A Sense of Closure

One of my favorite things about all forms of media is the amount of attachment we're capable of making to them. Since the beginning of print, we have been connecting themselves with characters in books. Since the beginning of music, we have been losing themselves in the melodies. And since the advent of film, we have been experiencing the moments as our own.

Gaming itself seems to have followed that same course, with today's experiences now rivaling the experiences found at the cinema, except now more encompassing.

As a Star Trek fan, or a trekker if you need a name for it, the connection to the characters always goes beyond the standard two hours you might be allotted in a movie. If you assume that a season of episodes is 24 42-minute episodes long, and you count TNG, DS9 and Voyager's 7 season per series totals, that's roughly 353 hours of time spent "with" the universe.

Science fiction and fantasy are the most obvious forms of "escapism" in media, both of which seem to be predominant genres in gaming.

Since I was so close to finishing season 7 of DS9, it really got me thinking about the end of the Metal Gear Solid series. Each game of the series stands alone as what could arguably called the best game of its year, or even of its generation. However, when you put them all together, you might have a commentary. A story.

The story could be about the developer. It could be about the state of the industry. But I see it differently. It's about me. Or you. The gamer.

The first game was a revelation. A change in gaming, things that we'd never experience before in scope and story telling. The second, a disappointment to most, was something vastly new and different from the first, though the core of game play remained the same. The third changed the game a little bit, but it was a return the original character and the game took place in the past. The fourth concluded the series and left a question for me to answer: now that what I know and love is gone, isn't it time for me to step aside?