As if creating a massively multiplayer online shooter boasting 256 character battles wasn't enough, The devs that brought us the super successful SOCOM series are now promising to deliver a robust combat experience with no slow down and intuitive tactical battle.
For years, I've been turned off by shooters because of their lack of tactical planning. As an ex-Army officer who's trained for and led men in combat, I've never really enjoyed the Halo style shoot the enemy 700 times in the face before he shoots you 700 times in the face approach to achieving victory.
Now, we have a shooter boasting an online-only massively multiplayer game that actally has a leadership structure. It leads me to believe that tactics will play a much larger role. However it also raises concerns that certain obstacles inherent to such a massive game can't be overcome.
Here's what I mean. I've read that as you level, you can qualify to play many of the leadership roles. That means you can take charge of an 8 man squad, a 4 squad platoon or a 2 platoon company. While I'm confident that chaos will be avoided since these leaders can only talk to their immediate superiors or subordinates, I'm not convinced that "leaders" will have an easy time managing their men and women in combat.Why? Easy. In real combat, a platoon leader is a member of a team of soldiers working together to accomplish the mission. (I should know, that's what I was during the war. /shameless self boasting. LOL) Together troops and leaders are trained for years and build brotherhood by living together.  They know each other.  They understand how important it is to work together in order to stay alive and accomplish their mission. Leaders understand how vital it is to give orders that will keep their men alive and the enemy off their ass. In a videogame, you don't have that. And from my experience with games like Halo (just a reference, not a jab at that series) you have insubordinate people that don't want to be told what to do. I expect that individuals will have their own agenda and opinions and not truly believe that their "leaders" are qualified to lead them. The FRAGO (Fragmentary orders) system seems to be the dev's countermeasure to insubordination by rewarding players who DO follow leaders' orders. However, there is no penalty system for those that don't. That doesn't give me much desire to push to become an PL in this game. On the same token, I wouldn't want to follow the orders of an idiot either.
I've never joined an online clan, but I can assume that the brotherhood is there since they game together often. So for clans that migrate to this title, I think they will do well because their "leaders" will have proven themselves. But for casual gamers or people that just want to get into the game on a less intense level, I fear that the game will not provide them with an enjoyable balance.
Either way, I wish MAG the best. I'll definitely be keeping up with it as it might combine with a few other titles to make me finally consider purchasing a PS3. Here's to hope... But I aint gonna hold my breath.
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