NEW SEGMENT "Controversial Questions"

Controversial Questions is a new MAG-Fanblog segment where opinionated, strong willed, or outspoken MAG players answer a slew of controversial Questions. You can read one player's responses, or them all with the color key. These are Controversial Questions, get ready for some tumultuous answers!




Controversial Questions Quadruple key

PhoenixArcher128 (In Yellow)

Helikz (In Green)

Messifan12 (In Blue)

Winscar_Shinobi (In Red)

* = conflicting ideas/ideals, confliction opinions

-Which PMC do you hate most and why?

Valor, though it is definitely not as much as it once was. Too many bad experiences with their infamous blue-dots earned them that, but playing with some of the good clans and some friends is making it better...just don't forget this is coming from someone who started out as Valor and bled Valor for 4 vets.

Valor. Short answer; for their players, long(er) answer; Their perception of their skill and their actual skill are the most skewed. Almost everyone on valor with a microphone can be heard in proxy chat giving (bad) reasons why they're getting ready to wait on a respawn timer when you've legitimately outplayed them, resulting in their most timely demise.

I really do not "hate" a pmc hate is a strong word, I do sometimes do not like some of a certain pmc's players but I do not "hate" a pmc. If I really hated a pmc, I would not be doing my tour, all pmc's have their good things and bad things and great guys and idiots, its all the same across the board, its just cosmetic differences that set a pmc apart, so what is the point of "hating" a pmc?

Valor, reason: noobs,noobs,and more noobs. They truly have a 9.5:1 ratio of good to bad players. true idiots to be with, truly boring to play against.

-Does s.v.e.r. really have the worst weapons? If so, explain.

Yes, at least for the ARs and SMG. Have you seen Doc's DPS calculations and other people's proof that they are less powerful and less able to stand up to Raven and Valor counterparts? Some say the difference is minimal, but as someone who has close to 11,000 kills with the AR (probably 8,000 with the AG-94) I notice a great deal of difference between the T2 ARs...and I do play around with the ATAC and Scar on my Valor and Raven alts...they ARE better then the AG-94 in the retail ATM; in the Beta things are better.

Yeah, without a doubt. Not jumping on the bandwagon either. SVER was my home PMC when I played with DIX, but I found myself wasting a lot of time scavenging weapons because our best weapon (the AG94) was still inferior to almost anything I could find on an enemy player. Damage per second is low, and you really have to outskill your opponent or make friends with your knife to be proficient on SVER.

As of right now, yes, sver is getting screwed over. Right now, the power difference is really not helping sver. Raven and valor guns put someone down faster due to more damage per second. Sver only has 2 good weapons, the psk and the ag94, both of which are still inferior to their raven and valor counterparts. The so called "power" of sver's weapons is only a difference of one or two bullets, and the ag does not even have a power advantage over the scfr or atac. Sver just needs a power buff on most of their weapons. The slower rate of fire and lack of accuracy more than makes up for one or two bullets less power. Here is a scene for you, sver player a and raven player b start firing their respective smgs at the same time, hitting the same places, raven player b would win, why? Due to the vipera's lack of power and rof and the laser beam that is the f90 and the super fast rate of fire, something needs to be done.

* No way, I'm a die hard SVER, and these people need to come to grips with reality. SVER has some nice gear, AR's to be specific, are better on SVER than on Raven and Valor.

-Is the knife cheap and for the feeble?

I would say no.

Yes and No, Cheap? sure, but for the feeble? No, but I'm completely biased. 35-40% of my kills come from the knife, 30% come by headshot.
I think anyone can get 1 or 2 knife kills a round, I often find myself at 70+ kills at the end of a match and won't get a combat firearm ribbon. I've played the beta and have one thing to tell the people who lean on the knife's reach heavily, get ready to be really bad at this game again. It's not the knife that's for the feeble, it's the associated skills.

I think that the knife does not need to be nerfed, I think the sprint speed is what is making the knife op. If zipper just takes away the sprint speed, then that gives the gun user more time to react when someone is charging at him with a knife. The knife should also not be an instant bleedout or an ohk to heavy armor. I also think that there should be a damage multiplier so that point blank shots do more damage than a shot from range. I also think that swap speed is a problem because as of right now, a person can run into a room and clear it out in 4 seconds due to knife swap speed, if this is removed, then the knife would be used in moderation and not used as a primary weapon like now, more of a last resort. So to sum it up, I do think the knife is cheap in the beta, its fine in retail but if they are going to bring in improved knife damage, then these changes need to be made in order to make it balanced.

* Yes, it is. At one point in history the knife took skill, but now it's sad, cause most of the time I see people run into an objective spamming R3, due to there being no consiquence. Knifing was for the leet but now its just depressing.

-Has Zipper been perfect with MAG?

Do you really have to ask that after 1.03?

