MAG Interviews: Dr. Spankit

Our next interview is with the comedian of MAG, and the author famous for his "psychology of a forum poster" excerpts. While i've never hard the pleasure of playing with him, we've heard he's a pretty funny guy. We didn't DARE ask him about the origin of his name (this is a child-friendly blog) He's also an avid knifer, but don't take our word for it. Coming Up: Dr. Spankit Unfiltered. Oh and the pink? HIS IDEA.

When did you first notice MAG?
I was busy standing on top of a corpse in Socom confrontation, trying to explain to him the difference between tea bagging, and ear fornication, when my friends were talking about "So, you going to ditch socom for mag when it comes out?"



What's absolutely necessary in a MAG 2?
I could write pages on this. But the most essential things that need to happen is:


- Community. Its what builds a connection between gamers and their games.


- Content. Starcraft.Unreal Tournament. Little Big planet. Halflife. These games were ridiculously popular, because they made it simple for the game to evolve.Unreal died on the console, because half of the fun of Unreal, was that whenever you got bored of one map, there was a new map to explore every day. MMO's have the bonus of never being finished. And if there is a way to make every game unique and different... then your players will keep coming back.

- Feel , flow and immersion..  Ever buy a cheap piece of electronics? It may function just as good, and have al lthe same features... but maybe the buttons are clunky. Maybe the menu's dont change fast enough. maybe the case feels cheap. The same with video games. A game that has good pacing and flow, will always keep the attention of people. MAG has a problem that it takes awhile to get into games. There is a lot that is left unexplained. Yes we all can hate on COD all day long, but where that game got 10/10 is its flow. The menu's, HUD, controls... were just so SMOOTH. There is no invisible walls. You dont ever feel like your in a "map" you feel like your in the location.


I could go on and talk about organizational tools, being a little more efficient with the maps and what you can do in them. but at the end of the day. You need those three things to make a great game.

Why are you still an active MAG player?
Games have never been 400 hour excursions, until online play came out. Games that are still played today are the games that continue to have some attraction.
I think most people stay playing games because of the community. Clans. Because clans and groups of friends are what make you log in everyday. After 400 hours of playing... I find that I can only play solo for so long, until I get bored. Put me with 2 squads of my best online friends, and I could play pong for hours.


I play because of the clans, and the community, and the fact that there really isnt a game out there like MAG. There is not often you get to see 20 people on screen at once, melee fighting, gunning, picking each other up, trying to take an objective.

You're an avid knifer, if the knife is "nerfed" how does Dr. Spankit react?

I argue alot on the forums. So I'll be brief.

MAG is about MASSIVE ACTION.


When I see an ACTION movie. I expect to see Jason Statham knock three people out with one kick while tying them up with his shirt. I Want to see Tony Jaa walk across his opponents faces.


Who wants to be "that guy" in the movie theatre that talks throughout the movie: "Oh in real life, he would never be able to do that! "
NO **bleep** sherlock. Enjoy the movie, or give your seat to someone else.

If you could have one dream "game type" what would it be?
Custom Map. User created.

Where players have an editor to create custom scenarios. Players could make a king of the hill. A hostage rescue map. all these ideas that people come up with, the really outgoing ones can make something really awesome. And the most fun maps, will rise to the top. If I had 256 human players to play a game with. I could come up with endless possibilities.

Including: **bleep**roach hunter: Where 5 players randomly get unlimited ammo and rpgs and any gun. And everyone else has to run and hide near objectives to score points. Everytime a **bleep**roach scores enough points, he takes over as a **bleep**roach hunter. Game end when one **bleep**roach hunter has gotten X number of kills.

What do you think is responsible for the lower player numbers?
people not getting to play me as often as they like.

What new MAG content would you like to see?
A little less conservative game devs. I'd like to see reckless adding and changing of the game. Instead of adding new map modes... spreading out the players. Why dont they make people que up the maps. and it cycles through different game modes? Most of the dom games are a PERFECT setup for King of the hill. I'd like to see more officer abilities. and not just more of the same. Really random abilities. Like making the next spawn have improved armour, or exploding rounds. Or increased APC respawn. Or auto turrets that get activated and can be destroyed/repaired.

instead of single use cool-down effects. Why not a point system? And you get points as the game goes through. You can use it to add defenses, unlock special loadouts... or beef up certain vehicles.

The sky is the limit.

If there was one change you could make to MAG what would it be?
- putting me at the head of creative development.

In your opinion, what is MAG's greatest strength?
- 256 players with relatively no lag.

What weakness hurt MAG the most?
- the games are either too easy or too hard. Randomized teams, and not being able to naturally balance them (Socom confrontation... every game, if its a landslide victory, players switch sides to even things up, or the weaker players leave to find more suitable opponents.Also, not being able to replay the team you just played against/with also slows down the game.

What's your favorite game mode and why?
My favorite game mode, is whichever one has my clan, and an enemy that is equal in skill level.

Are you looking forward to Escalation?
Does Roper Wear Pink frilly underwear?

Describe "Bullet Wander" in one word.
 Equalizer

Best MAG player you've ever seen/played with? Why?
Danm_Shorty.He's like the Psyduck of MAG.

Who's MAG's best clan, why?

I was alone wolf player. I wanted to join all of valor's best clans into a coalition. I had a website and everything. My goal was to find the best players, and get them to play with each other, even though most clans are too stuck  in their own vanity to consider merging with other clans. I gave up trying to help valor as a whole, and started just playing with a different clan each week.

SFC came along, and I seriously was in tears laughing every night from having so much fun. And then, one day... we started realizing that good players preferred playing with us, cause we made mag fun. And now we are semi competitive. Which is the best way to be. IMO. We changed to TBA, because we were doing the work of two squads. We now replaced the second squad of blue dots with our own TBA people. If you see TBA, most likely as long as your not a **bleep** to them, and say gg, you'll get a compliment right back.

I would say other than my own clan, the flock, based on not just consistency of the player-base (no dead weight) but also if you say GG, they say it right back, and there is usually a lot of play/silliness. You can smack talk them one minute, then laugh with them the next. I also secretly love any clan that prefers having a laugh over winning.