Official Retirement Announcment

It is with great difficulty and sadness that I make this announcement. As of Wednesday June 11, 2008. I, David Liao, am retiring from the Metal Gear Solid franchise. I know this comes as a huge shock to all my fans, the day before the Metal Gear Solid 4 release, but I feel this is the best thing for my situation, health, and career.

Some of my critics will go of and say that I born with no talent for sneaking or that I played the game incorrectly. They said that I would never amount to anything. But as impossible as the odds were, somehow I managed to make it through not only MGS 1 and 2 but 3 as well. But in the end, I guess they were right. I'm not cut out for Metal Gear Solid. I'm not cut out for the stealth. For the dragging cut scenes placed inconveniently before and after a boss battle. For the annoyingly complex controls or tiresome heal system. Or the multiple times a final boss has to come back before they finally die by some random element (Fox Die/Stray Bolt of Lightning).

Before you start labeling me as a lose, failure, or quitter. I think the questions are best answered in a quote I heard in chat. "If you're not enjoying the game, why are you playing it?" I guess I should just forget that it's Metal Gear F'ing Solid. That it's Produced by THE Kojima Hideo. That it's one of Konami's flagship franchises and regarded as one of the all time bests. It basically created the stealth game genre and has set the bar each time since not only by implementing movie quality story telling, unforgettable boss fights, and unbelievable detail and innovative game play mechanics. And me being a video game fan, I wanted to understand why the game is what it is.

Lastly, I want to thank all the viewers who were there giving me encouragement along the way. I could have never made it as far as I did without you. You helped me over come all the doubters and all those who tried to ridicule me for not knowing what to do on my first time playing. It is because all of you that made this decision so hard for me. I would like to wish Kojima-san and the MGS series great success for the future and leave with no regrets. Even though I'm putting away my "sneaking" suit, I'll always remember the good times that I had.

Yours Truly,
David "Raiden" Liao