So about 2 weeks ago, Metal Gear Solid 4 was released. A joyous day for many gamers of course. A very joyous one for me personally as well since I was one of the people who went to the MGS signing they had here in Los Angeles.
They had 2 signing thats night here in America, one being the one I was going to and one in New York. The New York one has Kojima himself there as well as one of the models who was used for one of the Beauty and the Beast villains in MGS4. The signing I went to though had David Hayter (voice of Snake) as well as the American and Japanese Producers as well as the voice actors of Drebin and Liquid Ocolet. So some power players for sure.
Anyway, the day the signing was gonna happen (Wensday,midnight release), myself and a few of the studio animators decided to get together to head down to the La Brea Best Buy for the signing. Before heading down though, one of the animators came up with a great idea to take the latest game our studio had made and get it signed and take it down with us to give to the guys. Originally we thought only three people were going to be there for the signing, so we got three copies signed by everyone in the studio.
After doing that, we all seperatly headed down to the Best Buy for the signing. I had thought getting there about 10pm would be fine and that the line wouldn't be to bad. Of course, I was wrong. When I got there, about 200 people were in front of me and the other 2 guys had yet to arrive.
As I waited there, I got to see many people dressed as different MGS characters and got to shoot the shit with some cool geek folk. Soon after, one of the animators showed and we started to hang out while I held onto the signed copies of our game.
To make a long boring story a bit shorter. The next two hours of waiting consisted of us (the third animator showed up around 11:30pm) talking to lots of cool people, wishing we had chairs, and hoping that all the cops passing by didn't thing all the guys dressed as Snake with guns were robbing us.
We had found out we were numbers 227-230 in the line and that the Best Buy had 300 copies of MGS4 in-stock half way through the wait. Also found out thanks to a crazy David Hayter fan girl that the celebs would only be there till 2am to do the signing stuff. So we were sitting pretty really. Midnight hit and the line started to move. We kept waiting, moving, waiting and more moving. Some young hot girls handed out free power drinks that tasted like Minute Maid mixed with moose piss.
Around 1:15am, we had about 30 more people to go before we three got to the front of the line and thought we would make it in time. At 1:30am, a guy from Kojima Productions comes out and tells us the celebs are going to be leaving and won't do any more signings sides the people who already got the game and were in the separate line to get their covers signed.
So now the three of us were sad and depressed. The guys with me had the same thing happen to them when they went to a MGS3 signing years ago in Los Angeles at the City Walk that had Kojima there. As sad as we were, the Hayter fan girl in front of us was freaking out and nearly crying cause she really wanted to meet him.
As we make our way up the line and into the Best Buy, we saw the celebs at a special stand finishing up the last of the signings. We got our copies of MGS4 and started to leave when one of the animators asked me to give him one of the signed copies of our games. I handed it over and next thing I know, he is talking to a Best Buy guy who was guarding the celeb booth and telling him who we were and that we just wanted to give the signed copies of our game to the celebs since we are huge fans of the game series. Some Kojima guy cam up and argued with the Best Buy guy for a second, but next thing I know, they are lifting the rope that was around the booth and letting us in.
Wait.....what is happening now?
I was in shock. As soon as we passed the rope, all three of us were next in line in the signing booth and were talking to the Japanese producer. The animator who got us in was telling the guy who we were and gave him a copy of our game. Next thing I know, we are shaking hands with the guy, he is saying how much he loved our game and that our studio should be the one to make the new Castlevania game. As this is going on, the producer grabbed three blank game covers of MGS4 and started to sign them. After him, we got to talk to Snake himself, David Hayter.
Hayter was very cool of course. Once again the animator with us introduced us and gave him the signed copy of our game. We talked a bit with Hayter and he said how he loved our game and even did some Snake voice stuff for us. After that, we got to meet the voice actor of Ocelot who looked like a old biker guy who showed us his tattoos. Talked to him for a minute and then got to move onto the American producer as well as the voice actor for Drebin (looked like Chris Tucker a bit). We talked to them for a bit and the American producer gave us his business card since one of our animators gave him his. We gave the producer our last signed copies and he handed us the MGS4 covers signed by everyone there.
I nearly fainted.
In the blur of excitement, we left the store with everyone yelling at how we got signed covers while everyone else wasn't able to. We ran out, said our goodbyes to each other, and got to our cars. After nearly inhaling enough air to fill a new planet, I was able to drive home at about 2am with a copy of MGS4 and a signed game cover.
So that is my story. I need to get the signed cover framed of course. But below is a picture of what the cover looked like as well the the cool business card we got as well from the American producer.
Next time on Particle Stories, the time I ended up in a Mexican jail tied to a goat...
-P. Knight
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