Meeting the Metal Gear Solid Creators

As I mentioned before, Hideo Kojima, the creator of Metal Gear, and Yoji Shinkawa, the Metal Gear Solid character designer, were in town yesterday to promote the release of the latest entry in the series.

I was able to make it to the 11 a.m. appearance in Glendale, arriving at 10 a.m. where I found a long line stretching out from Planet X. I settled in somewhere around the 80th place in line. The first few people had been waiting since 5 a.m.; I'm not sure how they got into the Galleria building at such an early hour of the morning...

I started chatting it up with the guys in front and back of me, and we swapped some Metal Gear stories and opinions to whittle the time away. It's not all that often that I run across people so entirely dedicated to a lifestyle of gaming. Real nerds, so to speak. These guys were hardcore gamers and hardcore fans. The two guys behind me had actually brought a duffle bag full of MGS/Kojima-related items to be autographed!

Unfortunately for those guys, the store announced a "two autographed items per person" limit. Once the signing began, the store realized that they had underestimated the turnout -- there were over 100 people behind me -- so they quickly changed the limit to one item. Needless to say, that didn't go over well with the crowd. To make matters worse, the store also announced that the limited edition posters would only be given away if chosen as the one item to be autographed.

After an hour, I finally reached the front of the line, situated just outside the store. You could hear a speaker blaring the MGS theme song, which made me laugh just because it was a little corny. Then a Konami rep called me over into the store through the left side of the entrance where I then handed him the one item I'd chosen to be autographed -- I selected The Art of Metal Gear Solid -- which was placed on the table in front of Shinkawa and Kojima. Shinkawa seemed pleased to see his book being laid on the table, gave me a big grin to show his delight, and said hello. Kojima simply bowed and signed my book. He looked a little tired, which is understandable since he may have just flown over from Japan, not to mention his legendary endurance trials at work. After Kojima handed me my book, a Konami rep on the other side of the table quickly escorted me out through the right side of the store entrance, so I wasn't able to take a picture with the two Metal Gear creators. Just getting to see them was pretty cool though, so I can't complain much.

Afterward, I caught up with the four guys who had been around me in line. When I walked in on them, they were discussing the second signing at Universal City at 6:30 p.m. Apparently, they were heading to City Walk immediately, making a pact to save spots for each other in line there. They were kind enough to include me in the pact even though I told them that I wasn't sure if I could make it and that if I did, it would be much later in the day. After coming back home and sending out some work, I decided that it would be a waste of a day if I didn't go to City Walk and try to get another item signed. Make that another two items since I was bringing Philo along this time.

We arrived at City Walk around 5 o'clock, and quickly checked the directory for the location of the Electronics Boutique store since it hadn't even opened the last time I was at the Walk. It's right next to the theater, which isn't from where we parked under the Loft, so we rushed over there as fast as we could. There were already 150 people in line stretching around EB and back around the Hard Rock Cafe. As we drew closer, I saw a couple hands raise up in the air, and I recognized one of the faces I'd met earlier in the day. It turns out that those guys really had gone to City Walk right away and had already been waiting in line for 5 hours until that point. They were among the first 10 people in line! True to their word, the group of guys called me in past the velvet rope.



From that point until the signing began, we had some laughs as we saw some antics like a guy running around in a crouched position with a giant cardboard box over his head (you wouldn't get the joke if you haven't played Metal Gear), a guy "sneaking" around to snap the necks of Rugrats characters from Universal Studios that were wandering around the Walk, and a cosplayer posing for photos, dressed in full woodland camo gear complete with bandanna, eyepatch, and plastic gun and knife. There were some unique items in the area, too, such as an imported limited edition of MGS Integral and an actual kevlar vest branded with the MGS2 logo, a special rare item available only from Germany.

Once the signing began, they announced a limit of one autographed item per person. I rifled through the items I'd brought out from home, and handed the original MGS cover insert to Philo. I held onto the import Policenauts cover insert myself because I wanted to see Kojima's face when he saw the rare, Japanese-only item here in the U.S. Shinkawa was once again the first at the table to sign the item, and his face lit up when he saw the Policenauts cover. He signed it and pushed it across the table to Kojima, saying something in Japanese that, to me, sounded something like, "Hey, check this out!" Kojima picked up the item, glanced at it, and slowly said "Po-lees-uh-nots-uh" aloud, giving me a solid nod of approval. I think the other guys in line would've nerded out at that moment, but I just silently gave him a nod back.



So here I am back at home, with three items by my side autographed by Hideo Kojima and Yoji Shinkawa, something that I never thought would happen. If these first few months of the City Walk EB Games flagship store -- official release parties, special appearances, landmark gaming premieres -- is any indication, we'll be seeing a lot more events like this in the future. How about Shigeru Miyamoto signing your copy of Zelda or Mario? Hironobu Sakaguchi signing a Final Fantasy cartridge? Shinji Mikami putting his John Hancock on Resident Evil? Imagine being able to see your favorite game designers in person... It could be a reality now. Cross your fingers.