Did People Care About The Boss?

[BigBrother]

See, I think this is the heart of it for me. MGS3 in a vaccum is fine? There's a version of this post that was something along the lines of 'MGS3 ruined MGS'. I'm not sure that's quite right - if MGS3 existed by itself it'd be fine. The issue is, for the rest of the series to link back to MGS3 - it relies on the story, and that central relationship, being exquisitely crafted and really special.

I won't go there now but if you were to talk about MGS3 ruining the series then I'd probably do my best to beat you to it (and unless things have changed @Wayno would probably beat us both there). I mean it's really of course on Kojima and him being allowed to run his contemptible mind and ideas free but the Boss and Big Boss obsession just twisted the series onto this ridiculous tangent it could never let go of, and it isn't untrue to say that MGS3 is the starting point (even if as you say, standing on its own it didn't do that yet).

I didn't get this tag for some reason.

I've changed my mind on MGS3. In a vacuum it's a fantastic game and a strong contender to be the best in the series although I will always say MGS1.

With regards to The Boss, I didn't care for her in the game and I've come to despise her deification with every passing year. She was fine in the game. A decent plot point that worked. However, her relationship with Snake was surface level at best. It was very much Anakin and Obi Wan in The Prequels. We were told about this beautiful relationship that The Boss shatters with Snake and yadda yadda but we're never shown this relationship. The series does not recovering from making her so pivotal to everything. This is why Portable Ops is the last good story told after MGS3.

Overall blaming Kojima for using MGS3 as the springboard for MGS4 and not MGS2 is the right call

That's exactly it.