Metal Gear Solid: Rising gets new producer

@foxhound

Your username, picture, and everything about your comment kind of make me want to kiss you on the mouth.

@foxhound

And all this time I thought you had love in general for Vulpes vulpes (Red Fox).

@jrwiljan

Oh, go get Love Box you two!

@foxhound

Agreed. While my history with the MG series has more of the love/hate vibe of a guilty pleasure, I was looking forward to a potentially new direction with Rising. Given the delays this game has had, and now this evidence of a lack of focus (lack of interest?) in the game, I'm definitely concerned about Konami's intentions with this title.

Dirge of Cerberus is the perfect analogy. It's a game that highlights a character that many people preferred, vaulting him to the lead in a side story to the main series' narrative. Hopefully MGR will prove to have more inspired design whenever the hell it comes out.

@Trilancer

Nolan North was just confirmed as the new voice for Raiden.

@SmashZilla And the character model will be tweaked to look slightly like him.

@Dick Socrates
He needs a half-tucked shirt then.

@foxhound

Drake?......DRake???............

DRRAAKKKEEEE!!!!

@SmashZilla..Solid Drake?

@Slight of Ham

You guys are hilarious lmfao.

@SmashZilla With Steve Blum doing voiceover for Solid Snake cameo role . ;)

@nerdquest
That sounds oddly feasible. Not that I would enjoy the fact. It just seems like something someone would od if Hayter turned it down.

@Therion
In a magical world free of lawyers, yes. I'd absolutely fall in love with such a mix of gaming elements like that. *_*

@baby sea tuna
Sounds easy enough but much work has already gone into boss fight design. Especially one in which the boss (name withheld) has telekinetic control over all melons. Think Magneto with Watermelons.

@Negatron

I CAN SEED YOUR MIND!

@baby sea tuna

I CAN SEE YOUR RIND!

@GameMaker They might call lead designers producers to pay them more

That's simply not true and I wish this sort of misinformation would stop spreading. "Executive Producer" and "Producer" should not be confused.

@Oddgirl

I've worked in the industry for several years, and if you have "Producer" in your title, that usually means you've never taken a design class at any point in your life. Maybe this guy is different, but for every producer you show me with design experience, I can show you 100 producers that like to pretend they know how game design works, but really have no clue.

And I've worked in the industry since 2002, under a handful of great producers and collaborating with countless more. They are one of the key creative forces in the development and release of a game (and film, and album). They help hold a project together and for that, they're an invaluable resource on any team or at any studio.

And if your respect for a "game designer" hinges on whether or not they've completed design courses in a game design program... well, that's just sad. There was a time when such courses didn't exist, and people rose in this "industry" on natural talent.

@Oddgirl

Taking a design class is the LEAST a person who is having an impact on game's design can do, and if you don't see the merit in being educated in design, then that is what is sad. I'm curious what you think of film school?

People like you think, "Well, I play a lot of games, so I must be great at designing them." Wrong! Producers (and I've worked with hundreds) make the most random design choices for the most random of reasons. They shouldn't have anything to do with design. Just like in film, producers don't have anywhere near as much influence as the director does.

I'm curious how you would explain why we have so many awful games that come out. I'll tell you why. Cause producers and publishers get a hold of the design and ruin it.

For the record, I am not a designer. I am a programmer, and I have seen what producers do to games. They run them into the ground because they think they should be in charge of design. They shouldn't. They should be in charge of schedules and managing teams. That is all.

Producers have a major impact on creative things, for better or worse depending on who the producer is, which can be said for any position. Their impact on music is especially big, listen to Nirvana's first album and then Nevermind when they got a proper producer, that producer changed their whole sound and Nirvana went from garageband to legend, then for hip hop and pop the producers are usually the ones creating the actual music. A producer's job is to make things better, if they are a good producer then they will give the game better flow, more cohesion, and improve the style.

"People like you think, "Well, I play a lot of games, so I must be great at designing them.""

Now, now, don't go assuming things! Of all the various people I've worked with over the years, the ones who are most lost, the ones that don't fit in, and the ones that bring the least to a project, are the ones that thought "I play a lot of games, so I must be great at designing them, I'll go to a for-profit college and take their shoddy game design program."

Obviously, some programs hold a lot of promise, I'm not knocking those. But the people I work with, that I enjoy working with at that, and that I accomplish a lot working around, those are the people that happened into the "industry". The people who found a niche in game development, took it by force, and have willed it to operate under their own ideals rather than those taught by "industry insiders" that teach a university program.

"I'm curious how you would explain why we have so many awful games that come out. I'll tell you why. Cause producers and publishers get a hold of the design and ruin it."

Now you're mixing the art with the business. As an artist, I champion the downtrodden developer. The team that's worked so hard on a game only to have their vision twisted by a publisher because of time constraints and other various issues. The way I see it is, you have two studio archetypes. You have game farms, where people fresh out of game design courses go to work to get their bearings, often churning out annual franchises and licensed games, and then you have the collaborative and "independent" studios that foster creativity.

Perhaps you've had more experience in the former, and I'm truly sorry if that's the case, but I haven't. I've worked in my ideal environments almost since day one (well, I didn't get the OWI job I dreamt of, but I'm not bitter). We just seem to have true apples and oranges experiences.

All I know is I'd be so lucky to be in a producing role, and even more so to be as well respected as the producers I've had the privilege of working with.

@Oddgirl

You know? All those titles have never made any sense to me.

Producer seems to be this nebulous title esp. in the film industry. It's the guy/girl who helps coordinate the effort in regards to securing funding and finding people to work on it and other details. Not sure how it applies in the game industry.

@RealityCheck2011

Oh shut up troll. I love how the comments like this have changed over the years.

"Haha, there will NEVER be a Metal Gear game on the 360!" [Rising announced] "Uh...haha, there will never be a SOLID SNAKE Metal Gear game on the 360!" [HD collection announced] "Uh...haha, there will never be a NEW SOLID SNAKE...KOJIMA Metal Gear game on the 360!"

Seriously, give that fanboy shit a rest.

@RealityCheck2011

Hahaha. PS3 exclusives make me happy because MY system is bettoir!! My wittle brain cant handle another person enjoying their games but my fanboy legion!
Only kojima could make a game for the playstation twee!!! hararhahrahrhar.

Idiot

@baby sea tuna
Wow I never realized there was more than 1 transition in the MGS-series fanboy complaints. Good point. Very, VERY true.

I loved Horrible Bosses!

@Dirty

This. Sounds. Awesome.

Also, drunk by the first commercial break.