Paz.

and to be honest, as far reaching as it might be, I'm glad Kojima put it in there... because now I want to kill Skullface and burn XOF and The Patriots/Zero/Chiper to the goddamned ground. I will not feel guilty in the least for the atrocious acts Big Boss is about to commit, because I'm just as fucking pissed.

I know it's all in vain... but GODDAMNIT WE BUILT IT, GIVE IT BACK! IT WAS OURS!

You people need to open your Eyes. Torture does happen. Evil men do exist. Worse fiction takes place in hollywood (ever heard of saw?). There is no comedy at all in the main mission (unless you count Miller's Va). I can tell who has played this game and who hasnt.

Big Boss becomes a villian. This game will tell us how. The tapes were completely neccesary. It drove home the fact that Skull Face is a bad man. Now im missing tapes 6&7 so who knows maybe those are the comedic failures you guys so strongly insist are in the game (highly doubt it). I lost my train of thought but maybe it was this. Stop playing games about war atrocities and their effect on the human psyche. Go play Flappy Bird. Or watch Higurashi no Koro Ni.

Oh, cool. Another woman raped and murdered to further the revenge story of a man. Gosh, where have I seen this before?

I'd say fuck you, Kojima, but you did save me 50 bucks.

@weaponboy: Would you be happier if it was a dude?

finally played the game, while that stuff is raw on the tape, what more got me was that ending which didnt feel out of place either, seemed like typical metal gear craziness

you folks kind of oversold its rawness a bit, its no where as bad as a serbian film or generally as raw as i thought you all made it out to be,

the full game seems like its very much gonna tell a hell of a story though. this prologue game did its job for me, got me super excited for the full game.(which i actually wasnt before)

If it was a dude this thread would have a 90% chance of not existing.

@nmc2008: Considering I made the thread, I can safely say the thread would still exist. Also let's not forget Chico, who is a dude, was raped as well.

It felt extremely gross and unnecessary. I've been a lifelong MGS fan but if this is a sign of the tonal shift they're going for in The Phantom Pain I think I'm going to pass. It did nothing other than lower my enjoyment of the game.

I hear a lot of people saying it's to show how awful Skullface is but there are a million other ways you can do that without resorting to such a base level of content. And besides that it didn't even work. I'm not excited to track Skullface down and kill him, I'm not filled with rage at the injustices he committed, I just don't want to keep playing the game.

So for my personal tastes, yes, this is too far.

I see, well i'm not playing this until the Phantom Pain is out. So will you be playing Phantom Pain or will you be skipping it in fear of what other types of things are in store for you in that game?

...... I felt it was a bit unearned.

There's a bit of Anime about it, like Ninja Scrolls rape like scenes. But I do think "okay we got out the first bomb, and now there's a second one is bullshit." Is my immediate reaction.... and then learning it's hidden in somewhere else...... mmmmm I don't know, it's a bit like when you see something taken a bit too far for the sake of shock but yet not earn. The ending with Ennio Morricone reminded me of a lot of Italian grindhouse films, THEY ARE SLEAZY. Like really sleazy. Nightmare City has these horrible Poophead Zombie designs who rip off women's shirts directly into camera, then stab them and drink their blood from their boobs. It's just one of those things where it turns into grindhouse violence when it wants to be maybe something more serious and inventive like Breaking Bad.

See, this is my fucking problem with Metal Gear. Did it go too far? That is a personal opinion, depends on the story you want to tell. But Kojima wants to desperately present this super serious storyline with these characters who suffer and how the world is at stake and this kind of stuff. Child soldiers and torture. But then, he puts in stupid anime style shit and you wonder, what the fuck. How can I take this heavy stuff seriously and care and feel for these characters when you have guys that can control bees, have me fight an old guy with bulging eyes, a fat dude on roller skates, Skullface who makes me think he is that Nazi guy from Raiders of the Lost Ark if he survived, soldiers who have diarrhea in every game. Is this a Saturday morning cartoon or a serious war epic about the awful shit that war and fighting do to people? And don't get me started about the out of place tech. It is one thing to have high tech stuff in the not so distant future, it is another to have cyborg arms and holograms in the 70's and 80's only for that tech to seem impossible in your own games which take place later. Kojima is just an awful, awful storyteller. He puts whatever he can into a story just because he thinks of it. He wants to make movies? Good fucking luck because you put this on the silver screen and people will seriously wonder what the fuck it is.

