This article is by Metal Gear Confidential (careful, site seems to be infected) creator Mad Jackyl, who kindly emailed it to me and gave me permission to publish it. It's an honour to be able to present it here, and we thank him for giving more Metal Gear fans the opportunity to enjoy his insight.
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Author: Mad Jackyl
email: madjackyl16@yahoo.com
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In his telling of the tale, McGolden seems particularly prone to absurd actions and stretches of truth. For instance, when asking his neighbor for help retrieving the contents of the disc, he resorts to knocking him out with a punch to the solar plexus (or so he claims). Another absurdity is the manner in which McGolden says he made it on to Shadow Moses undetected – by swimming at least twenty miles from a boat inside a gutted super-size Alaskan tuna - in frigid artic waters. He also implies that upon reaching the cavernous docking area we remember from Metal Gear Solid, he is shot at by Revolver Ocelot (though he doesn’t mention the name) while still wearing his tuna suit and manages to escape being captured or wounded. Makes him sound like quite the adventurer, does it not? In the afterword, we learn some amusing facts about Gary as they are related by Max Smithson of MEGASURPRISE magazine. One, that he’s best known for his past bestseller, The Telekinetic Powers of the Loch Ness Monster – The True Energy Source of UFOs and secondly, that Smithson never actually mailed him that disc. Furthermore, Smithson relates that there is ample evidence that McGolden was swept out to another small island several miles south of Shadow Moses instead and simply failed to realize that fact.
Despite the over-the-top behaviorisms, jumping to conclusions often and bouts of excessive imagination, the things McGolden relates to us about Romanenko’s work seem to be the only elements which help keep his credibility intact. The sense that he is relating the truth as Romanenko puts it forth rings true with us because after all, we know how the story really goes. We know more than enough examples now of Gary McGolden’s character. While he seems to mix in misinformation with actual facts at times, we could totally write off this story as fiction written by a total nutcase. Except we can’t ignore that there is some truth in his account and therefore we can’t dismiss it outright. Another conclusion we could come to is that the author is either directed by the Patriots to discredit Romanenko by publishing this wacky story or simply he is non-existent and there is no one actually named Gary McGolden. It could be said that McGolden is a conspiracy nut and that his acceptance of such a wild story as told by In the Darkness means that anyone else who also subscribes to this version of the truth would be labeled right along with the likes of McGolden. That would make for an effective psychological smear campaign. I, however, don’t accept that McGolden is either a puppet for the Patriots or that is he non-existent, a non-entity.
Powered by the Loch Ness Monster
For one, he did write the The Telekinetic Powers of the Loch Ness Monster – The True Energy Source of UFOs years before the events of Shadow Moses. Max Smithson also has had some sort of relation with McGolden in the past. These two facts, coupled with the truths he relates from the manuscript for In the Darkness which would not have been included were his hand actually guided by the Patriots, proved to me that Gary McGolden is or was an actual person. Since I make the case that his story is not just a foil by the Patriots in order to discredit Romanenko like one might think, I will now demonstrate why this still fits in with and even benefits the Patriots ideology.
Near the end of Metal Gear Solid 2, after Rose and Colonel Campbell are revealed to Raiden as nothing more than an A.I. program, an interesting conversation takes place over Raiden’s codec. Divulging the Patriots’ plans to control all digital information to Raiden, the A.I. mimicking Campbell explains that “trivial information is accumulating every second, preserved in all its triteness.” All of this superfluous data is out there in various forms of media – from the written word to television. As Campbell explains, all of this information is created by people to suit their means, by “leaking whatever ‘truth’ suits them into the growing cesspool of society at large.” This would certainly apply to Gary McGolden’s flamboyant flourish for storytelling. In one way, he is using his own version of “truth”, misinformation and all, to convenience himself by making his comeback in the publishing world. Somewhere in all this, the truth suffers as a direct result of this ‘junk data’. Thus the reasoning behind the Selection for Societal Sanity, or S3 plan. In the digital age, the common person is nearly incapable of knowing what’s absolutely true. While the problem is not necessarily that people are dumb, it revolves more around the idea that there is no way for a person to know what’s really real and how to tell truth from falsehood. It then becomes a matter of what you want to be true and 
what you feel is the most likely version of the truth that is closest to the actual truth. While things may feel true and are most likely to be true, it can be impossible to know. For example, water is considered the basis for life. But that’s as we know it within the context of our experience. For all we know, there are life forms out in the universe which do not require water. Or how about politics, where there is no one truth? The Republicans have their version of truth and Democrats have their own as well. Who then is wrong if everybody is right? So in conclusion, the three articles included in the “Special” sub-selection menu are more than just a reflection on the previous entry in the series. They also serve as a reminder of one of Metal Gear Solid 2’s main themes. It’s a subliminal message set up right under our very noses. A perfect example set up to remind us of our own incompetence and the absurdity of the information age, a tongue-in-cheek jab if you will, by the Patriots.
We really appreciate the effort and kindness of Mad Jackyl in presenting this intriguing interpretation of Metal Gear Solid 2's often-forgotten "Special" Option. Even though I read those documents myself when I first bought the game, it was only much later that I understood the true themes and genius of the game, so it's refreshing to have someone bring it to life for me.
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