Why Mag Is Not Dead To Me

This was originally a comment of mine on the story: http://n4g.com/news/710369/...

I edited it a tad, as I felt the need to share it with more than just the comment thread in the discussion of the article.

Have you played MAG? If so, and you're like me, you've enjoyed it the past year and couple months. The servers are still far from empty, and will most likely be quite lively for at least another year, which to me, is an exceptionally long run for a multiplayer shooter, especially given its need for a large number of players for their large games. On average with most shooters, 6 to 8 months is the max a title will see before players move on to another game and average players online begins to decline. Now, MAG is no exception to this, as the servers are most definitely not as full as they were a year ago, and we have mostly Killzone 3, Uncharted 2, and the host of other online exclusives for the PS3 to thank for this. So, yes, you're right. 256 players may have seemed like a gimmick to some, and it was its main marketing tool, but MAG did deliver, is still delivering, and will for at least another year. It has received countless updates averaging 1 major update every 3 to 4 months, the most recent being this past Feb. 23rd.

http://blog.mag.com/blog/20...

Other current shooters like Gears or Halo were designed for great 4 v 4, 8 v 8, etc. MAG was designed to be a great 128 v 128, or 64 v 64 depending on the game type of course. So as a daily player on MAG, I believe they've done a perfect job at maintaining a user base big enough for 256 players. I'm sure my clan of 100+ who I play with each day and the countless larger clans we play against and deploy with will vouch for that as well.

I've never had to wait long to join a game. Personally, if you ask me, most of the players still on MAG are very pleasant to play with as they are mostly made up of the really good dedicated veteran type, who always have mics, and will work with you. After playing MAG for so long, I start to recognize a lot of the players I play with who aren't even on my friends list. It's pretty cool when I can jump in a game by myself and have some random guy be like hey, I remember playing with you, let's group up.

So, I'll say it for the last time: MAG is far from dead.

On a random note, since it's bothering me, when I said:

"It's pretty cool when I can jump in a game by myself and have some random ground be like hey, I remember playing with you, let's group up."

I meant random guy, not ground. I corrected it for the blog, but it was too late for the comment. Lol.

[Tachyon_Nova]

They need to do something with the DLC modes though, because there is never or rarely enough people on those modes to get a proper game going. It would be good if they made it free to download seeing as they aren't going to be making many sales of it anyway.

Otherwise though MAG certainly does have a large enough community for it to function as intended. To say it is dead is just ridiculous in my eyes.

[Scottyabanks]

I agree with the DLC, I'm not sure if people don't like them or if people just haven't bought them. I'm guessing the latter. Perhaps they could make them free in the future, or bundle them together for like 5 bucks. Encourage people to download them and perhaps more will jump on. As far as the core game modes are concerned though, no problems what so ever. Which is fine by me. I usually play Sabotage, Suppression, and Domination.

[akiraburn]

Hey Scott, I definitely agree with you. I got into MAG day 1, then after a few months of playing I took a hiatus from it until just a couple months back. I've gotten back into it again, playing periodically. While I really love the game, I often feel that there's still a lot of work to be done to really make it feel balanced and polished. There are some hurdles and challenges that the game faces, some which Zipper have been working at, some which they aren't working at, and some which I don't think can be remedied by them.

Without going into too much detail, a few things I think still need some fixing up... making it so that you can't apply for a leadership role without having a mic on, being able to leave a grade letter ranking or positive/negative feedback on anyone playing in a leadership role after the match is over, the balancing of sides in many of the maps (this almost assuredly won't be fixable though), balancing certain guns with each PMC, and probably a few other things relating to all that. It's a solid game that I often really enjoy, however some stuff just needs re-balancing still.

I also have to agree on the DLC being a bit of a problem right now. While MAG is far from dead, and probably won't be for years to come, the issue is them having a high enough player-base that is willing to drop extra money on DLC for this. The other issue that comes along with this, is that with it being about $10 USD for the DLC, a lot of gamers who are on the store have the alternative of buying a full fledged PSN game within that price point. If it were $6 or less, I have a feeling they would have attracted a lot more people. That's all my personal thoughts, and I could be wrong, but I figured I'd share them and get your opinion.

Btw, if you ever want to game sometime, I'm on Valor, and my PSN is the same as my username here.

[Scottyabanks]

I agree with everything you've said, especially the part about granting leadership being contingent upon having a mic. My PSN is the same as well, I'm always looking for people to group up with who are willing to work as a team. However, Killzone 3 YLOD'd my 60gb launch console the other day and it'll be few weeks before I'm back in action. Add me, I'll accept when I'm back up and running. I agree with the price point as well, I think the DLC suffered because most players were content with what the game offered out of the box, and the price simply wasn't low enough for users to be like "hey, what the heck, I'll buy it". Honestly I was skeptical about purchasing the last DLC for MAG simply because the lack of people playing the DLC modes, but I did anyway. Glad I did too because Silverback Ridge definitely helped me hone my sniper skills.

