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By Chris on February 7th, 2010
MAG is an interesting game. It’s part MMO, part RPG, and three parts FPS. It’s also the only game of it’s kind on the market, which makes it immediately interesting to a huge swath of players, myself included. I was able to playtest it for a few hours today and went from being disappointed to having a great time within the first hour. It’s one of those.
Let’s start with what MAG is, in specifics.
*NOTE*: Skip to the end of the article for my overall impressions. Right below the cut are the nuts and bolts of the game.
The Basics (or, how it works)
At it’s core, it’s a large scale first person shoot in the vein as the Battlefield series. It boasts the largest amount of concurrent players of any shooter, nay, any console game period, to come before it, up to a  total of 256 in a single map.
There are four game modes, with only two available from the start. The first two, Suppression and Sabotage, each feature 32v32 battles. Suppression is large scale death match and is pretty much just for training, Sabotage is infiltrate and hold. The next two, Acquisition and Domination, are unlocked as you level and feature 128 and 256 players respectively, split into two teams. Acquisition is an attackers/defenders map that sees the defenders escorting a munitions truck to an extraction point. Domination has each team battling to capture certain areas of bases around the map, much like the battlefield series. This map allows you to use vehicles and destroy parts of the environment in order to succeed.
The game features three factions, each at war with one another in the “not-to-distant future” conflict known as the Shadow Wars. I won’t go any deeper into story than that, because it’s pretty much absent. In an “online only” FPS, that’s really not a big deal though. They give you the context and send you to war. Most shooter fans will be satisfied at that since, let’s face it, most are playing for the action more than the story.
MMO/RPG Stuff
What I really find interesting about this game is the way the character progression system works. You level up, like in other shooters, but the way you advance your character is totally non-linear. You can arrange your loadout as you see fit and switch after every death. That’s the boring stuff, though.
 Click to enlarge What’s cool is the way you earn skill points after every level to spend on new abilities and weapons. It’s a lot like a talent tree. If you enjoy machine gunning, you can put points in increasing accuracy with a new grip or special site. If you want a better sidearm, you can toss your points there.
It’s right in line as an MMO in this way, expect war-game specific. Well done.
Shooter Stuff
Going into each map requires strategy and coordination if you want to win. You’re not going to get far if you’re a fan of rushing in, guns blaring. But, more importantly, why is this the case?
There are two facts that will prevent you from being a solo hero:
One, the maps are big. Really big. If you go it alone, you’ll be shot down within seconds of breaking away from the pact. If you get lucky and get behind enemy lines, you might get a kill or two, but it’s a suicide mission at best, and calamitous at worse, since it may get any followers killed too.
Second, with this many players, it’s a little bit of a cluckpluck. There are people everywhere. One of the things that gets repeated about the game is that “you don’t matter.” Well, you do, but when 31-127 are on your team with you, replacements are all over the place. Since that also applies to the other team, you can see how it’d be hard to escape their line of sight.
It’s not uncommon to die with no idea of who shot you. It’s alright though. Death is a part of any shooter, you just get back up, go back out, and find better cover. If you’re lucky, you might be able to sneak around and pick of the sniper who just killed you. I love doing that. Payback’s a bitch, suckas.
Overall Impressions
Okay, so the meat and potatoes of what I think. The game is fun, yet, Call of Duty it is not.
- “MAG is to CoD and Battlefield what Fallen Earth is to WoW”
The graphics aren’t as good (but they’re far from bad… think early PS3 release) but, then again, there’s no way CoD could support this many players without being unplayable with lag. It’s a necessary drop and one that you’ll only notice for a little bit.
Likewise, it’s rough around the edges. There’s no animation when you look down the barrel of your not-as-realistic-as-CoD gun. Sometimes you’ll run into weird terrain glitches where you won’t be able to hop over something you think you should be able to. Also like FE, these can largely be ignored for the sake of gameplay. Honestly, I stopped noticing them and got immersed in the action.
