Hideo Kojima says he identifies with Anthony Hopkins character after watching HBO's Westworld. Dr. Robert Ford, who is played by Hopkins, is the creator of the land of Westworld. In Westworld, people pay large sums of money to visit an old Western World where androids live in and go through scripted actions in which players can take part in.
Kojima tweeted while watching episode 2, saying he heard Ford (Hopkins) say something that hit the nail on the head in what he tries to accomplish in gaming...the original post had some misspelling and mistranslation so I cleaned it up.
"They come back because of the subtleties, the details. They come back because they discover something they imagined no one had ever noticed before, something they fall in love with. They are not looking for the story that tells them who they are, they already know who they are. They are here for a glimpse of who they could be."
Kojima then accompanied the quote with "this is my exact theory in game design". If you've ever played Metal Gear Solid 2 you wouldn't dispute that! If you take a look at the amount of secrets, hidden scenes only completed by certain actions, easter eggs, unlockables, items...it's staggering how much stuff is in that game. This is true with most Kojima games, however, I think MGS2 really is the epitome of this theory. I've played through the game 3-4 times and have found new stuff or sought out alternative scenes because I knew they existed and it's fun every time!
It's exciting that Kojima is getting into Westworld because that only means great things for Death Stranding, Hideo's next big game. To be honest, if there was ever someone to create a real "Westworld"...he would probably be the guy to do it don't you think?
