ABOUT THE WEBSITE
Welcome to "Metal Gear Collection," a personal showcase of all things Metal Gear, hosted by "Zone of the Enders: The Unofficial Site." The site was set up in February 2008, created from a mixture of boredom, and inspiration from other collectors who frequented the "Your MGS Collection" thread on the now deceased "Metal Gear Solid: The Unofficial Site."
Among the item lists and links posted in the thread was "Arsenal Gear." Featuring a simple, clean design, it inspired me to get into Photoshop and start playing around with some layout ideas that wouldn't be too difficult to make with very limited web-coding skills. Having a web-designing brother certainly helped and together we created a simple yet functional website with which I could show off my collection.
As the collection grew, so did my ideas for the site. It didn't take long before I wanted the site to be more than just a showcase for my collection. I wanted it to benefit the Metal Gear collecting community and I decided the best way to do this, was to post all of the collection relevant news that I discovered through the blog. Slowly but surely, the site was changing with new design touches, new coding tricks and the complete rework of the site functionality that came with Version 3.0, bringing more information about the items I owned through pages set up for individual items.
However, in my haste to get Version 3.0's improved functionality online, I took shortcuts with the coding and used out-of-date and easier solutions to get the design more or less the way I wanted it. With the release of "Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker" not far away and an unexplainable desire to redesign the the site with a Peace Walker inspired design, it was time to address the issues of Version 3.0 with a complete rebuild from the ground up. This rebuild is Version 4.0.
ABOUT THE COLLECTION
I first discovered Metal Gear in 1999 when my brother rented Metal Gear Solid for the PlayStation. After watching him play it for a while, I decided to give it a try myself. I've been a fan of the series ever since. It wasn't until the release of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater that I decided I would try and get the soundtracks, strategy guides and figures for the games that I had. A goal that is still largely unacheived.
With the release of Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops I found myself expressing more of an interest in different versions and games from other regions, largely due to the region locking in the online play leaving me unable to play online with many of my friends from Metal Gear Solid: The Unofficial Site. This is when I started to take my collection more seriously and set up the website within a year of Portable Ops' European release.