I know all of that. I will be able to survive the bomb stuff. However I will not be picking up any audio tapes, those things are going to stay completely uncollected. If I do get one my headphones are being turned off for the duration.

The overall thing is I know it so I dont need to experience the audio tapes.

I am just thankful none of it is video (aside from gut opening) or worse a forced interactive point of the game. Thats when its going to be truley a problem if Phantom Pain contains anything of that. Does cast a darker shadow on my day one buy of Phantom pain make me take off my hat scratch my head and weigh up the direction MGS is going and if I want to be part of it.

@akyho: There is one audio tape, unlocked from finishing one of the Side Ops, where Skull Face goes over his "origin." It's dark, but not anything like the other audio tapes. I'd say that one is worth a listen, to get a little more insight into his twisted mind. It's just Skull Face talking for seven minutes, along with a few grunts of pain from a (male) prisoner.

Weren't both Chico and Paz already tortured and raped in Peace Walker...?

What happens to them in Ground Zeroes is very much what happens to political prisoners all over the world, with the exception of the bomb implants.

It didn't offend me. I thought it was well done and communicated the horror and tragedy that was going on.

Women and Men really are treated worse than objects in these situations. It should be uncomfrotable and gross and that's how I felt. Male prisoners in Abu Grahib were made to have sex with each other while they were pissed on and raped with broom sticks, Kojima presented us with something much softer than that, and all through audio, so I think he was actually very tasteful in his presentation of violence.

@crithon: It totally reminded me of Ninja Scroll too.

Face it guys, Kojima has achieved his final form and gone full anime.

"I want video games to be very mature and tackle serious subjects."

Okay. We'll do that.

"WOOOAAHHH TOO FAR >:("

Full circle.

It's not the content of the tape that bothers me, but the poor, cartoonish voice acting. A pantomime villain and talk of rape and forced sex is both offputting and kind of amateurish. I liked Metal Gear when it was silly. The tone of this game is all over the place. It can't decide if it's the over the top game from before or this new deadly serious thing.

I loved the way the game played, but the story stuff left me really cold.

@carousel: It's more that the rape of a woman and CHILD is being used purely for revenge motivation, it's pure exploitation, like a sleezy, 70s b-movie film. There's no meditation, no exploration, just "DAMN, THAT DUDE IS TWISTED!".

I can only imagine that SkullFace will be piloting a giant, shitting preying mantis bot by the time we see him in Phantom Pain.

I have to say, I don't think it's too far at all. The theme of this game is hate and revenge. This is the story of Big Boss' turn from hero into monster, and it's because of the increasingly despicable and cruel things he has been made witness to at the hands of both his enemies and his countrymen. BB is becoming a demon, he's living long enough to see himself become the villain and it's all because of things like this. The world has destroyed him with it's cruelty and I think this is a really solid example of just how terrible people can be to each other. Things like this, and even worse happen all the time in war torn countries and this should be no different. I understand it's disturbing, it's supposed to be, it's so disturbing in fact that it made one of the hardest, strongest willed heroes we've ever known to finally snap and lose all faith in good. I truly am sorry if that's not what you want in a video game, and that's totally valid, feel free to not play it or just skip the audio logs. There was no rape scene in the game, it's all implied or described via audio log, you don't actually see any of it save for removing the bomb from Paz' stomach. I'm not arguing that it's a despicable thing being portrayed. It's disgusting and inhuman and that's exactly why it belongs, because it's a disgusting and inhuman thing that terrible people do, and skullface is an exceptionally terrible person. Do I think it's deplorable, of course, do I think it doesn't fit the tone/story or is going too far? not at all. I applaud Kojima for bringing these real-world atrocities (rape, torture, child soldiers, etc.) to light and for not only making it shock value but actual commentary on real world situations. I think it will be very interesting and hopefully disturbing to play as Big Boss in TPP as he descends into madness.

