People are wondering if ‘Phantom Pain’ developer is for real

And the big question everyone asking is: are you with Team Real or Team CG?

As you might recall, there’s a lot of mystery and conjecture surrounding The Phantom Pain, which many consider to be Metal Gear Solid V. Well, the rabbit hole just got a whole lot deeper thanks to the following interview with the game’s so-called developer, Joakim Mogren…

Taken at face value, it’s kind of wacky, but otherwise nothing special. Yet here’s the deal: many believe that Joakim is not real, and is actually a character model from the game (the same exact bandage fellow that’s seen in the trailer). Here’s another look at Joakim…

Over at NeoGAF, you’ll find a thread that (as of this writing) is now over eighty pages long, filled with people dissecting every little thing about Joakim. Many are pointing towards his neck, which has been described as being “undefined”. Others believe his eyes and teeth, plus the lighting, are also clues.

I showed the video to a friend of mine who does computer animation and immediately responded with: “look at that nose, there’s something not wright about it… even if it supposed to be scrunched up by a bandage.” As for myself, when first seeing the video, I certainly didn’t think his neck, eyes, or the like were off. Instead, to me at least, there’s just something weird about his lips.

It’s also worth noting how the Fox Engine, that the game is being built upon, is crazy impressive…

All of a sudden, the idea of Joakim seems a tad bit more plausible, doesn’t it?

Anyhow, the aforementioned thread is chock full of comedy gold; some people who are dissecting the video are clearly having some fun, whiles others are not. It’s the point that even the lunch of Hideo Kojima (creator of the Metal Gear franchise, believe to be the mastermind behind all of this, and a guy who loves tweeting his lunch) is said to be fake…

You be the judge if the lunch analysis are from those poking fun or are deadly serious. So, what’s the real deal here? Is everyone just plain nuts? Nope. Because this is Kojima we’re talking about; both him and his greatest creation, Metal Gear, are known for breaking the fourth wall, and Joakim being a completely computer generated character is just par for the course.

Kojima is scheduled to be in San Francisco in a few weeks, at the Game Developers Conference, and as he notes in the interview, Mogren is supposed to make an appearance. Many are predicting that this is where Mogren will be outed as Kojima this entire time (after-all, Mogren appears to be an anagram for Kojima). Yet I’m fully expecting the following scene…

For the record, I’m totally a member of Team CG. More than likely it’ll be revealed to an actual person, but like the poster hanging in Fox Mulder’s office says, I want to believe.