very lengthy new interview..
full interview is here
GP: We were looking at various influences and inspirations to the storylines. Have any of the recent events in the Middle East inspired the storyline in MGS 4?
Kojima: The Middle East is just an entry to the storyline, and this time Snake travels all around the world, so it's not necessarily just the Middle East.
Well of course, since the setting is in the Middle East, to that extent, I've been influenced by what is happening today in the world. From a gameplay point of view, many first-person shooters -- the new titles -- will be set in the Middle East, so I have deliberately set the first setting in the Middle East because I want to first show an FPS [influence]...but actually, it is not. At the beginning you may feel it is based on the same old FPS scenarios, but actually it is not and that is deliberately so.
And also, the key concept of MGS 4 is of course "espionage in the battlefield." Meaning, what is a battlefield to people these days? It is of course the Middle East. Therefore we have put that message in. When I was young and I thought about war, it was always about the 1970s and Vietnam. Jungle warfare. Now it's different for everybody. So that is of course an influence, because we have set [MGS4's environment] closer to what the real-life war is.
full interview is here
GP: We were looking at various influences and inspirations to the storylines. Have any of the recent events in the Middle East inspired the storyline in MGS 4?
Kojima: The Middle East is just an entry to the storyline, and this time Snake travels all around the world, so it's not necessarily just the Middle East.
Well of course, since the setting is in the Middle East, to that extent, I've been influenced by what is happening today in the world. From a gameplay point of view, many first-person shooters -- the new titles -- will be set in the Middle East, so I have deliberately set the first setting in the Middle East because I want to first show an FPS [influence]...but actually, it is not. At the beginning you may feel it is based on the same old FPS scenarios, but actually it is not and that is deliberately so.
And also, the key concept of MGS 4 is of course "espionage in the battlefield." Meaning, what is a battlefield to people these days? It is of course the Middle East. Therefore we have put that message in. When I was young and I thought about war, it was always about the 1970s and Vietnam. Jungle warfare. Now it's different for everybody. So that is of course an influence, because we have set [MGS4's environment] closer to what the real-life war is.