Friday 8 January 2010

MAG public beta - is it really worth bothering with?

So the MAG public beta is up and running.
This may seem strange to say, but in the long term I don't see the point of this one.
It does not add up.
The appeal of most games is they have a natural life cycle. Within that period regular gamers will level up within a given time period and eventually move on to other games. Modern warfare and MW2 for example. So you are left with prestige and veteran die-hards who who probably are spending less time on that game because it's not so challenging and there's the next big thing to deal with.
With no Story Arc (be nice to have a world map that shows in real time which armies are in control of which areas) the fighting is all a bit loose and pointless.
At least with COD, MW and other shooters there is a back story or context that gives the characters a bit of substance. and a historical context we were a part of making by playing through the single player campaign.
Which brings me to the possibility that a never-ending game like MAG with missions that, underneath the dressings, are all about running around shooting and blowing things up ad-infinitum will end up with the same bunch of die-hards running amok amongst various noobs and occasional visitors. Now a duck shoot is only fun for so long and few of the newer players (apart from the FPS veterans) that come on-line will want to put up with the superior fire power of elite players.
And now many people will really want to go back again and again and again to the Game?
Which is my point. 256 players is hollow, an 'emperors new clothes' feature. MAG has less to offer than most FPS MP games. It is a stripped down FPS without the single player story, nothing more,nothing less and as such will recede to the realms of the 'occasional' game like Warhawk did before it.

I'll be interested to see the timing and frequency that new maps, weapons and classes are made available by the developers.
Chances are that these will be markers for when sales begin to lag.

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