Grevkev (from the
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From GNN, Worldwide Leader in News
Olivia Darby: "Open fighting continued throughout the early midweek across the Northern perimeter of the SVER Collective bases in South Vietnam. An ongoing assault made by Valor has forced SVER to divert a large portion of its military resources to resecuring lost territory. The threat of nuclear retaliation has temporarily subsided as the populations of SVER-occupied countries have broken out into protest over what they consider to be "teetering on the brink of armageddon".
In more pressing news however, PMCs have managed to stabilize their fighting back to a few neutral zones once remembered simply as the 'Shadow War'. As a result, many of PMC divisions have chosen to send in some of their top skilled, highly experienced war veterans into these dubbed 'hot zones' in order to secure and destroy critical elements of opposing PMCs. One of the most talked about rivalries in recent days has been over sattellite control of regional territories along the SVER-Raven Border at the Amazon River in South America. By securing two of the three primary world sattellite systems, located at SYR DARYA, COPPER HILLS, and the DARIEN NETWORK, either S.V.E.R. or Raven will have the ability to control communications and sattelite vision over the Amazon Border. The date and time is set, and confirmed for January 7th, at 21:00.
To accomplish this task, it is highly suspected that S.V.E.R. will turn to their Renegade group of rag tag special forces known as the Closed Casket Crew (3C). Likewise, it has been confirmed that Raven Industries has planned to use their tactical assault division, the Dark Flock (~^~). The battles are set to take place in order to determine who will control the South American territories. GNN military strategests suggest two possible outcomes: Victory for S.V.E.R. and the continued domination of former Raven territories in South America; OR....Victory for Raven and the eventual destruction of S.V.E.R.-dominated Brazil.
In anticipation of the event to determine the future of South America, GNN has dispatched its news team around the world to bring you the latest coverage. From here we take you off to Tom Bodazian, who reports from S.V.E.R.-Occupied Vietnam."
Tom Bodazian: "Thanks Olivia. It's great to be reporting here from Vietnam with members of the Closed Casket Crew, also known as 3C, who have been reported to be involved with the upcoming skirmish against Raven Industries in a last ditch effort to maintain control over South America.
I had the pleasure of speaking with 3C's primary representative Sithis..here is how our interview went:"
Tom: What was your first reaction to hearing about this call to arms?
Sithis: I was excited The Dark Flock(Tactical) and ClosedCasketCrew(Powerhouse) are 2 of the best competitive clans out there so it's only fitting to see who comes out on top. People will argue with me on this but the game needs some spicing up to keep it interesting for long time players and i think this is the best way how!
Tom: How would you describe your outfit, the Closed Casket Crew?
Sithis: Current 3C is definitely very strong alot of clans have disbanded due to moving onto other games and because of our competitive nature the hardcore players wanted a clan who could keep up. Also i think as a whole we have a huge reputation of dominating in MAG
Tom: Would you like to see S.V.E.R. divisions make more strident efforts at assaults like this in the future?
Sithis: I would like to see more of these matches from other clans however (not to blow my own horn here) I don't think they would be as big as this match. Another reason i would hope to see more of this is praying that Zipper gets a hold of this feedback and maybe in a MAG II or something add clan matches or at the least private matches.
Tom Bodazian: "One of the most interesting comments to be heard around here came from 3C's 'Aura', also known as Electus, who felt that "3C are the Underdogs of this Match up"
This statement might come as a surprise to some, and others it may not. GNN is interested to know the opinion of the average viewer, so be sure to post your opinions! Another 3C trooper was nice enough to give me his time for a detailed interview, and this is what he had to say...
Tom: Are you one of the lucky few to be drafted for this upcoming assault?
Juan: Yes. We have plenty of slots for me to participate in the match. We are still forming the clan roster atm. When Nite-Hawk- gets on Mag, we will have a clan meeting to finalize the details, and iron out our game plan.
Tom: Tell us a bit about yourself, and your opinion of your own outfit...3C.
Juan: JuanDeages is a new alias I created for PSN. I used to play Counter-Strike Source, for 2 years, and it is from my play time in Source that I came up with my name. Alot of the players that I would play Source with would call a "One Deage" by many names, and "Juan Deage" was by far my favorite. Basically, if you got a OHK with the Desert Eagle, while only firing one shot, you pulled off a "One Deage." I decided to make it into a name, JuanDeages, as somewhat of a joke, and an indicator of my FPS background. Most people assume it is an actual name, which is kind of funny to me.
About 3C ah? Well we are a bunch of lagging cheaters, that quit out of games all the time. Yep. Really though, I've stayed with 3C because regardless of who is online, I have a team mate that I can count on. I'm never worried about having "weak members" on, ever. All of 3C can hold their own, which lifts a great burden from my shoulders. I have improved quite a bit with 3C, and honestly, I might have quit Mag out of boredom if I hadn't joined. Very fun group to play with, that just so happen to be very good Mag players.
