I'm headed to Sony's Foster City studios tomorrow to check out the upcoming DLC for MAG. The developers from Zipper will be there to discuss the future of the series. There will also be pizza and beer. You now know everything that I know about the event.
Why am I telling you all of this? I've played MAG a bit, but I'm hardly an expert. I could ask a bunch of generic questions and write a ho-hum, boring preview, but that's not how we roll at Bitmob. Long story short: I need your help.
If you could ask the developers anything, what would it be? Is there something in particular you'd like to know about the DLC? Are you curious about where the series is headed? Do you wonder about a particular design decision from the first game?
Any interesting coverage ideas are welcome; all you've got to do is leave a comment below. You'll get full credit in the story, so that will be great for impressing your boss, the ladies, and even your pets.
How is the faction balancing currently? Will there be options to move characters from one faction to another in the future?
I would love to ask them three questions-
"Why did you choose to not have any offline play for this title? I can understand that replicating the online battles would be hard with that many people playing, but wouldn't a training simulation and bot play allow people to practice and develop their skills before being thrust in with the wolves as well as have the added benefit of making the game a potential buy even for people who don't plan on playing the online regularly?"
Also-
"How do you feel like the game has developed since release? Has the lack of a headset being packaged with the PS3 console hurt the communication in this title?
And Lastly-
"Since this is an online only game, a retail only release seems like a relatively strange move. Can you comment on that decision, and do you think it has helped or hurt sales of this title?"
I know my questions have a bit of a negative twinge to them, but MAG looks really interesting to me, but I rarely have time to jump into long online battles.
Zipper is such a cool studio!
Thanks Art and Frank! Good questions.
I really wanted to try this, but I might not be able to for a while due to my PS3 being broken. Sadly, I have no questions to ask. I only request that you eat a slice of pizza on my behalf.
You got it, Michael. I won't let you down!
Certain PMCs seem to have an unfair advantage when attacking or defending on certain maps. Now that MAG has been out for some time, and the players have gotten used to the intricacies of the different maps, do you think the maps could be more balanced?
Follow-up:
What have you learned about map creation and balancing the attack and defend positions, and how do you plan on using this to improve MAG?
Hope you enjoy the event Aaron. If you happen to see a zpr_vig running around, knife me in the back and say hi.
@Art: There's a veteran mode that allows you to switch factions once you reach level 60.