Wow. This doesn't sound like the Metal Gear I know and love. :(

@dallas_raines: Without having played the Phantom Pain, it's impossible for us to say with any kind of certainty why this was included in the game. It's obviously not a mechanic for a revenge story, at least not involving Snake or Miller, as it wasn't part of the main story and neither of them were aware of what had happened. And what with the Phantom Pain taking place 9 years later, Snake is hardly gonna' pop up, grab the nearest casette tape and decide to go out and hunt Skull Face down. If there is a revenge story in that game, then it's against Cipher, the man who robbed Snake of his arm, Miller of his arm, leg and eyes. Who, I might add, ironically, Skull Face is also opposing.

If anything, it seems much more likely it'll be part of Chico's character arc, assuming you encounter him as an adult. Having gone through these events, it's going to have had it's pronounced effects on him, which could certainly be an interesting side-story in it's own right. Dealing with PTSD, most likely. The dramatic change in an established character.

Another scenario being, the Phantom Pain being the story of Snake (Big Boss)'s downfall, he very well might join forces with Skull Face in order to combat Cipher, which would just be another indicator for just how far he has fallen, how far he's left his old morals behind. We've certainly seen evidence enough in the trailers for the game to safely assume that Snake has gone darkside.

I frankly don't get why anyone would just go out of their way to assume that this is part of the cheesiest, most blatant thing you could possibly imagine. What you're describing would be lazy and unimaginative. Whether or not you enjoy Kojima's style of story-telling, he's always been unpredictable, the characters being what his stories revolve around.

I feel that we can all comment on how we felt on listening to the tapes themselves, but trying to insert that experience into the greater narrative is just conjecture at this point. And for us fans, we ought to have faith in Kojima.

As for my own personal opinion on these tapes. "Darkness, yeah, yeah." I was repulsed when I heard the tapes. That was their intended effect, and I felt that it accomplished exactly what it set out to do. Combining said tapes with Paz' Diary, it felt truly tragic to me, thus lending a lot more dramatic effect, and perhaps even meaning, to a pretty short story. As long as Kojima ties it in well with the upcoming game, I'll applaud him for doing something which just about every triple A game designer would shy away from.

A lot of folks in here have been commenting on how this pales in comparison with what's done to folks in similair situations in life, and that's not something a game which explicitly tries to show-case said scenarios should shy away from showing. I mean, sure, we could all just shout "AAAMEEERIIIIICAAAA" and have our puppies tear the invading russians to shreds, but to me, that's degrading, not this.

So you kind of wish that the ESRB would start treating video games differently than film or television, and allow video games to have less storytelling freedom before they are labeled a form of pornography?

Everything after rescuing Paz was all sorts of fucked up.

The voice acting is the real atrocity.

I just realized...no one has actually posted the tape in question...you know, the thing everyone is talking about but it seems like almost everyone has not listened to it or understand its context. You kinda have to play the game and see the story for yourself to better grasp why the fuck is this awful shit is happening.

@liquidus: I was really hoping no one would so I could keep seeing people argue in this thread and then say my not having heard it was because I hadn't managed to find the tapes in game...But now! Ugh... I might as well.

Nobody is actually reading stuff in this forum huh....

@spaceinsomniac: I wish the ESRB differentiated content better within the M category. Maybe the stigma of the AO rating is too much still but I feel like the boundary of the M rating gets pushed further and further. Both Cero and Pegi have more than just T and M, not much more but it's something.

Yes? No? It's a toss up really. On one hand you could certainly argue it's all there for shock value and there are other ways to get the point across that "yo, this dude is evil." On the other hand, other mediums have gone much farther and it's refreshing that a video game is actually trying to deal with some real heavy shit in a mature way as possible instead of just "oh, I blew that guy's head up and we gotta stop the nuuuuuuukes! Rated M!" like most "mature" video games seem to be these days,

Personally, the only thing that sorta makes me go "uhhhh...." is the fact they imply Paz, on some level, enjoys the sex and might also possibly sorta maybe addicted to it (well, at least, with Chico anyway). I suppose that could lead to a whole 'nother can of worms, but I feel like that subtext could have been cut out completely and it still would have had it's desired effect of fucking with the player.

