Metal Gear Online: An MMO Community Gone

Metal Gear Online was switched off last Tuesday, I’ll be honest, I’m far more upset about it then I thought I would be. As a big Metal Gear fan (and have been for well over a decade) I hated that I missed out on the original Metal Gear Online, a multiplayer mode that came bundled with the Subsistence version of Metal Gear Solid 3. I took part in the beta (I was even one of the hundreds of thousands that failed to get into the game the first time they tried to launch the beta), I played for over 160 hours and some of my fondest PS3 memories come from this game. You’d be forgiven for making an observation: Metal Gear Online wasn’t an MMO. You’d be correct in the strictest sense, but in my mind I’ve never seen a community like it and, honestly, I don’t think I ever will again.

Working as a Team

Over the past few weeks, I’ve written a couple of articles about MMORPGs and their nature as single player experiences. Metal Gear Online was the opposite of that, a combination of utter reliance on your team and, at the same time, just the right amount of pressure on the individual. A clever soldier could turn the tide of battle with clever tactics, but a single player was never enough to win the entire game. Using the SOP system, you could see your allies in real time no matter where they were on the map and you desperately needed to use that if you wanted to work out enemy positions and the locations of traps. The perfect team consisted of capable individuals who knew their own limitations and, just like in the MGS4 story, could overcome those limitations using the SOP system. It was the perfect situation to forge friendships, alliances and rivalries.

Friendships Born from Battle

That last sentence may seem strange, but it’s perfect true. I formed countless alliances with other players in Metal Gear Online, very often without the need to share a single word. A few months ago, and bear in mind that I haven’t played MGO in at least 18 months (probably more), I was reviewing a Facebook game and found myself amazed when I got a message from a complete stranger who’d seen me playing. “Are you the same Mat Growcott who used to play Metal Gear Online?” I didn’t recognise her username, nor did I remember any of the matches we’d played together, but something about our fighting together online had stuck in her memory and when she saw my username she didn’t hesitate to message me to thank me for the games in which I’d watched her back. Considering the span of time we’re talking about here, considering that I played some thousands of games with hundreds of people: that’s what I call massively multiplayer.

Unusual Gameplay

And yet it couldn’t be classed as an MMO. At its core it was a third-person shooter with a set of maps from the Metal Gear universe, nothing more, nothing less. Like many games in the genre, your basic match would be made up of killing a set number of the enemy team whilst trying not to be killed. It being a Metal Gear Solid game, you could make use of things like cardboard boxes and playboy magazines, offering a level of tactical decision to an otherwise average shooter. Hitting headshots was the key and, for the best of the best, it almost became an art form. If you could get headshot after headshot, you were a valuable player and there were situations where, in you were lucky, you could pull of truly amazing moves and take down entire teams. I’ve never felt more badass than when I’ve single-handedly held off the enemy while my teammates snuck round the back.

Massively Multiplayer

As I said earlier, I would hesitate to call Metal Gear Online an MMO. I had massively multiplayer experiences, but I’m not sure anybody could say that it was an MMO. With that said, the late addition of tournaments certainly put it into the right field. You and a group of friends (or random strangers) could compete in a server wide tournament once a week. You’d be pit against other random players and work towards winning extra experience points or in-game currency – I don’t remember which. I’m not sure I ever managed to get past the third round (and I remember coming across a lot of high-level players much earlier than perhaps I’d wanted to) but there was nothing like it in a console game I’d ever seen and, off the top of my head, nothing like it I’ve seen since. It was a real community event and it was something that made the challenge of gaming with strangers that much more enjoyable, that much more rewarding.

Community

I’m not sad to see the game go (that might not be entirely true, especially if they fail to announce a new version of the online mode for Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance), it was a mess for the last few years of its existence and I found playing a game to be a hassle more than an enjoyment.  People exploited the game in a way that just made it not as fun as it had been, an empty shell compared to the quality it had had during its first two years. No, I’m not sorry to see the servers shut down, but I am sorry to think that all the people I played with all those long hours into the night are now probably untraceable, disappeared onto other games and away from the community that we all formed at the very height of the game’s popularity.

Conclusion
Metal Gear Online: The end of an MMO community

Metal Gear Online, I would argue (and I’d need to argue it), was my first MMO. It taught me the value in working as a team, the importance of relying on strangers and just how massively multiplayer a 16-person shooter can be. From quite literally training new players to taking on the toughest of the toughest, Metal Gear Online offered such variation, such innovation that it pains me to know that all of it is gone. If only it could have been a little more well maintained, if only it hadn’t have needed that ridiculous Konami sign-in system, it could have had a very different fate and, indeed, perhaps it could have remained the warm, embracing community that I remember. And if another entry in the Metal Gear Online series is announced, I’ll be the first on the front lines. See you there.