A lot of people doubt whether or not MAG should be considered an MMO. Most of those people haven’t played it because, if they had, they’d see the intrinsic connection the character progression system has with other, more mainstream MMOs. I had my doubts going in, I’ll admit, but it’s 100% MMO, although not an MMORPG in the traditional sense.
As for lasting appeal, I’d put it right up there with the other big shooters. There’s nothing separating it’s replayability from the big-boys and, as a plus, you can switch sides when you’re done and see what it’s like working with the other team.
As of this post, I’ve only played Suppression since I just got the game today. The learning curve is low enough where I went from getting trounced in the beginning to topping our my squad by the time I was done. I’m planning on sticking with this one (I find it more addictive than the other big shooters because of the progression system).
In short, if you’re an MMO fan that also likes competitive shooters, you’re probably going to love this game. If you’re just into MMOs, this may not be the game for you. At its core, MAG is a larger scale Battlefield with an MMO progression system. In my opinion, that’s pretty damn cool.
“MAG is to COD and Battlefield what Fallen Earth is to WoW”
By Chris on February 6th, 2010
As some of you may know, I’m a big fan of listening to podcasts. Except, it looks like iTunes recently changed the look of their store and I no longer have a “get episode” button. I’ve looked all over and, for the life of me, I can’t find any way to download a show without subscribing to the whole podcast. And then I only get the most recent one, if I didn’t have it already. Right now, I’m having to go to each show’s feed and manually download it. Does anyone know how to download a particular episode or get the “get episode” button to show again? It’s probably something really basic but I’m at a loss. Here’s how my layout looks:
 HALP! Thanks all!
By Chris on February 5th, 2010
By Chris on February 5th, 2010
I’m hoping someone can really answer this for me because I’m at a loss.
With more and more excitement building for Guild Wars too, dedicated Guild Wars fans are popping out of the woodwork. That’s great but what exactly does the game offer to the long term player?
I’ve tried to get into it several times and enjoyed each attempt, so there’s no snark in this post. Every time though, I was reminded that if you didn’t want to PvP, the game was pretty much static. Sure, there are three boxes and an expansion pack, but there’s no big patches bringing in new dungeons or things to do (holiday events, aside).
One of the defining characteristics about MMOs is that they’re ever changing. In a game like Guild Wars, it seems like, at this point, the PvE game would be long beat. After that, what’s there to keep you occupied? In this way, I’m always a little baffled when I hear from players that play GW, and have played, for some time.
I guess I’ve always looked at it more as a CORPG (cooperative online RPG) than an MMO. Don’t get me wrong, I love that concept. Except, I also love other single player RPGs and don’t find myself playing them once their beat.
Guild Wars 2 looks awesome but I don’t want to get excited expecting the game to be something it’s not. Can someone explain this for me?
By Chris on February 5th, 2010
 Well, I knew it would eventually happen and a few days ago it actually did. Somebody ganked me in Darkfall. To sum up the day to that one event wouldn’t be fair though, since it was more exciting than most others I’ve had there since I resubbed.
I started out in the Human city of Sandbrook. When you first get in the game, you go on a series of quests that introduce you to combat and show you how to craft. Unlike the last character I played with, a Dwarf named Cryptic, none of these quests seemed to lead me away from the nearby goblin camps. Now, these goblins aren’t pushovers compared to mobs in most other games. Actually, the shamans tend to kick my ass. Still, after being sent back to them three and four times, I was ready to move on.
That’s what Darkfall’s about, right? Exploration. Adventure. Opening my map, I found a spot that looked somewhat like a circle of stone about 10 minutes North of my location and decided to head out and see what I could find.
The journey itself was exciting. My gear was crap, mostly leather pulled from the goblins, but it was my crap, so I found myself constantly scanning the horizon and looking behind me for someone looking for an easy kill. Along the way, I found another starter city. There were no quests there for me, so I didn’t stay long.
When I left, however, I noticed a naked man wearing a two-handed sword stalking me. The kicker was that he wasn’t even trying to be covert about it. It reminded me a lot of how a little kid will say exactly what you say and then yell “Stop copying me!” when you call them out on it. Whatever, I thought, he’ll lose interest, and went on my way.