Now that is a good point. It's silly that something like Halo 3 has the same rating as Bulletstorm. I think a lot more should pass with a T rating. Right now I do not feel that it's the equivalent of a PG-13.

Call me crazy...but I don't think there will be any seeking of vengeance for Paz from Big Boss. There was no love loss when Miller saw her after what she did in Peace Walker. So there won't be any "seek vengeance for a woman" trope playing out. Essentially, Ground Zeroes as a whole seems to simply showcase how sadistic, brutal, and very capable Skull Face and XOF are. Chico's ankles were the first sign for me.

And if we're going to see the atrocities of war...guess what? Rape is one of the worst that happens in war. That shit goes does even in our armed forces between ALLIES. Not just enemy combatants do that. The number of incidents reported in our armed forces that occurs between fellow soldiers are fucking astonishing and disgusting to look at. Kojima isn't exactly pulling this kind of treatment of female spies/soldiers in the battlefield out of his imagination.

As for the second bomb. Well, they needed that plot device to occur, but didn't want to make Big Boss look like an idiot for not noticing her blood stained jumpsuit (it was pretty obvious). And after 'The Dark Knight', we've seen the bomb in stomach thing before. Needing that thing to go off, and save face for Big Boss' abilities and his people...it makes sense.

@firecracker22: If we're talking about Big Boss saving face then we should be discussing how no one suspected that nuclear inspection was really a cover for something else. I mean, even if I hadn't known that the base was going to be destroyed from the trailers, I would have known something was up from listening to those tapes with Huey. We should be talking about that, if anything! I mean, these are guys that can spot KGB agents at a glance and could tell that Chico was being forced to send that call for help.

Granted, they weren't going to go along with it until Huey stuck his nose in, but I still think it's a bit of a stretch that they wouldn't have foreseen that happening.

@mooseymcman: I don't know, one would think that if they're going to strike they'll simply just strike. A Trojan horse approach seems like something that wouldn't be expected when you consider how politically motivated the other countries would be about trying to handle things. And they knew the things were connected, Paz and the inspection. But, they thought it'd be about politics. And Huey said there was going to be media attention on the inspection as well. Another reason that I could see them not expecting that attack.

For what it's worth, the UN inspection seems to have been legit in some capacity. I'm expecting them to explain more about that in The Phantom Pain.

There is only one other character Kojima has had in his games with their intestines bulging while they writhe in crazed agony:

A female dog named Alice in Snatcher.

Not that doing it to male characters would win him brownie points with me or anything, but...

...just sayin'.

I also remember Kaz calling Paz a "bitch" at least twice not even a minute before she died.

I wrote an analysis that shows this kind of treatment of female and/or young characters (like Chico) has been Kojima's modus operandi since his 1988 game, Snatcher:

http://ettugamer.com/2014/03/19/misogyny-hideo-kojima-snatcher/

All the sexist and misogynistic stuff in Kojima's games has this intertextual effect that you can only appreciate if you've played them all completely.

I think the sexist and misogynistic stuff (not talking about Ground Zeroes) has always seemed to me, to be a cultural difference. Hideo Kojima is a 50-year old Japanese man. I think many people forget that. Aside form there being an age gap, there's a cultural gap. We already know that women are still not treated as they are here in the U.S. as they are in other forms of Japanese entertainment (ie: Manga, anime, videogames, etc.).

Maybe it's a testament to how well Kojima has been able to maintain this sense of modernism with Metal Gear. But, I feel it's important to remember the cultural and age gap with get with him. Same goes for some of the comedy scenes in MGS, too.

The only criticism I've read that I agree with so far is that this game has some tonal dissonance with the rest of the series. Everything else sounds like sanctimonious caterwauling. Also, not for nothing, no one seems to give a shit about Chico in this situation. Poor kid. :(

Skullfaces motivation is revenge as well. So I think the obvious theme Kojima would go for is why revenge is such a bad idea precisely because of the level of brutality it inspires in people.

