With rumors of a Metal Gear Solid live action movie circulating around gamespot, I figured I would put in my two-cents on the issue. I believe it would not only be unwise for Hollywood (or any production company) to touch Metal Gear Solid or (any other video game title), but catastrophic for the video game industry as a whole. Just as movie-to-video game tranisitons are bad (Jumper, Bourne), the jump from the little screen to the big screen is equally as disastrous.

Let me explain. Video games are a subjective type of entertainment. When I first played Metal Gear Solid for the Playstation, I felt like I was moving an actor through a movie. A damn good movie at that. However, at the same time, I felt like I was the infamous Solid Snake, and that I was helping someone's cause. Saving something real. I wanted to be the next great agent. The experience I had with MGS is undoubtedly different than someone else's experience to the same game. We all have seperate emotions and opinions, and the great thing about video games, is that they can bring all these different human constructs and notions together. It is the art of being subjective.

Movies and videos are objective.

Movies set out to accomplish usually one goal. Make something entertaining. That works- to a point. I've seen numerous video game adaptations on the big screen, and I have been entertained by them all. Nevertheless, I haven't enjoyed them in the least. Hollywood not only tosses the original storyline that the games established, they turn it into something completely different. Or, in the rare occurence that they keep the storyline, there is always something missing. An actor may not remind you of the character you've grown to love. Maybe the emotions displayed on the screen aren't the same emotions you felt with the controller in your hands. In video games you choose your own path, and how you view the trip down that path. In movies, you are sent spiralling down a road that has been chosen for you. And it can ruin everything.

I think that if MGS were to be made into a movie, a lot of people would be outraged. As far as I'm concerned, MGS is a game inside of a movie. I'd hate to see someone in Hollywood try to make a typical action film with the name we've all come to love.

We need to let Hollywood be Hollywood, and let the video game industry be the video game industry. Close neighbors- but never intertwined.