Hell no. Lazy is the word of the day. They have seen issues, and instead of making small bug fixes, they just say wait. I understand the red tape involved in patching on PSN, but leaving a broken game broken instead of fixing the issue that needs to be fixed is just plain lazy.

A game dev can't be perfect at all, and zipper is no exception. I can list many things that zipper did wrong, 1.03, lag, interdiction, dom damage bars, the list goes on and on, but at least they try to fix it. So imo, zipper has been good, but no where near perfect since you can't make a game "perfect" someone is always not going be be happy with it.

No, nothing is perfect, I mean most game companies make sequels for games to improve upon themselves. Zipper has managed to do this in one game. Sure they've done some bad on MAG, but they've also done some good by it too. As I said, no one is perfect, but Zipper is trying their best, and you can't ask for anything more.

-If MAG was on Xbox Live would you play it?

Hell no...I hate the fee for XBL (and have you heard the price is going up soon? I think December, but I could be wrong about exactly when)

No. The kids on XBL are more annoying than the kids on PSN. The last thing I want to listen to is some fool comparing every aspect of MAG to halo while I"m trying to relay useful information, about how much of a waste of DNA he is.

I don't have an xbox but if there is less lag on xbox live, and more people, I would consider buying an xbox and playing mag on it

Never, there is a reason that I didn't get an Xbox, I dont want to pay for a game twice. (once for single player, and once for multiplayer)

-What type of player annoys you most and why?

Ego-tistical stat freaks that think people are automatically lesser because they don't have some super-high KDR or didn't delete their character after the learning curve or who don't rage-quit/hot-potato to save stats.

Do I have to pick one? There are so many different types of people I hate, this is a difficult question. If I have to pick one: it's the "I have 100 hours and 2 vets, so I'm better than everyone in this squad" player. Their misguided scale of reality makes me seethe with anger for a few reasons. Obviously, if they think that level of experience is "top tier" they haven't a clue about the level of time a lot of people put into this game. What's worse though, is the fact that you can't reason with these people, because they're too good (in their own head) to listen to someone with 8 times their played time, an infinately better KDR, WLR, Vets, statistics ad infinitum.

The players that sit at the redline, don't heal, shouts insults over the mic, teamkills, does not do anything productive, and is just a terrible team player, in a 2 word answer, blue dots.

Lone-Wolfs, I hate it when I have to carry a team (however rare that is) But if Im able to walk into an objective and cap it, turn around and find my teammates spread across the map, i'll be annoyed. especially when I get killed since it is me versus two squads.

-Do the weapons feel like laser-peashooters or have any real personality?

laser-peashooters"...lol that was Raven's guns at one point...but in retail they do feel a little 'weak', especially after playing with the nice buffed guns in the Beta.

Actually, this is a point I think zipper hit on the head. Each gun in MAG behaves differently (though not realistically), even within weapon families. The ATAC, AG94, and SCAR-L are a great example. The spread, stability, controllability, and general feel are all individual to each weapon, and while parallels can be made, they're all different in handling.

I feel that some of the guns do feel like peashooters, the vipera for example, but some other guns do have a real personality, for example, the sver mmg has a real punch to it, a ideal sver gun that has the sver personality.

I feel that the weapons do lack power behind them, but 1.03 ruined the laser aspect of the guns. Personality wise, I feel the guns have none. Its just me holding a peice of metal that shoots bullets at different speeds.

-What is your opinion of Japanese servers?

Laggy enough that I won't play late at night

Mixed really, I like the challenge that the players present. Playing with and against some of the best FPS players in japan is a great challenge in and of itself. I wish the network wasn't such a limiting factor. I would wish first to work out the latency issues between the 2 server sites, then if that couldn't be rectified, that regional server selection be enacted. There are just so many times where games are decided by something neither player had control over. You plant, I kill you, I disarm, with a second or so to spare, and the objective still blows. The players aren't to blame or to credit for the objective being destroyed, simply a latency issue.

I hate the Japanese servers, zipper really needs to do something about the lag, I am tired of people teleporting on my screen and me unloading a full clip into someone just to get killed in 2 shots, it is killing mag, fix the lag, make that your number one goal zipper.

Aw man, I have to say hate them. Dont mean to disrespect anyone, but the lag is horrible, I have to lead my shots to where I think they'll be, and as you can guess, doesn't work out well.

-Is the fact that s.v.e.r has 6 hockey masks an indication of s.v.e.r. possibly being zipper’s favorite PMC?

I don't think so...if you really think about it that's the cheapest facial accessory...1 mask, 6 skins as opposed to 3 different objects for the other PMCs...

Hobos being forced into using recycled sports equipment as combat gear isn't a symptom of someone "liking me better," I don't care if they have a selection of welfare outfits, at the end of the day, you still got them at the same place you got your government cheese.

This made me lol, does a raven person being on the cover make raven zipper's favorite pmc? No thats what I thought.