I think they went too far when they decided players should only be able to shoot with R2 instead of R1.

@firecracker22: I dunno, there were a couple lines in those audio tapes about some board of directors or something at the IAEA (or whatever) not having heard about the inspection. Huey just blew it off in a way that seemed really suspicious to me.

And I'd counter the "they would just attack" by saying that Mother Base was pretty heavily defended, and I'd think that they'd be able to fend off most small-ish sized attacking forces, at least anything smaller than a full army or naval force.

Either way, you're right, we'll have to wait until Phantom Pain for the proper answers.

On Kojima's sea of sexism, the ship I would like to sink is the one that circles the works of Kojima like a guardian against criticism—the ship of “cultural differences”.

Kojima has waved away criticism of sexism in his games for differences between Japan and the rest of the world he cited as too numerous to name. Yet he did name a few differences that keep his games inscrutable to international audiences (“culture” being one of them). Kojima has also said that he writes for a Western audience, as Metal Gear is more popular internationally than it is in its country of origin. Since his word is law, then, Kojima can write about the U.S. government and military, as well as criticize other countries and cultures in his works while no one else has the privilege of challenging him. After all, since our cultures are so different, how can Kojima’s perspective have any merit if he’s not writing about something decidedly “Japanese”? Xenophobic logic works both ways.

Apparently, Kojima personally limits the people who can seriously criticize his works to other Japanese people, or at least those who are well-versed in Japanese language and culture. English translations of Kojima’s works maintain a consistent, unfaltering view on women, homosexual persons and trans persons across two decades and several different translators. Is it necessary to know Japanese in order to criticize Kojima’s works when the problematic material within them remains consistent no matter which translation I’ve played? It’s also worth noting that the most meritorious analyses of Kojima games have all been written in English, so I’m comfortably certain language isn’t an insurmountable barrier in this case.

But what about cultural differences? After all, Kojima and many of his apologists would like to think he is exonerated from any personal involvement in what he creates simply because he’s being influenced by Japanese culture. No matter how exploitative, self-gratifying, and nonsensical Kojima’s storytelling, Kojima and his apologists can always fall back on that prejudicial excuse: “Well, that’s just Japanese culture”. People often say this to justify awful stories with unbelievable characters and situations that only aim to gratify the reader or writer.

Hiyao Miyazaki is a legendary animator who is renowned for the quality and subject matter of his works that set him apart from his contemporaries. In a recent survey it was estimated that more than ninety percent of those native to Japan have seen his films. One thing Miyazaki never sacrifices is the integrity of his storytelling or characters for a tasteless or offensive personal thrill like Kojima does. In a 2014 interview, Miyazaki said:

“You see, whether you can draw like this or not, being able to think up this kind of design, it depends on whether or not you can say to yourself, ‘Oh, yeah, girls like this exist in real life.’ If you don’t spend time watching real people, you can’t do this, because you’ve never seen it. Some people spend their lives interested only in themselves. Almost all Japanese animation is produced with hardly any basis taken from observing real people, you know. It’s produced by humans who can’t stand looking at other humans. And that’s why the industry is full of otaku!”

Source: http://en.rocketnews24.com/2014/01/30/ghiblis-hayao-miyazaki-says-the-anime-industrys-problem-is-that-its-full-of-anime-fans/

So Miyazaki consciously avoids the negative influence of his chosen profession, while Kojima embraces it and uses it as aegis to criticism as he writes about Western culture anyway. Western culture greatly influenced Kojima as a child, and he finds himself coming back to it in his work.

In his June 2011 interview with Nintendo Power, Kojima is written as saying his exposure to Western culture through books, movies and music endowed within him the conviction that a person’s sense of humor was most important when it comes to their ability to appeal to others.

In Metal Gear games, Kojima goes on to say in the interview, one encounters continuous tension as a result of constantly hiding from the enemy. To offset these tense moments, Kojima punctuates them with strange, unexpected events and his own acquired humor.

