Its strange. [MENTION=7774]Robert[/MENTION] and [MENTION=1842]James[/MENTION] you both are British and you like Metal Gear. When I lived in England for a year, 3 years ago, Metal Gear wasnt popular at all. People only mostly played Fifa, Cod, Rockstar games etc. When I was growing up, Metal Gear was surprisingly popular in Pakistan and it still is. Also when I went to Canada it was also pretty popular over there.
Like everything else, there is a story behind this.
Believe it or not - the original MGS on strength of reviews and word of mouth, and then particularly MGS2 from the moment it was announced, were absolutely massive in the UK.
Every office and school playground had its whispering fans. The clear encouragement of mutual respect for human life, the highlighting of the beauty of the Earth and the power of Mother Nature, the warnings against experimentation on humans and cloning, the discussion on the horrors of war and soldiering, and the overarching anti-nuclear weapons message appealed to our gaming community enormously.
MGS2 was possibly the first game in the UK to provoke the excessive pre-orders, excited midnight queues and impossible-to-live-up-to hype: which were unheard of in 2002, but have become the norm since the 7th generation of gaming (where it was no longer a geeky pimply hobby and overnight became a socially hip form of mass media with everyone suddenly owning an XBox 360).
But things were different then. MGS2 was the first game to be designed, built up, marketed, promoted and sold like a Hollywood movie. It was ultimately one of the UK's best-selling games ever at the time, and remains a strong performer today.
Unfortunately, the script was way ahead of its time and the themes were far too intelligent for the majority of teenagers to understand. There was more watching to be done than playing. And above all, Snake was relegated to a supporting character role. So of course everyone hated it. And the Metal Gear bubble quickly burst. (MGS2 is actually a brilliant game, and highly influential, which history has recognised - but, at the time, something did not quite work with it.)
So, despite the stellar MGS3 restoring Kojima's critical stock and improving the British public's perception of Metal Gear, it was never going to be that big in the UK again. Now it is more of a cult interest.
But anyone who was actively 'game-ing' around the release of MGS2 will verify that Metal Gear briefly came close to attaining the huge profile normally associated with the next Star Wars film or the new Harry Potter book... that is until everyone actually bought and played the game, at which point the reputation of the series was closer to Waterworld for a while. Lol.