We always love to hear people call us cheaters, and call us rage quitters. Fuel for the fire. It makes us want to keep playing. Competition is always something to look for as well. I love looking for clan tags on the kill feed. There is no way to improve constantly bashing on randoms. Bottom line, despite the fact that winning, and actually getting rez'd is nice, I wouldn't have stayed in the clan if I didn't like the group dynamic. I'm still in the clan because I like the players. At our core, we are just like any other clan. We laugh, shoot people in the face, then laugh about shooting people in the face.
Tom: What were your first reactions to S.V.E.R.'s plans for Brazil?
Juan: I put my gameface on, and started thinking about who we were going to need for the A-Team. A match of this magnitude calls for your best. Bring anything less, and you might as well just let the enemy take your letters. TerrorBob and I were trying to iron out some details shortly after I learned that the matchup was official. I'm quite excited for this clash of the titans. This is what Mag needs. Mag needs major events, clan battles, against the best there is. It is truly sad that Sony doesn't see the gold mine that is Mag. All they have to do is start digging.
Tom: You mention the stereotypes that are put out against 3C....and you mention it as "fuel for the fire." Do you see this upcoming match as qwelling some of those notions? Theoretically if 3C were going to rage quit out of something they wouldn't even agree to a battle like this. What say you?
Juan: I would certainly hope so. The trash talk in that regard is unfounded. I have never played in a game with 3C, where anyone rage quit. It simply doesn't happen. All the trash talking hype men are going to have a hard time being taken seriously after a match like this. This is 3C paying the blinds. We are simply waiting for the cards at this point.
Tom: You mention this as a 'Gold Mine', do you forsee future events such as this revitalizing the Shadow War?
Juan: Sony has, sadly, taken a hard stance against clan wars. They believe that it could do nothing but hurt player counts. They're wrong, but the suits crunching numbers think that their logic is infallible. Is it so difficult to see that this game is held together by clans? What would Mag be without all the hardcores in said clans? Nothing. This game would be dead, no questions asked. When more clan friendly games are released, Sony will see the mass exodus, and they will deny it ever happened. There is no advertising for this game, so the outcome is inevitable if nothing changes. Clan. Wars.
Tom: Any final shout outs before we have to cut off?
Juan: Just a thanks to all the clans that have been keeping this game alive. Without the clans, this game wouldn't have lasted. Despite the rivalries, and the trash talk, this is the universal truth. Mag needs its clans now more than ever. Keep playing."
Tom Bodazian: "As you can see Olivia...the eagerness of SVER is high yet the outcome is still questionable even for some. One of 3C's division leaders Nite-Hawk wanted to ensure that "No matter what the outcome is... We both respect each others' clans and wish matches like this would happen more often" (Nite-Hawk)
Back to you Olivia."
Copper Hills Sat Comm Center
Olivia Darby: "Thanks Tom. We take you now to Vicki Ruiz, who is stationed in Havana Cuba, at the Raven Industries military complex near former Camp Pendleton."
Vicki Ruiz: " Thanks Olivia. Here in Cuba the atmosphere definitely feels different. While it seems that SVER troops are motivated by their personal convictions and enthusiasm, Raven troops appear to be motivated by a keen sense of objectivity and strategic insight. Raven knows that this victory will assure the end of S.V.E.R.-occupied Brazil, and they are taking no chances.
I had the pleasure of speaking with one of the Dark Flock's representatives, Qube, who was eager to share what he knew about the event, it's circumstances, and the people involved.
Vicki: Thanks for taking the time with me. Will you be involved in the quest for sattelite control this Friday?
Qube: Given the number of people who've said they'd do anything just to spectate, I'm going to say this is an event that cannot be missed. We've got that covered though, quite a few of the Flock (myself included) have HD PVRs and we'll all be recording, some might even be live-streaming.
Vicki: Tell us a bit about yourself, and about the Flock in general.
Qube: Well, I'm not quite sure what your readers will want to know, but... I'm Quentin "theQube" Beck, 30 years old and the Finance Manager of a FTSE250 company. I divide my time between my work here in the UK and my family and girlfriend in Germany, but I'm hopelessly addicted to this game and try to play it whenever I get a chance, even if that's 4am in the morning!
I started playing MAG in the open beta and was hooked from the start. I spent the first 600 hours of retail as a Staff Officer with the Army of Darkness and the last 400 hours with the Dark Flock - I was recently made an officer and, I believe in a previous interview with BloodyKing, was identified as the clans Official Spokesperson. I'm also the guy who hosts tic2000's essential MAG resource, the MAG Leaderboards.