Coming to a camp of goblins nearby, I decided to kill a few and see if they dropped the same thing as the ones where I’d started out. Sure enough, they did, except, I didn’t have the chance to get any of it because the guy following me was ninja looting everything from their corpses, quickly gearing himself out in some basic gear.
I’m a tolerant guy, but after a few kills I started to get annoyed and called him out. No response. Soon enough, though, he got his confidence up and took on a goblin of his own with a bow and arrow he’d stolen from me. Still a little irked, I stepped out in front of him and let him hit me. He immediately went gray and I nailed him with my own two-handed sword.
Now, in DFO, when you go gray the first time (meaning, people can kill you without an alignment hit), it only lasts about 10 seconds. The guy ran away but to my surprise, he turned around again almost as soon as I couldn’t attack him anymore and started attacking me! Here we are, two noobs, surrounded by goblins firing arrows at us, frantically trying to land a hit while we drain our stamina swinging at thin air.
He didn’t last, however. One of the cardinal rules in Darkfall is not to try to wait it out. In WoW, if you hang out for an extra hit or two, you just might win. Here, you’re probably going to die. He turned to run  with about 5% of his health left but it was too little too late. All the gear he’d taken was back in my inventory.
Another surprise occurred as I went to leave, however. In the bushes, off to the side of the goblin camp, was a gravestone lined in blue, meaning a player had died there. Going over to check it out, I found it full with chainmail and more advanced gear! Stoked, I pulled it all out, loaded up my inventory and switched out my leather. This was turning into a pretty profitable run.
Along the way, flush with the excitement of my previous battle, I kept and ear out for battle. I heard several but wasn’t able to actually find anyone, so I continued on my way.
When I finally got there, I discovered that the stony looking circle on my map was actually a bigger NPC city. What really got my attention though was the sounds of fighting coming from within. NPC cities have guard towers to stop PK’ers, so battle could only mean someone had started a fight they were destined to lose. And, when someone dies around a guard tower, their corpse is pretty much up for grabs since their killer can’t retaliate against looters without getting hit by the tower themselves.
Or so I thought.
The first thing I noticed when I found them was that one guys was in a lot better armor than the other. And his name was orange, instead of read or blue. I still don’t know what that means. I got there right as the lesser geared player died and, feeling like it was my lucky day, I rushed up to snag some of the spoils.
I almost got away too.
As I turned to leave, I heard the “splat” noise meaning I’d been attacked. My screen flashed read another two times before I went down, losing everything I’d gained.
At first, I was frustrated. Then I realized, not only did I have extra gear in the bank, but I’d gotten everything good I had by taking it from someone else. And now it was taken from me. On top of that, my heart was pumping.
This is the cycle of life in Darkfall and it really shows just how much less loot matters than in most other MMOs. It’s easy come, easy go, and with a few dead goblins, you can get everything you need to at least cover up your loincloth. But, isn’t it something that when the prospect of losing that gear comes up, it gets your adrenaline thudding through your veins like no other MMO.
Some call it hardcore, and maybe it is, but this type of play has more in common with real adventure than most theme park MMOs can come close to offering. And that’s worth something.
My only question would be why the guard tower didn’t hit that guy. Before he died, I turned around and was able to see that he was fine. Did I go rogue from looting his corpse? If so, I didn’t get a notice. I wasn’t still rogue from before. Alignment quirk? Bug? It just goes to show I have a lot left to learn in this game.
By Chris on February 2nd, 2010
Speaking of going into a drought, that’s pretty much blogging in the days surrounding the launch of a new MMO. Since I’m not writing about STO, the interest in the blog has been markedly lower than usual since the headstart began. I always found it kind of interesting that, by watching blogs, you can get a good gauge of the ebb and flow of the MMO community. When all of you Star Trek players stand up and look around, remember, Game by Night said Hello first! 