The new Move commercial is all SVER, so I'm gonna say that Sony likes them and forced zipper to be nice to them, but in defense of Zipper, it is quite easy to change a few pixels on the hockey masks.

-Is Raven’s spandex too tight? Are Valor’s sleeves (or lack thereof) too short?

What? At the very least its nothing special to look at...

Black spandex and leather is awesome, I'm trying to get a tryout to be a background dancer in Marilyn Manson's next video. Valor's just valor. Steroid abuse has a major side effect. i'll toss a quote, "TWO HUNNID AND FITTY POUNDS OF DYNAMITE, with a quarter inch fuse" --Andrew Dice Clay

Yeah, valor needs some armor that has real sleeves, they just look odd, and raven's spandex looks odd also, I think that Valor needs sleeves, it just looks wrong, and raven does need something else except spandex, I feel that instead of just color changes, there should be alternatives to the actual clothing for each armor

Yes, I mean really, its like under armor, it gets worn underneath the football gear, is not the main peice. And Valor? their CO must be messed up in the head, or is really a muscle-head (like the whole "theme" of valor suggests)

-Neutral maps? Neutral weapons?

NO. Neutral maps kill the player counts (look what happened to Sabo, and don't say Directives caused it because that's not the entire story there)...but if they give us neutral Dom they might as well go all the way and make EVERYTHING neutral.

Maps, nah man, I like the setup how it is. You want to learn the ins and outs of another map, vet. I understand the "storyline" behind it, but yeah, it's a garbage bandaid to please the crying masses on the forums instead of redesigning flawed maps from the ground up.


Weapons? Absolutely. I made a post about this here. I just don't think you should be able to buy them off the top. Once you vet through, and (using the 2.0 system) buy everything, those items should be yours to keep. Obviously there's a memory problem, which zipper has pointed to as a reason they don't allow this, and it would be nearly impossible to implement on their infrastructure, but hey, I hear MAG 2's coming out in November. *chuckle*

NO for neutral maps, even if I said the difference between pmc is not that big, its what sets mag apart from mw2, if maps go neutral, it will be a change for a couple of weeks, after that, it will become the norm. People would also move away from map, therefore increasing Q times. Say no to neutral maps, if you want to defend another pmc's map, vet there, its fine for sabo and supp because they are not as big as dom. IMO, neutral maps would just kill mag, just fix the damage meters and give valor roadblocks and dom is perfect.


As for neutral weapons, zipper said in a podcast that it would not happen due to memory issues. Now with that being said, I would not like neutral weapons. Even if sver's guns are gimped, the weapons reflect their pmc's style, raven's weapons are all shiny and new, valor's weapons look battle tested and kind of rough, sver's weapons are falling apart, they need duct tape, just the typical sver style. Again, neutral weapons would make this game no better than mw2, now I might support this one idea, you get to keep a weapon from a pmc after you vetted from there, and you still have to unlock it, that would not be too bad, and it would make a good vet perk.

I hate the idea of neutral maps (and all my friends are gonna hate me for this) It takes away from the theme of each PMC, same for the guns, I went to SVER cause I love Russian guns. If you ever see my sig, Im sporting a Dragunov.

-Does MAG have a “bright” future?

Not if Dom goes neutral...otherwise it depends on how Escalation and Move support do.

* I honestly don't think so. Most FPS games who have endured have done so because of outside support. MLG, CPL, and other gaming leagues have all perpetuated games much more than their developers intended, and I can't envision a reality where Zipper would invest the time and money into designing a fixed game mode for league play. Upper-eschelon FPS gamers are hyper-competitive people from a pure personality standpoint. My time in counterstrike provided me with this introspect as if you polled the top 5 teams from the CPL, most (if completely and brutally honest) would have at least one player admit to methamphetamine use to grant them a competitive edge in league play. I'm not joking, drug use to win at a video game, and while i'm not saying who, there was such a player on my team in 2002. I understand there was money on the line, but that's rediculous.


These same FPS gamers also have limited social skills, we generally don't play nice with others. So to imagine a world where a league style domination tournament would be feasible, is to imagine me winning the lottery every week for the rest of my life, i.e. it's just not going to happen. Trying to manage a clan of 128 different players, personalities, schedules, and lifestyles would leave me psychologically scarred if it were possible at all, let alone trying to lead these same people to victory in a highly competetive (albeit imagined) environment. Basically saying, bigger is not always better. Most of the truly competitive clans in other shooters are a small, tight-knit group, who know each other well.


After that tangent, I just don't think Zipper will go beyond Clan Deploy as a way to complete, therefore will seal it's own fate ultimately as a good, but not great, online shooter. I just think, from a design standpoint, they put too much emphasis on big to be truly competitive and leave a long standing mark on the gaming industry.

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I dont know if this is a pun pointing at night maps, but I would be happy to see some new maps featuring a night setting, but we also need a snow map to counterbalance Raven.