I've often said I wish it were possible for people to spend a "day in the life of the Flock", because I think the impression some have of us is quite different from the reality.
We're a diverse community with a common interest, gaming - everything else that surrounds that, all the rules and policies, just facilitates us having a great time playing together. We're only a small clan, but we've grown to be - whether rightly or wrongly - one of the most revered in the game, and sometimes that gets in the way of the fact that, well, it is "just a game".
Vicki: How does this match up make you feel about the Shadow War in general? Would you like to see more active campaigns on part of other Clan divisions with PMCs?
Qube: Many of us feel that Zipper dropped the ball on Clan Wars, and whilst I'm no expert on the commercial side of the games industry, from a personal perspective I have to agree. The attention that this battle has attracted makes me wonder, what could have been? But it's important we maintain perspective: despite what my video trailer may suggest, this is nothing more than two clans getting together to have a little bit of fun.
I would love to think that it'll ignite something amongst the wider community, or that it'll make Zipper or Sony think twice about implementing clan wars, but the reality is of course it will probably have nil effect. We've tried community driven clan wars and they didn't work - multi-Q makes it even more difficult to pull off.
Oh, and this has nothing to do with deciding who's "king of the hill", there's no bragging rights involved and both clans have agreed to remain civil throughout the process; I mean, why wouldn't we? Besides there's just too many good clans out there to really know who's the best at this game - as a clan, though, I have to say the Dark Flock are a damned great bunch!
Vicki: You mention that you wish people could get a sense of a 'day in the life of the Flock', describe one of yours.
Qube: We've got a very active clan forum and IRC channel, so I act as the administrator and moderator on both of those, as well as an officer for the game, so a large part of my involvement in the clan is "paper" based... at the moment my biggest project is redesigning the site, in preparation for our involvement in other games.
Beyond the administrative stuff, I spend a fair bit of time on try-outs; we're a "popular" clan, but our requirements ensure that I don't spend my every gaming moment trying out new applicants - although, I actually get a lot of enjoyment out of it.
One of the other projects I'm working on at the moment is the Raven Officer's Training Camp, so I've been trying to put together some videos and documents to assist in that. The goal is to share the wealth of experience, both tactical and organisational, that the Flock have built up in the past 12-18 months.
Other than that, I try to get a good couple of hours in game every day, unless I'm travelling. The thing that keeps me coming back to MAG, apart from the community, is that even after 1,000 hours, I still developing as a player and coming across new things: you just don't get that with other games.
Vicki: You also mention that you're a 'small clan'. A statement like that might come as a shock to some. What do you mean?
Qube: I guess small is a relative term - if you think of the likes of KEQ or PRO with their 300-400 members, and then you look at us, with our 66 members, there's clearly a significant gap. Perhaps if Clan Deploy or 16-person Group Deploy had been released a little earlier, there'd be many more large clans out there, but it's probably too late for that now. What I do think is interesting is that both large and small clans thrive on their sense of camaraderie and that's something we focus quite a bit on.
It's reassuring to know that you're not calling us a Sabo-only clan; that's something we're keen to avoid and we generally select all the games mode in multi-Q (except Suppression). I think as a clan, our favourite game-mode is Acquisition - in my own personal opinion, it's the perfect example of what MAG is about, it's just a shame they don't make it easier for us to assist the other platoon.
Vicki: As the creator of things as useful, reliable, and let's face it...necessary...as the MAG Leaderboards, do you think that there is the possibility of ever expanding on that system to allow or rank clans based on agree'd matches? Or do you think that it's something that just should be picked up by developers and accepted for future projects?
Qube: I considered it, but the truth is it'd take a fair bit of development and much more in continued support and funding; I wasn't sure if it was commercially viable or even - if I were to offer it free-of-charge - used at all. Around the same time I considered it, Krusader tried to get something off the ground and, much to my dismay, it was a resounding flop...
The truth is, the amount of effort it would take for the community to develop and maintain this, it's asking too much. Particularly with the havoc that multi-Q plays in terms of Q-syncing, at this stage it really is only something which Zipper could implement, and they don't appear to be convinced by the idea.
Vicki Ruiz: "Only time will tell the true end result of this conflict, and we hope to continue reporting throughout the endeavor. Back to you Olivia."
Olivia Darby: "The stage is certainly set to drastically alter the future of the Shadow War and of PMC-occupations throughout South America.
We here at GNN hope to continue to bring you the latest and most pertinent information about all available battles and conflicts throughout the Shadow War. We are currently working on a way to host a live stream of the match with chat features so that viewers can sit back, relax, and enjoy the ensuing battle.
If you have any information you'd like to bring to GNN...please send a PM to GREVKEV on the MAG Forums.
This is Olivia Darby reporting from London for GNN Worldwide, out."
