I started thinking about and becoming convinced of this idea a couple days ago when I saw these images in another post: http://ift.tt/2ibXG6E
The first thing I noticed was, as pointed out by /u/StrandingDeath, the loose "umbilical" on Ludens' suit is nearly identical to the cord Del Toro plugs into jar-baby. In addition to the apparent material qualities, though, they both have the same smaller spiraling cord around the primary "umbilical" cord, which seems to me like a detail too striking to ignore.
Notice also, the writing on the shoulder of the suit in the concept art appears to say "BRIDGES MISSION". This ties it to the pin Del Toro is wearing in the 2nd trailer and potentially cements the Ludens character as part of the same universe. I know Kojima has said it's "just a mascot", but we know he's always up to something clever and I don't think his statement precludes it from being part of the game also, while still being "just a mascot" (and thus making Kojima not a liar), as I'll explain later. And many of us have noticed the "mascot's" eyes are undeniably modeled after Norman Reedus.
Then, in the corner of the concept art image, we see "DSTS". A quick googling of those letters reveals this website, which describes a Virtual Reality training simulation technology, where the soldiers are wearing headgear similar to Mads in Trailer 2: http://ift.tt/1nZSxi9
How about the fact that the only scene we've seen the armored Ludens model in so far is "on the moon" with a friggin' blue whale behind him, which then explodes into holographic particles.
How about the fact that the visor worn by Mads dissolves into holographic particulate in the same manner as said whale during the 2nd trailer?
Remember P.T, Kojima's most recent project? A game very focused on providing an immersive First Person experience (one that clearly evokes the question "What if this was played in VR")? Remember the unnerving speech on the radio at the end? Where a character rants seemingly inexplicably about "Coming back and bringing my new toys with me"?
I think those "new toys" are VR, basically. I think that one of the reasons Sony has done so much to welcome Kojima-san (besides the fact that he's rad and makes great games) is because they've agreed to use DS to catapult PSVR. I think the game will require VR, and will be about a world where VR is indistinguishable from reality. That is a concept he has been blatantly toying with since MGS2, where Raiden has lived portions of his life, unbeknownst-to-him, in a VR simulation, and many of his personal relationships were with AI entities. The concept shouldn't come as a shock to any fan.
I suspect, in the game, Ludens is something like an Advertisement for the BRIDGES corporation. The suit is designed for training military personnel, and puts you in a Virtual Reality, in the full body sense, simulating all 5 senses. Like a wearable Holodeck. It might also help explain the unique shape of the glass dome helmet (not that it needs to be explained scientifically) - the "pointy bit" is right about where your visual horizon should be when looking straight ahead. Thus the model as we've seen it is indeed a "mascot" designed to sell the suit or the service of using it.
I suspect the umbilical cords or "strands" somehow describe connectivity to the "game world", and the fact that Reedus has had his apparently surgically removed means he was once human but is now trapped in the virtual world. The first trailer might be illustrating this concept by the fact that Reedus apparently had a kid in the real world, which he was connected to until he got trapped in the virtual world, at which point the connection was severed. Kojima has repeatedly mentioned the concept of Evolution to the next stage of Mankind. Reedus, in the game, has evolved in a sense, by having his consciousness transported to a Virtual world. From Homo Sapiens, to Homo Ludens, "Those Who Play". And he isn't the only one, it would seem.
Kojima has talked about his experience as a kid in Arcades where you might die, but you can always put another quarter in to revive the character and continue. He wanted to explore the consequences of a world like that, where death isn't the end. Well, what if in this VR world death just means you respawn - but what is that like if you're trapped in the world and are actually experiencing that death and rebirth first-hand?
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