Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-86.46.22.35-20130403153709/@comment-64.33.250.214-20150819040952

64.33.250.214 wrote: You don't get me? Well, I can't say the feeling isn't mutual. You show up out of the blue, defending this theory whenever someone criticizes it. Why haven't you been debating any other theory? I've been here debating this subject for over a year. My comments are not a personal attack on what you believe.

I really don't understand the confusion. Ocelot has a name and you can described what he looks like. A custom character can change appearance, name, and/or gender. How do you make that a part of the story? "___, who wears ___, and has ___ hair with ___ eyes, became a member of Diamond Dogs and helped Big Boss form Outer Heaven. ___ eventually retired and moved to Tokyo to develop video games with fellow Diamond Dogs buddy Kojima."

Did you see those blanks up there? That's information that can't be added to the story, because the custom character would be different for each player.

Now let's say you can't change Ishmael's name or gender. If that were the case, then I do not see the point in making him a custom character. The whole point of that function should be to allow players to be whoever they want.

If it turned out that Ishmael was Decoy Octopus, then I could understand this theory that he's customizable. As it stands, he already has a name and a voice actor in place. Which implies that he is an important character, and not some character creation who probably wouldn't play a significant role in how the story unfolds. Let me give another example, in case there is still confusion. I'll use Mass Effect as an example. In Mass Effect, you can choose what Commander Shepard looks like. Shepard can be either male or female. You can change your first name, which isn't said in the game, but you can't change Shepard. So your custom character is referred to as Shepard. There are two voice actors depending on the gender you choose.

The difference between Ishmael and Shepard, is that Shepard is a unisex name that can be used as a last name for both males and females. Whereas Ishmael in Hebrew is largely a male name. Girls would go by a different name in Hebrew.

Another major difference is that Shepard has a selection of dialogue to choose from. We don't see any indication of that in Ishmael's case. If Ishmael were fully customizable, we would be able to direct his actions, such as how he responds to Big Boss in the hospital.

In instances where Ishmael was on screen with Big Boss, how would the player be able to control both? From what I've heard about those who tested the game months ago, they played as Big Boss. Unless they were told to keep secret about playing as Ishmael. However, I can't think of much reason why you wouldn't play as Boss during the hospital level.