Creativity: I Need Scissors!! 61!!

After passing through the initial hurty hurty of work, I think I've gotten back into the workflow. It seems that when you have a lot to do, your body sort of slows down time to handle it all. Or at least it should. Mine does, I think.

We've been told to think about creativity, what it is, why it's important and what not. The problem with this is after reading Out of Our Minds, there's not much I can think to say on the subject; I just want to say 'Let me hand you over to Ken Robinson', but I can't, so I won't. Do take a look at his book though, it really does inspire.

I sat here yesterday and began thinking of interesting things I liked in video games. Actual certain points in certain video games that have made me pause for a moment and think...

Metal Gear Solid 2 Spoiler Alert~ If you're planning to play MGS2 but haven't yet, then don't read on. Actually you really should have finished it by now, so it sort of serves you right it if you do.

Metal Gear Solid 2 is basically the story of a bunch of terrorists who seize an "offshore clean-up facility" near New York and threaten to blow it up. The main character, Raiden, is sent as a special forces member to sort them all out, and he pretty much does. However, it turns out that this "offshore clean-up facility" was actually a huge internet-and-communications-disrupting supercomputer all along.

The thing is, towards the end of the game, as you eventually descend into the depths of this huge device, and its effects start to work - on you. The game suddenly starts breaking down the fourth wall. There's a scene where, mid-battle, the screen pulls out to the "Mission Failed" (Game Over) screen, when nothing has happened. It's a trick; on closer inspection the words read "Fission Mailed", and the battle is continuing in the background.

The much loved Colonel Campbell, on whom you've relied on throughout the game for useful and calm advice suddenly begins saying bizzare things to you over your codec. In one transmission, he demands you "Turn the game console off right now; the mission is a failure." "It's a game, a game like usual. You'll hurt your eyes sitting too close to the TV."

It's hard to explain, without hearing them in the context of the game, with that nightmarish background noise just how frightening the game becomes when it starts reaching out to you behind the screen. It takes away that comfort zone completely. While some do it in the spirit of humour and amusement, Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 to name but one (That nobody's ever heard of, sigh...), Metal Gear Solid uses it to intensify what is quite a creepy part of the game. In effect, it's making you feel as the character would in that situation. I like it; I think that's creative.

More yet to come: I need to think some more.