Kojima then likens this humor to that of Alfred Hitchock, who said, “For me, suspense doesn’t have any value if it’s not balanced by humor”. Hitchcock must have been quite an inspiration to Kojima, who is comparable to Hitchcock in many more ways—they both have a propensity for conjuring female characters who are immaculately beautiful while also being treacherous and deceitful.

This willingness on the part of the Western gaming press to join in on Kojima’s particular brand of humor is evident in the aforementioned October 2001 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly. On page 122 is an inset with a picture of Snake grasping an unconscious Olga from behind as he drags her body, his hands on her breasts. The caption beneath prompts the reader to note Snake’s hand positioning. The caption reads: “Watch the hands: Snake gets friendly with Colonel Gurlukovich’s daughter, Olga.”

Picture: http://i.imgur.com/yzYplnw.jpg

Let’s dispel the notion that it’s solely the influence of Japanese culture, Kojima’s peers, or his desire to appeal to Western audiences that makes Kojima insert his brand of “humor” into his games. Another quote from the October 2001 issue, this time on page 121:

EGM: Whose idea was it to alert the guards when you touch the girly posters in the locker room?

HK: Mine [smiles and makes knocking gesture and “boing” sound.] Whenever you see something jokey or silly in the game, it’s always my idea. I always include all these little details in the game plan. And my staff, when they read this they say, “Ah, this isn’t going to happen.” I tell my staff, “You’ve got to do that poster thing, so when you hit the breast you hear ‘boing.’” I go back to them in a week and I ask, “Well, why isn’t it here?” and they say, “What? You weren’t joking?”

Picture: http://i.imgur.com/UIDkTTB.png

How can we say stuff like Kojima's decisions are due to "cultural differences" whenKojima admits to forcing his own team, mostly made up of people born and raised in Japan, to insert problematic content against their bettersenses?

Even the addition of the posters is rooted in Kojima’s love of popular Western films. The posters are a reference to Die Hard, which obviously inspired Kojima. In that movie, there's a scene wherein John McClane kisses his hand and slaps a naked poster of a woman. Despite what could be read into this, it’s a character-building quirk that also functions to offset the tension of people shooting at Bruce Willis a lot. The kiss-slap is not indicative of lustful contempt or maliciousness. Willis’ character is close to death and is living as much as he can, no matter how crude. It works.

In Metal Gear Solid 2, these fetishistic posters and opportunities for kissing and slapping are forced into the player’s periphery in most indoor areas. References to Western works within Kojima’s games tend to have every last drop of subtlety bled out of them as a sort of vetting process.

@reicifr: I'm not going to argue against you on the sexism (though I would say that as a dude I personally don't care that much because there are enough female characters that, aside from clothing choice, seem like good female characters to me), but I'm not sure where you're coming at with homosexuals and trans people in his games.

@spoonman671: If that's true on PS3, then that's lame, but I prefer R2 on PS4. PS4 has proper triggers!

There are no good female characters in Kojima's games the deeper you look. The Boss is only a good female character on the surface, overlooking the decades of misogynistic and sexist symbolism Kojima has amassed in his narratives. Kojima fools people into thinking she's a good female character when she has no agency at all and admits she only follows orders to the letter. She admits she has waited her entire life for Naked Snake and her destiny is to be a pedestal for him. Meryl is so badly handled I dunno where to start.

Homosexual persons are treated as jokes in Kojima's narrative. Raikov himself is a walking homosexual joke character, and Kojima sneaks in homophobic jokes that don't seem homophobic unless you think about them. Let me explain by talking about Vamp:

In the Plant chapter of Metal Gear Solid 2, Snake will inexplicably start talking about Vamp’s sexuality when Raiden calls him. “Vamp isn’t for ‘vampire’,” Snake begins; “it’s because he’s bisexual. Rumor has it that Vamp was the lover of Scott Dolph, the Marine Commandant who accidentally died two years ago.”

