A key feature being absent from a genre doesn't disqualify it from being in that genre.
When you group things together by characteristics, if one of those "things" does not have those characteristics, it does not belong in that group. So... Yeah... A key feature of a genre being absent in a product kinda does disqualify it from being considered as that genre.
Also, the technology ABSOLUTELY dominates the lives of people and is completely at the forefront.
When exactly are you shown the daily lives of people in MGS? At what point is there a civilian scene or even a civilian perspective? It's all military or government. There not enough information to really say that the daily lives of people are dominated by technology.
Technology has been a key aspect of MGS since the very first game.
Great. So it is Sci-Fi. There was no question there.
Is it in your face cyberpunk? No, and I never said that.
To quote you:
How exactly is MGS not cyberpunk? Tell me exactly what makes it not a cyberpunk game? MGS4 is undebatable, that game is cyberpunk in ever way.
While you are not explicitly saying that it is "in your face cyberpunk" you are strongly implying it when you ask how MGS is not cyberpunk. If nothing else, the last comment about MGS4 being cyberpunk in every way strongly implies it simply because it wouldn't be cyberpunk in every way unless it is "in your face cyberpunk".
You are also strongly implying it by calling it cyberpunk in the first place. Sorry, but just because it has some elements of a genre doesn't mean it can be described as that genre.
I think its just very subtle in its presentation of the themes.
Too subtle to call the series cyberpunk.
Let's look at it a different way... Imagine that you're trying to classify MGS as a romance series instead. There are tons of elements of the romance genre within MGS. Or let's go with horror. There's more horror elements than romance elements. I doubt you would ask how MGS is not romance or horror. So why is cyberpunk different here?
And even though an urban landscape is rarely presented, they most certainly exist in the universe.
When I say "urban settings" I don't just mean landscape. I mean whole environment, including those within it, and all the context that carries with it. When, exactly, are you shown civilian life in MGS? I don't recall it ever being shown at any point, but I'll be honest and say that I don't remember every bit of every single game... Have I just missed something?
Either way, this is all just some semantic Branson wants to argue over, lets drop it shall we?
If you don't wish to continue the conversation, then feel free to stop replying. I, however, will continue the conversation until I have nothing more to say. Let me be absolutely clear here though: This is not an attempt to be aggressive or upsetting to you at all. If it seems otherwise, then I'm sorry, that was not my intention. I'm just giving input to the discussion going on here.