[akiraburn]

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. For me, I'm a PS+ member, so I got one of the DLC packs for cheap, but the other I still haven't grabbed yet due to so many other games coming out. It's like you said, I think most players were either going to be content with the amount of content on the disc, or they ended up stopping playing by the time this DLC was released.

Either way, the follow-up problem is that an average gamer who's on a budget will look at the MAG DLC, and then see other options like Shatter, Flower, Explodemon, the PS1 classics (which might seem more appealing to those with a PSP who can take these on the go as well), any of the Pixeljunk games, etc... and with them all at the same relative price range, they then have to choose between their options. I'd say that even if you were talking about a 50/50 split of people in that scenario, where half the people still choose the DLC, you're still talking about only getting half of a fraction of people to get interested in the content. And then there's always going to be the people who don't want to pay for anything online, which subtracts even more from potential buyers.

I think there's another couple small areas that hurt them, like releasing the DLC so long after release that many people had left for other games by then, as well as restructuring the game's systems. Actually, I had a friend who was also in MAG back during the beta, but didn't buy MAG until recently, and he was so unhappy with them changing from the old system where everything was skill points, to the new skill point and money combination, that he quit after only a week of playing. He was so irritated that earlier players seemed to get a lot of money as compensation for the skill points they had earned prior to converting the system, that he claimed it was unbalanced, and simply quit right there.

For me, I've been taking intermittent breaks from MAG, just because I get really irritated with who gets chosen for leadership roles. That's actually my only really significant qualm. If they changed that with my suggestions, so that you could down-vote someone so they can't keep getting leadership roles, up-vote others so they get those roles more often, and definitely make it so that a mic needs to be active for them to apply for a role, then I would love playing even more often.

Sorry to hear about your PS3 man. Most often, I'm running one of the post-launch 80GB models (the ones that still had backward compatibility), and I've had to send it in once for servicing due to the BD-drive dying, however I also have a 60GB launch one here as well that's luckily still running fine. I've added you on PSN, and we'll definitely game on some KZ3/MAG/etc, once you are up and running again.

[Scottyabanks]

That is correct, especially for those who like to earn as many trophies as they possibly can. They have to choose, well MAG DLC for ten bucks and I get 3 more trophies to earn, or one of the PSN games you've mentioned, which I'm sure would offer up more trophies. Though there are certain games I make a point to earn each trophy, I find myself buying DLC more so because I want to have a complete collection of a certain game.

My wallet doesn't necessarily appreciate that trait however. I learned my lesson when I decided to download all the Fallout 3 DLC with some PSN cards I received over the holidays. Though others' opinions may very, I found the DLC very underwhelming. I was expecting a Shivering Isles type adventure, but I was sadly mistaken. Needless to say, I decided when it comes to games like that, I'm just going to wait for The GOTY type edition to release before I play it. Kind if went off topic on a tangent there.

Regardless, the DLC definitely was, via present standards at least, a bit late out the gate, but I do blame the industry for that. There was a time a few years ago, where it was perfectly acceptable for DLC for a game to come out 8-10 months after a game came out. Over time however, I think developers got greedy, and gamers got impatient, and now it's common place, and a demand even, for games to have DLC as early as the day after the game came out. I remember back on the PS2, shooters would have 15-20 different mulitplayer levels. Now it's only a handful, and you've to pay for DLC that was most likely developed alongside the game itself and could have been included on the disc.

I was in the closed beta and of course the open beta for MAG as well. I also was in the MAG 2.0 closed beta and open beta. I remember thinking to myself how much better the game looked and felt. I agree the money system is weird, but I liked it. I felt it could have been better implemented, however I did like the new skills trees and how you could refine your skills to what suites you best. It did suck though that I had to buy my weapons over again like your friend, but I was willing to play to get them back. If anything it gave me a better reason to play more than usual. The whole leadership thing though, makes playing in a clan so much better.

I've been meaning to get PS+, but there's more things that are offered in the service that I'm not interested in opposed to ones that I am. I would definitely jump on board if they were to say do personalized offers, discounts, etc. for the things you're interested in.

Should have my PS3 soon though. We'll hit it up when I'm back online, as for now I'm out of bubbles. Speaking of bubbles, would you believe I used to have 8 bubbles? One rather questionable comment on a 360 news article changed all that. Lol. Oh well.