Indigo_Dingo:
Damn those twelve year olds. Always getting into booze, cigarettes, drugs and games that will damage them.

And Movies. Yes we know your enjoying the movie now sit down and shut up.

I am a little worried about MAG though because it is made by the guys behind SOCOM and I'm not a fan of the series.

From the VERY little info. I heard about M.A.G. - it sounds like what the "Nations at War" mod for BF2 tried to do. Then again, I know very little about either one except for their concept.

Also - I hope to God they don't have unlockable content in M.A.G. - 100 people joining one game and only trying to unlock stuff just doesn't sound good to me. Cosmetic things may be better but I hope they avoid that idea.

Indigo_Dingo:
Game companies can re-invent themselves. I think Insomniac, Naughty Dog and Sucker Punch have shown us that. Come to think of it, Bungie did that too. And Rockstar.

Didn't the guy who made GTA make crackdown? Similar games.
Nintendo and Square have yet to even though Brawl and FF12 were suppose to be new and innovative same old same old.
Marathon is pretty much Halo (I don't think many of the guys who worked on halo worked on Gnop!)

Indigo_Dingo:
But you have to wonder, how many hyperactive 12 year olds with no patience are within the Ps3's fanbase?

You have no idea, 4 11-year olds using the voice changer on the highest and/or lowest setting makes XBL look like a tea party (in more ways than one).

PS3 owners usually don't have mics, but when they do, they are either of horrid quality or they just don't use them. Usually the mics are of horrible quality.

Indigo_Dingo:
umm...Crackdown was made by a new studio called Realtime Worlds (I think you mean the guy who came up with the idea for Crackdown also came up with the idea for GTA and Lemmings). And Nintendo has made some attempts to branch out, through Red Steel and Metroid Prime.

(and I wasn't talking about marathon, I was talking about Myth)

They went right back to FPS's though and Myth isn't exactly at the same level as Halo.

Indigo_Dingo:
Evidently not that much outside of North America.

You know, RvB is known quite well in Australia... I, along with quite a few of my friends (the ones into gaming), do know of the series, even the ones that own PS3s.

Yea, it does look good. Maybe even a reason to buy a mic. But Sony better start including Mics in their bundles because Squad based games without mics equals chaos.

So far what I make up is there are 13-14 squads on each time of 8 and then theres I guess a generalish type of thing where if people show they are good they rank up and can control those squads I think. But not everybody can do this since they have to show the ability to do so.

Also for everyone information MAG is just placeholder name. You will be able to rank up and become a better soldier when playing this. Also It seems that yes there will be a commanding squad and each one of those seem to be a squad leader of one of the squads I dunno.

Also zipper are the ones that brought SOCOM so don't count them out.

Indigo_Dingo:

stompy:

Indigo_Dingo:
Evidently not that much outside of North America.

You know, RvB is known quite well in Australia... I, along with quite a few of my friends (the ones into gaming), do know of the series, even the ones that own PS3s.

Ok, which network is it on?

Its not on a network its on the internet but RvB is a hella lot of fun even without caboose.

Indigo_Dingo:

Bulletinmybrain:

Indigo_Dingo:

stompy:

Indigo_Dingo:
Evidently not that much outside of North America.

You know, RvB is known quite well in Australia... I, along with quite a few of my friends (the ones into gaming), do know of the series, even the ones that own PS3s.

Ok, which network is it on?

Its not on a network its on the internet but RvB is a hella lot of fun even without caboose.

Then if its not shown in Australia, where were you expecting me to hear about it from?

Halo junkies like shatner.

Indigo_Dingo:

Bulletinmybrain:

Halo junkies like shatner.

And whenever they mentioned it, i thought they were drunk.

I was naturally quarantined from it.

Hey the system works. Do not question the system. Also whenever shatty talks about halo you can say with a certainty that he knows what hes talking about. When he starts talking about other games thought i'd lable him as a drunk too.

Sorry had to shaman.

Indigo_Dingo:

Bulletinmybrain:

Indigo_Dingo:

Bulletinmybrain:

Halo junkies like shatner.

And whenever they mentioned it, i thought they were drunk.

I was naturally quarantined from it.

Hey the system works. Do not question the system. Also whenever shatty talks about halo you can say with a certainty that he knows what hes talking about. When he starts talking about other games thought i'd lable him as a drunk too.

Sorry had to shaman.

He never says these things in reference to Halo, he says them randomly on unrelated topics. I only noticed cause he used the same wording twice.

Well then again most conversations he brings up halo into it so i've begun to think everything probably has a corelation to halo for him. And arn't we 7 miles out on a fucking blue sea with jaws looking for us off-topic?

Indigo_Dingo:
correct.

Now. MAG.

