How Nanotechnology is Portrayed in Video Games – The Metal Gear Solid Saga

"The principles of physics, as far as I can see, do not speak against the possibility of maneuvering things atom by atom. It is not an attempt to violate any laws; it is something, in principle, that can be done; but in practice, it has not been done because we are too big." – Richard Fynman

In Metal Gear Solid 4, an advanced battlefield control network called "Sons of the Patriots" monitors and enhances the performance of soldiers deployed in combat via nanomachines injected in their body. Octo-camo, a form of smart camouflage, can replicate both the pattern and texture of any surface it comes in contact with. Even with the rapid development of modern nanotechnology, it all sounds little bit far-fetched doesn't it? What if I told you it wasn't?

[Megaman_nerd]

OMG, I never thought there were people that hated the MGS series with such a passion! Just look at that comment section, is a warzone of hipsters debating who has read the most literature and who has the most studies to truly judge the grade of the writing in the MGS games.

edit: And then I continue reading and I can't believe that there is a guy (DocSeuss, the Conquering Hero) saying that he is better than Kojima and that he can easily create a better series than MGS, with better story and gameplay. And that Kojima doesn't know what's he is doing. And the funny thing is that he is so serious about it and other people are actually respecting his opinion and agreeing with him. I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone. 0__0'

[Deadpool616]

Yeah, it's pretty ridiculous how they're trashing MGS in the articles comment section. The MGS series helped push gaming to where it is today.

[humbleopinion]

I don't think people hate the series, they just bring up a very good argument (or at least some of them do) why the actual usage of "nanomachines" in the series is similar to the usage of midichloreans in Star Wars to explain "the force". It has nothing to do with actual science and especially not with the fundamentals of nanotech, and sounds just like voodoo magic. It is more of a fantasy than science fiction.

That DocSeuss comment was obviously trolling, but not more than the article writer saying things like "With one foot in science, and the other foot in science fiction,... these are the hallmarks that separate a good game, from a great game", where he doesn't show once where the game actually has a foot (or even a finger) in science - and even admits that the opposite is true.
Many games feature nanotech based things: the nanosuit in crysis, the Spartan armor in Halo, and almost every second scifi game. But while tons of science fiction games throw the "nanotech" voodoo catchphrase when too lazy to actually come up with a proper explanation, only a selected few games actually have a firm grasp of the concept and properly back it up in the game.

A proper example of how this is done right would be Deus Ex:
http://deusex.wikia.com/wik...
But MGS4? It's quite the opposite of that:
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

One has to agree that the writing quality in this game is quite substandard compared to quality scifi works. When it comes to that, MGS4 like the Transformers of video games (super cool CGI, just don't expect the plot or dialog to make any sense). It's like that infamous quote from Maggie Madsen in Transformers: "you need to move past Fourier transforms and start thinking quantum mechanics!" - those kind of cheesey lines are all over the game.

[MrGunny94]

MGS is the best single player franchise for me.

[TopDudeMan]

We're 2 feet away from each other and could just whisper...

Let's switch to nano-communication just in case anybody's listening, though.

[MrGunny94]

@TopDudeMan

Hahaha i remember that annoying mission from MGS:2 about finding out who was Ames :P

[TopDudeMan]

yeah, you had to run around asking people if they are Ames. All their heartbeats sound the same!!!

[bunt-custardly]

If in doubt, or something doesn't make sense, nanomachines are responsible.

[pandaboy]

Dr. Michio Kaku explains some of the interesting concepts in nanotechnology. Check him out guys.