Edit: By the way, the next comment officially marks 500 for the site. A small milestone but a milestone nonetheless. It should be you!
By Chris on February 2nd, 2010
The last wing of Icecrown Citadel is set to open in World of Warcraft today and, with it, the final big encounter of Wrath of the Lich King: the face off with Arthas. For the next few weeks, servers will be alive with activity as guilds focus on taking down this final baddie and officially getting ICC to “farm” status.
As with any big, final, patch of the expansion, the next few months are tentative. Many guilds will struggle, getting to the Lich King, and will be occupied for some time to come. Others will beat it fairly quick, gear up their members, and become bored. The better of these situations, of course, is the newer guild taking their time to get through.
Yet, I predict that within 3 months, the truth that there is no new content coming before Cataclysm will settle in and players will become restless. Even those players who haven’t finished the current content.
The truth, as I see it, is that within those 90 days the players able to see the Lich King will have seen it. The others, for some reason, are unable to get into the content. Both types of player face the same conclusion though, nothing new is coming and what’s there may as well not matter. It’s done or a forgone conclusion.
So, once more, we enter into the burnout drought before an expansion pack. We’ll have lots of information on Cataclysm forthcoming, I’m sure, since Blizzard has to keep players chomping at the bit. Despite this, activity is almost sure to drop.
The good news is that players taking a break from WoW is a very positive thing. For the player, they’ll come back with their batteries refreshed. For other MMO studios, now is the time of year where their games will get more traffic and hopefully earn extra subscriptions. The players coming in will get to see how green the grass really is and, hopefully, have a lot of fun too.
At once, the drought is a time of boredom and excitement.
Now where’s my Arthas YouTube video? What do you mean they’re not up yet?
*tap tap* Ensidia? *tap*
Is this thing on?
By Chris on February 1st, 2010
 How to know when you've made it big... Scientific American, baby. Aloha, dear readers,
We’re on schedule this week, and present you with Episode Six of The Multiverse podcast! We were joined by Karen from A View From the Top and Shut Up, We’re Talking podcasts, as well as the Journey’s With Jaye blog.
In honor of her stopping by, we decided to talk about guilds and what they mean to players and in the MMOs they’re a part of. We also talk a little bit about Everquest 2 and the upcoming battleground system. We decided to change up the usual host segments a little bit, so we also spent a little time talking about the changing definition of F2P and Ferrel’s recent trials with Blizzard, after they’d banned the account he’d just had restored and secured… for exploiting!
I think this is one of our best shows yet and we here would like to know what you think too. Give us your thoughts in a comment, iTunes review, or send us an email. We’d like to expand the show and can’t do it without your help, so join in and be a part of our crew!
Here are the notes for Episode Six:
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Show Notes – January 29th, 2010 – “Guest Starring: Karen”
- Introduction
- Welcome to Karen! Introductions are in order!
- Thanks to Gorgonseye
- What have we been playing?
- News:
- Round Table
- Topic #1 – Guilds, what roles do they play in MMOs?
- Topic #2 – Battleground in EQ2, what do we think?
- Host Segments:
- Remember!
By Chris on January 30th, 2010
Last night, when we recorded episode six of The Multiverse, one of the big topics was battlegrounds being added into Everquest 2. Ferrel is pretty adamantly against it and I don’t blame him. He’s concerned about how PvP balancing will effect the PvE game. As a raider, what to some people is just a change to add a new dynamic to the game, is, to him, a fundamental shift in the scope of the game.
As a WoW player, I think I can safely say that he’s pretty much right. Almost every WoW patch, big and small, features a bunch of class changes, more often than not related to PvP balance. There’s also been more than a handful of times where these changes bork an otherwise fine PvE ability– ala lifebloom of yesteryear.
Then there’s the issue of gear. Rewarding PvP is a tricky situation in a raid-focused game. Every loot reward treads the fine line of devaluing the efforts of dedicated raiders. Thus, the term “welfare epic” was born. The only way to avoid this is to completely separate out the reward system. PvP gear shouldn’t be anything more than a stepping stone and, right now, that’s still up in the air for EQ2. Until the NDA drops, all we know is that players are fighting for pieces of the “chaos armor set.”