A lot of people have been decrying this as a train wreck in the making. I feel that at the very least it'll up the ante for Online games for the future.

Yeah if WoW can hold 2000 people on a server certainly these guys could pull of 256 slot dedicated server.

Yeah but still it shouldn't be to hard.

Supposedly when they realese MAG they said it would be bundled with a Mic, kind of like warhawk was.

If it was a PC title, I would be somewhat excited.

A home console 256 player online game? Sorry, no dice. Logistics nightmare, little voice chat, and NO ONE is going to listen... until the game gets down to about a few thousand hardcore, serious players... but then Sony will deem it a loss and shut off support, thus killing it.

Just call me Mr. Pessimism, but I prefer realistic in my viewpoints. The only reason I see Sony's PSN a better place to play is that the dumb people can't figure out how to connect a blutooth headset to the system, therefor I cannot hear them.

Like some have already pointed out, the game has a lot of promise, the thought of it is exciting. The game will however stand or fall with the community. So many people needed for the real large battle, you'll be sure to have a few sour grapes, let's hope it'll stay just a few and not turn into a gigantic bunnyhopping flaming extravaganza.

M.A.G looks like it could be fun. Looking foward to Mirrors edge more though.

I dunno about this one. Squad combat is all well and good, but your average gamer isn't one for following order after order dished out by some higher-up. I've always thought multiplayer was more about improvisation- seeing an opportunity and exploiting it before you've even had a chance to think the consequences through properly. Listening to some higher-up bark orders at me sounds to much life real life in the army. I play games to be the hero, not the grunt.

And Indigo, you really should check out RvB. It's not just a fantastic machinima, it's a fantastic comedy full stop.

Alotak:

Looks interesting, but the command system will be a screw up i recon because people don't care about there squads or support them in my experience, (2142, Bf 2).

just have XP points distributed by the squad leader. if you don't listen to the squad leader, then you don't get XP. then you could have the success or failure of the team determine the XP cap for all team members.

so like if you won, then each member gets an XP cap of 100. from their the squad leader could determine if you get the full 100 or less for not following orders.

if they also implement a peer review system on squad leaders, that would go along way as well. that way if you boot up and log in with a squad with a leader who has a 1 out of 5 rating, then you know he's a douche sack and you can leave before the match starts.

ovbiously my suggestions have no relevance to the game, but my point is that the team dynamics will only work if incentives and penalties are managed well and protected from exploitation.

BallPtPenTheif:

Alotak:

Looks interesting, but the command system will be a screw up i recon because people don't care about there squads or support them in my experience, (2142, Bf 2).

just have XP points distributed by the squad leader. if you don't listen to the squad leader, then you don't get XP. then you could have the success or failure of the team determine the XP cap for all team members.

so like if you won, then each member gets an XP cap of 100. from their the squad leader could determine if you get the full 100 or less for not following orders.

if they also implement a peer review system on squad leaders, that would go along way as well. that way if you boot up and log in with a squad with a leader who has a 1 out of 5 rating, then you know he's a douche sack and you can leave before the match starts.

ovbiously my suggestions have no relevance to the game, but my point is that the team dynamics will only work if incentives and penalties are managed well and protected from exploitation.

Human nature gives me the feeling that that system wouldn't work at all. Look at the xbox live feedback system - Constantly abused, just because people can.

This game won't be a nightmare. The squads of 8 will chat not the whole team. So you will then be able to round the boys together and do what you have to do. Also from my experience if people don't talk they sometimes do a decent job just by doing what the game tells them too. Take ET: QW for example. A lot of people don't chat but even if they don't chat most people will take orders well.

This really reminds me of Planetside.

Wonder if Sony took some of the developers from that... it was SOE, afterall.

The spiritual successor to Planetside may get me to buy even something as crazy as the Virtual Boy.

Bowstring:

Human nature gives me the feeling that that system wouldn't work at all. Look at the xbox live feedback system - Constantly abused, just because people can.

well, i'm not proposing my specific system. my point is simply that via incentives and penalties you can corral the player base into an ideal fashion of gameplay. CoD4 established that FPS players will grind away like they were on WoW even for the dumbest camouflage upgrade.

militaries themselves were created from random people as well, that is how their hiearchy and structure even came into play. so why not give privlidges to higher ranking players? why not have an minimal RTS waypoint function unlock for high ranking squad leaders in order for them to make point based objective locations?

if i was a squad leader and i throw 50XP points at a barrack, my team is going to scramble to that barrack because they want their red colored beretta.

none of this is black magic, its basic game design. you distribute XP/points based upon the desired or intended player performance. Wolfenstien ET, did a very good job of handling team incentives and getting people to work together in that game wasn't hard at all.