Like the rest of Kojima’s homosexual characters, we soon find there is no subtlety to Vamp’s bisexuality; it is treated it with all the nuance and sensitivity of children whispering in the schoolyard. Kojima dangles Vamp in front of the player like a scary marionette on gossamer strings of bisexuality, a character trait so defining that most of Vamp’s idiosyncratic behavior can be traced back to it. Indeed, whether Vamp is sucking the blood out of soldiers’ necks, licking the phallic, fluid-covered tips of knives, moaning suggestively, sniffing Snake, or simply staring and commenting on Raiden’s body, the footnote of “bisexual” follows Vamp into almost every scene.

The noun “vamp” does not mean “bisexual male” like Snake says it does; it means “seductive, sexually exploitative woman.” The term originated from the 1915 silent movie, A Fool There Was, which has been credited as the first “vampire” movie. The film is about a predatory woman—listed in the credits as “The Vampire”—who seduces a Wall Street lawyer in an attempt to destroy his life, just as she has done to other men. Considering Hideo Kojima’s own admission that he is “seventy-percent movies”, it’s quite likely he is aware of this film.

If Kojima is aware that “vamp” means “seductive woman”, why would he write that one of his male characters, being bisexual, decided to call himself Vamp? It’s a joke at Vamp’s expense; he’s a male character that has had sex with men, so he must be like a woman. This is offensive in a way similar to people in Japan’s recent past calling trans women “gay boy” or “Mr. Lady”; it’s misgendering that, deliberate or not, simultaneously mocks another’s sexuality.

Vamp’s name somehow being what it is because he’s bisexual is so convolutedly offensive and incongruous with how actual people behave that it’s quite obvious that, at some point, a god-like hand grasping a pen came down from MGS2’s firmament and wrote Vamp’s codename on his forehead.

The seemingly oblivious offensiveness at the heart of Vamp’s name is reminiscent of that of Peace Walker’s Dr. Strangelove. Like Vamp, she is named in reference to a movie, but the name is also as a comment on her sexuality: Homosexuality is strange.

See, Kojima writes problematic and homophobic characters because he puts homosexuality in a box, and everything a character does can come from this safe little Kojima box called Homosexuality. Kojima even implies that to be in a box with someone is to initiate sex in MGS3 and Peace Walker.

Sigint: Uh, Snake… what are you doing?

Naked Snake: I’m in a box.

Sigint: A cardboard box? Why are you?

Naked Snake: I dunno. I was just looking at it and I suddenly got this urge to get inside. No not just an urge - more than that. It was my destiny to be here; in the box.

Sigint: Destiny…?

Naked Snake: Yeah. And then when I put it on, I suddenly got this feeling of inner peace. I can’t put it into words. I feel… safe. Like this is where I was meant to be. Like I’d found the key to true happiness.

Sigint: …

Naked Snake: Does any of that make sense?

Sigint: Not even a little.

Naked Snake: You should come inside the box… Then you’ll know what I mean.

Sigint: Man, I don’t wanna know what you mean!

As for the transphobia, here's a GIF from Policenauts to start:

Granted, in this case, the translators compounded their problematic views of trans persons with Kojima.

Haven't played it, probably won't, but I think he is trying to reflect the horror of reality in a way that will make the audience uncomfortable and appalled as they should be. I am not a firm believer that there is a "too far" in this entertainment medium.

@reicifr: Well, I think that blatantly saying Kojima has a poor portrayal of homosexual characters and then using Vamp, who is bisexual, is a little disingenuous. Okay, that's not a good way to word it, I just think that lumping bisexuals in with homosexuals is a little unfair. And I say this as a bisexual person who never really thought about this portrayal in a negative fashion, though I never put nearly as much thought into it as you have.

I never played Policenauts, so I won't comment on that.

Also, I don't think that conversation between Snake and Sigint has anything to do with sex. He wasn't saying "Come in the box with me." He was just telling Sigint to get into a box. There are much more egregious examples of that in Peace Walker (cough, Date with Paz mission, cough (I do legitimately think that was pretty awful, though I thought the subsequent Date with Kaz mission was kinda funny)).

I don't lump bisexual and homosexual people together; Kojima does. I was using Kojima's lumping logic against him like in my second post on this site. Kojima conflates bisexuality and homosexuality in his narratives.

I mentioned Peace Walker. I'm very careful. (^. ^ )