WoW handled this by adding PvP specific stats to their gear. But, as many players will tell you, figuring out each stat and how much of it you need, becomes a numbers nightmare. Not to mention, it’s an itemization nightmare.
Is EQ2 going to allow PvP to be a viable playstyle with Sentinel’s Fate or will it just be something extra to do when not raiding? That makes a difference, because if it’s anything other than a pleasant diversion, players will want to be competitive, which means getting them ready earlier than the level cap. Quest rewards become a mix of PvE and PvP gear the closer you get to cap. And, for the player that would like to dabble in both, gearing out your character becomes a series of “this one” or “that one” decisions, sacrificing on the hope that your character goals pan out.
In the end, the fundamental truth I’ve come to from playing WoW is this: character’s will be changed, classes and abilities will ebb and flow in their effectiveness, but, if you can handle that, and are willing to put in some extra time to learn the stats, PvP battlegrounds add a fun new dynamic to an otherwise PvE game. Sometimes, it’s nice to go out and be competitive in a whole different way. I like battlegrounds, I’ve spent a lot of hours in them, and I’d be the first to tell you that PvE is the way I like to play. SOE has a challenging task ahead of them, balancing out their couple dozen classes, but, if it works, it will only enhance an already excellent game.
By Chris on January 28th, 2010
It’s amazing how much you can forget that was once muscle memory. Stepping back into Darkfall yesterday was at once like visiting an old friend and also an overwhelming feeling totally inept. For the first few minutes, I spent some time going through my key bindings and spellbook, re-acquainting myself with my abilities, rebinding a few of them (combat/GUI: middle mouse button, parry: right mouse button), and getting a feel for how to navigate the game again.
 An assortment of DFO goblins I remembered enough to know to speak to the wizard standing next to me and check out his “quests” tab. He sent me on my way to kill four goblins and collect their axes.
The great thing about combat in Darkfall, however, is that you don’t need some grand purpose (like axe collection) for it to be fun. Mobs run from you and fight better than most trash in other game’s raid instances. Before I knew it, I’d pretty much forgotten about the fact I was supposed to be looking for their axes and was just enjoying killing the little buggers. I quickly collected a bow and a staff for spellcasting, as well as a bunch of arrows and about 100g.
I’d chosen a more out of the way spot to hunt, to avoid enterprising red (read: PK) players. Running low on stamina, I moved away from the spawn area to rest up and regen. On my way, I came upon the full gravestone of a player named Machiavelli. He was new (just starter gear in there) but much better equipped than myself. At the time, I was wearing little more than a loincloth and my sword. From his stone, I was able to get most of the pieces of gear to cover up my shame, as well as a sword, shield, food, and enough arrows to keep me going.
When the quest was done, I went back to the wizard to collect my reward. My actual hunting trip was far more lucrative, however, but I was happy just to get something done. I went into Sandbrook (the human starting town) and banked my gear before logging off.
My return to Darkfall was a good one but it reminded me of just how much I’m missing out on by playing alone. The game is much more fun when you have other people to hunt with, so my next mission is to get myself into a decent clan. Right now, I’ve applied to NEW (the “welcoming committee” of the game) but I have my sights set on Calamitous where some of the members of my old clan have found themselves.
Today, I’m heading out exploring to see if I can find any skeletons who’ll drop some gear not made of cotton. Will today bring my first PVP encounter? Maybe. I’m tempted to go red right off the bat but I feel like I’d be harming myself more than helping right now. We shall see.
Update: I totally forgot to mention how much I enjoy the art style of this game. The environments are beautifully rendered and very “high fantasy.” I love the amount of color and texturing the game uses; it’s really an enveloping experience. Except for the outlines the game starts out with. I turn those off, asap.
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MOTD: Trying out a new format with the site.
Email Chris-at-gamebynight-dot-com
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