Magazine (book)

Magazines, also referred to as books, are an entertainment reading outlet that people tend to read. They cover a wide variety of genres, including literary, gaming, pop-culture, sports, current events, fashion, and pornography. Most of the magazines used by Naked Snake/Big Boss, Solid Snake, and Raiden are implied to be of the last variety.

Usage
During Operation Snake Eater in 1964, Naked Snake procured some magazines within Tselinoyarsk and used them as distractions for the GRU soldiers under Volgin's command. However, such a tactic did not distract Raikov long enough for it to work.

During the San Hieronymo Takeover in the early 1970s, Big Boss's resistance movement utilized magazines for distraction, although they didn't work on soldiers with an artistic career or on female soldiers. Some enemy soldiers also carried them with them as an indicator of their skill set.

During the Peace Walker Incident in 1974, the Militaires Sans Frontieres, Big Boss's mercenary group, procured design specs for the MGS Magazine while on a demolition mission in Selva de la Leche to demolish a wall blocking a shortcut between Selva de la Leche and Selva de la Muerte. The MGS Magazine eventually became popular from the Southern U.S. to Panama, gaining 1.1 million readers and even having CIA mercenaries becoming fans of the magazine. They also procured design specs for a set of hobby magazines while trying to destroy supplies for the Peace Sentinels in the Rio del Jade boathouse. They eventually published the Solid, Liquid, Solidus, and Super magazines, which were a weekly sci-fi/horror genre magazine, a monthly mature literary magazine, a quarterly men's lifestyle/political magazine, and a bimonthly fashion magazine geared for women, respectively. The Solid, Liquid, and Solidus magazines had their fair share of "adult content." They also managed to procure a cooking magazine, the Tomeat magazine. Aside from their primary use to distract the enemy, the MSF soldiers also used these magazines for their own personal leasure, although Big Boss had a tendency to borrow the soldiers magazines for use in a mission.

Solid Snake procured some magazines while infiltrating the Shadow Moses Facility, and put them to use by placing them near soldiers to distract them.

Raiden used these magazines to distract enemies while partaking the Big Shell Incident. Snake, while disguised as Pliskin, also implied that he reads the magazines for their "educational value" when giving Raiden advice on the magazine.

During Liquid Ocelot's Resurrection, Snake utilized Playboy magazines to distract PMC troops and presumably for his own benefit as well. Aside from Playboy, there are also a variety of magazines referred to as emotion magazines, which have the Beauty and the Beast members on the covers, which cause the soldiers to well up with various emotions, or in the case of FROGs, salute the B&B corps.

Behind the scenes
The Solid, Liquid, Solidus, and Super magazines were originally the Weekly Famitsu, Dengeki Playstation, Dengeki Games/GAMES Blitz, and Weekly Shonen magazines, respectively. They were added in by Hideo Kojima as a joke on product placement. These were changed outside Japan, presumably due to the copyright laws.

In-game descriptions
"An adult magazine packed with alluring photos. Perfect for those long, lonely nights on the battlefield."

- Magazine weapon description from Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops

"A popular monthly magazine jam-packed with excitement on every page. It has a massive fan base that stretches all the way from the southern part of the U.S. to the Panama Canal, and a circulation of 1.1 million copies per month. One especially popular feature is the pen pal exchange. Some CIA mercenaries and MSF members are known to be avid readers of this mag. Put it in front of them and they just might drop everything else..."

- MGS Magazine weapons description from Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

"A weekly pulp magazine filled to the brim with outlandish and absurd sci-fi/horror stories. Roughly half of the stories are about men fighting Martians and are written by amateurs. Not to be taken too seriously. Lurid and sexually suggestive themes are a given."

- Solid Magazine weapons description from the English version of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

"A monthly pulp magazine that features mature content aimed at literary types. The real-life travel logs submitted by soldiers from around the world are a must read. Also boasts an ample supply of scantily-clad pin-ups."

- Liquid Magazine weapons description from the English version of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

"A quarterly men's lifestyle magazine aimed at discriminating adults. Features include articles on news, politics, and special interests such as the ever popular "bonsai" corner. Naturally, it also features its fare share of "adult content.""

- Solidus Magazine weapons description from the English version of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

"Bimonthly fasion magazine for women. Features articles that satisfy the needs of women soldiers who want to look good even on the harshest of battlefields. Pictoral spreads featuring lovely models in fashionable outfits have earned this periodical a strong following of male readers. (photo by Famitsu Wave DVD)"

- Super Magazine weapons description from the English version of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

"A monthly cooking magazine, wildly popular among would-be gourmet chefs. This month's special feature focuses on a cooking show broadcast in over 20 countries worldwide and a runaway ratings hit. The magazine showcases a number of sumptuous recipes from the show with mouth-watering full-page color photos. Even a casual glance will leave you drooling. Whoever owned this copy apparently used it in the kitchen, as the rich aroma of food permeates every page. The scent might even be enough to attract some hungry wild animals..."

- Cookbook/Tomeat magazine description from Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker