It's a pretty straightforward affair. You show up, you're of age, you play some MAG and socialized with the Zipper Interactive folks, peppering them with questions about the next SOCOM in between hands-on time with the "final beta."

Additional details are right here, but if you happen to miss out on the good natured festivities, the game will hit North American store shelves just a few weeks later.

Oh, here's some important information!

Who: You and 99 other diehard MAG fans
When: Thursday, January 7 from 4:00 to 7:00pm
Where: The Aria Hotel at CityCenter in Las Vegas, Nevada

Requirements:
· You must be 18 years-old or older – ID *will* be checked by burly men!
· You must RSVP via the Facebook event page.
· Don't hang out in the main lobby! Line up outside Juniper rooms 2 & 3.

Celebrate MAG Going Gold in Vegas – CES Meetup details [PlayStation.blog]

In reality, they play more like isolated firefights than all-out war, according to CJ Heine, lead designer at Zipper Interactive.

"The scale has always been missing," he says.

For example, when you see tracer fire and hear gunshots in other games, it's usually simulated by the computer "to make the player feel like they're in a larger battle than they really are," says Heine.

So he and his team have built what they believe to be a better mousetrap; one that places a human command behind every bullet, air strike, and commotion taking place on screen.

"It's actual combat between real players," Heine explains, speaking of MAG, the upcoming multiplayer-only shooter for PlayStation 3. But not only are the game's actions authentic, the number of simultaneous players it accommodates is staggering: 256 to be exact, a figure that dwarfs the size of previous console shooters.

But my Modern Warfare 2 plays just fine. Why, then, would I want more numbers? What's in it for me, I ask the designer. Added purpose and broader scope comes the reply. "I think MAG is an evolution of the shooter," Heine responds. "Running with 256 players actually allows us to recreate the scale and intensity of widespread combat without relying on artificially placed sounds or effects."

Okay, but what about lag? Some games stutter with only 16 or 32 players online. Sounds like Sony will need a Google-size server farm to manage that many players for a single session. Either that or compromise the gameplay.

While the answer to enable more players would seem to be more hardware, Zipper Interactive says their "new server architecture" allows them to meet the demands of 256 players without the need of costly additional servers.

It's unclear exactly what they've done to ensure stability. And geographical latency is inevitable. But many early previewers have reported surprisingly smooth connections. "Whatever Zipper did with their servers, it's
working," said one beta tester.

There is no "I" in team
If you're one of those independent types or bratty tennis stars that hates team sports, MAG probably isn't for you. With so many players on screen at the same time, games would quickly spiral out of control without organization, making Unreal Tournament played in a tight corridor look like child's play.

To provide the much-needed structure, players are divided into 8-person squads, with 4 squads forming a platoon of 32 players, and 4 platoons forming a company of 128 players. Accordingly, group leaders are critical to the success of the team, says Heine-especially a company's Officer in Charge.

"In many ways, the OIC is similar to a platoon eader in that they cannot personally assign any objectives (like a squad leader)," he says. "But they do control powerful game-changing abilities that can turn the tide of a battle when used properly, such as altering the respawn rates of friendly or enemy forces, communicating the tactical abilities used by squad and platoon leaders, or preventing opposing tactics from being used."

Translation: In MAG, you're forced to work as a team. Since there's no computer-aided actions to guide you to victory, you'll live or die on the decisions made by your fellow gamers. And if your commanding officer is a douche, your team is screwed. It sounds bad, but it makes for some crazy good unity.

"Just watching the reactions in the beta over the last few months, each company has a vocal set of players, all declaring that their faction is the best or easiest to play with," says Heine. "It's great to see the players latching on and creating their own rivalries."

To advance the ranks into leadership roles and create your own company, you'll need to earn the trust of your peers by completing objectives, making valuable contributions, and earning experience points over time. This isn't to say you can't go on solo missions, such as sneaking behind enemy lines and sabotaging their supplies. You just can't be bohemian about it.

"Well-organized squads with good leadership and communication are going to make the difference between a win and a loss more often than the efforts of any one individual player," asserts Heine.

In the year 2025
Set 15 years in the future, MAG takes place in a fully globalized and diplomatic planet Earth.

But greed and utopia can never co-exist, so the demilitarized world quickly sees a rise in demand for enterprising mercenaries known as Private Military Companies to do its killing.

At first, these companies bade for contracts in a civil manner, much like a commercial firm would, explains Heine. At some point, however, "competitive tensions and minor conflicts escalated into full scale war," he adds. How convenient for you, Mr. or Ms. gamer.

With the world in turmoil, and weaponry in the hands of opposing private contractors, players will need to choose which company-otherwise known as factions-they wish to fight for before. For veterans, there's Valor Company, which outfits its troopers with standard-styled military gear. For James Bond lovers, there's Raven Industries, which relies on high-tech gadgetry to win its battles. And lastly, the S.V.E.R. company-a group of misfit militia-
men with a chip on their shoulder.

But not only do factions give the game a sense of individuality, according to Heine, they dictate how aggressive or defensive teams are in their attack. "Each faction has a unique visual style and reason for fighting, but the differences in weapons, equipment, and missions have the biggest impact on gameplay," he says. " Ultimately, factions create a sense of allegiance within MAG, which is rare for a shooter."

What exactly should you expect from the gameplay then? Look no further than SOCOM, Zipper's previous breakthrough series for PlayStation 2. "At the core, MAG and SOCOM are similar in that they're both squad-based military shooters," Heine admits. "Players already familiar with SOCOM will understand the importance of teamwork and have a set of skills, such as fire discipline, which translate over to MAG pretty well."

But as previously mentioned, it's a much bigger party this time-not to mention being a first-person shooter as opposed to SOCOM's third-person perspective. "MAG takes team based gameplay and elevates it," says Heine. "As seen in beta, most objectives are fiercely contested by full squads, and some level of teamwork is usually required to have any success with the objectives."

More specifically, you'll be destroying enemy bases, ordering commands on the fly with the d-pad, or engaging the front lines using standard first-person shooter controls. For a bird's-eye view of all 256 players on screen, you can hit the map button to survey individuals battles and assign new objectives or counterattacks.

Slower is better?
First-person shooters are traditionally known for their quickness. Turn a corner. Bust a cap in some guy's melon. Move on. If it wasn't already obvious, MAG is not that kind of game.

Your deftness with a firearm is still required, and headshots are still present. Only here you'll need to plan your attack, since you'll be commanding or working with upwards of 127 teammates as your opponents do the same.

Aware of how daunting that task may initial seem to some, Zipper has prepared concentrated modes to acclimatize new comers. "If players aren't quite ready to deal with this many players or levels of leadership, we have other gametypes for 64 or 128 players," Heine reassures.

The irony here is that MAG's huge numbers will either make or break the game for some. Since users dictate pace, as opposed to the game itself, MAG plays slower than most. To put it nicely, methodical. As a result, enthusiast gamers seemingly aren't jamming the pre-order lines to play once the game debuts next month.

"For a shooter-based console game just six weeks prior to launch, MAG's popularity numbers are a little lower than desired," says Scott Mucci of GamerMetrics, which tracks interest levels and behavior of some 46 million online gamers. In fairness, this could be because of a recently released juggernaut, Mucci adds.

"Fans of the shooter genre are most likely still focused on Modern Warfare 2," he offers, also noting that the highly anticipated Mass Effect 2 releases the same day.

Whatever the reasoning for the so-so anticipation, it's hard not to notice MAG's draw: filling spacious maps with 256 simultaneous players. MMO without the RPG. Or "massive action game"-take your pick.

Just don't blame me if you get stuck with a broken team.

MAG arrives Jan. 26 exclusively for PS3.

Blake Snow is a freelance writer from Crecente's neighboring state of Utah. His curious work has appeared on MSNBC, the Wall Street Journal, and GamePro among others. He is currently reading Game Over by David Sheff and thinks you should too.

MAG has gone gold, and all is on course for its January 26th North American release. Now all Zipper Interactive and Sony have to do is make sure the game doesn't explode on launch day, so they're holding an open beta for the game between January 4th and January 10th. When they say open, they mean extremely open. If you are in a territory with the PlayStation Network, then you're in. Simply log into the PlayStation Network tomorrow, download the MAG open beta demo, start it up, and wait for it to download upwards of 2.3GB of data. You'll want to do this as early as possible, to make sure you aren't stuck waiting when the 4th rolls around.

Consider it Zipper Interactive's way of saying Happy Holidays, please buy our game next month.

MAG is Gold, Beta for Everyone Soon [PlayStation Blog]

That's got to be the most straightforward box art we've seen in years, loaded with fireballs, debris, grenades being cooked, rockets being launched at helicopters and a first-person view of a rifle that serves as a handy reminder that, yes, this is a first-person shooter. Sure, it may look like a little pasted on, but at least the message is clear: dudes will be shot and shit will blow the hell up.

MAG and its cover are due to hit the PlayStation 3 in North America on January 26.

MAG Official Box Art + Statistics from the Beta [PlayStation.blog]

No idea just how much longer that means, but those in the test may have realised that they could still play over the weekend. And will still be running "into early next week". Which is this week.

May as well make the most of it.

By Popular Demand: MAG Beta Extended [MAG]

Chief among the changes, according to Jeremy Dunham, Zipper's senior community manager is an increase in the level cap to 60 from 40, a "retooled skill tree and experience curve," and "an improved ranking system." Most interestingly is a "proximity chat" feature that allows you to hear the enemy as you get closer, "or trash talk them yourself as you punch 'em full of lead."

Plenty of other details at Dunham's post on PlayStation.Blog, which concludes with a thank you to all of the other beta players preceding the GameStop pre-order beta.

MAG Beta 4 Starts…Now! [PlayStation.blog via VG247]

Take for example my mild obsession with driving tanks. Valkyria Chronicles might pander to it exclusively, but in MAG, you've either got to spawn inside an armored vehicle or find one controlled by your team and get into it without getting run over. I managed to accomplish this feat after a player parked one of our tanks in an awkward corner behind some dumpsters.

I hopped in, spent 10 minutes un-parking the tank and then headed for the next objective point. I got to a gate that needed to be blown up before we could continue, so I hopped out of the tank and ran up to the gate – but an overzealous teammate I'd left in the tank shot me with the tank gun in a misguided effort to blow up the gate. I spawned back inside the tank and hopped out again to go blow up the gate, only this time some other teammate of mine ran up to the tank, took the driver's seat and drove the tank all the way back to the dumpster parking spot.

What the hell, man! I don't care if that's a clever way to protect a mobile spawn point from being destroyed. I was driving that!

What Is It?
MAG is a "massive action game" themed around constant warfare. The fiction is that it's the year 2025 and countries pay one of three private corporations to fight unofficial wars for them. Your faction choices are Valor (America), S.V.E.R. (Post-Soviet region), and Raven (I forget where they're from, but they're very high tech). Players take the role of a persistent character within a faction and begin leveling them up by participating in one of four types of game (Suppression, Sabatoge, Acquisition, Domination) and completing objectives assigned by squad leaders. Depending on the game type, there are between 64 and 256 players at any time – no AI controlled opponents, no singleplayer mode to speak of.

What We Saw
I borrowed someone's level 15 Valor character for a Suppression match in MAG's open beta.

How Far Along Is It?
The game is in open beta right now, but it'll be officially live January 26, 2010.

What Needs Improvement?
Very, Very Busy Screen: Objectives appear both on a mini-map in the upper right hand corner and on screen as bright red or blue icons and little arrows pointing to where they are. Between that and the actual people shooting at you, plus your squad mates' health bars and name tags, there's way too much to look at during combat.

I Hope The Training Mode Rocks: Unfortunately, I didn't get a look at the training modes or tutorials. However, after being instructed by the developer and then dropped into the action, I cannot stress enough just how much is riding on the training the game provides you. MAG really doesn't feel like any other shooter or war game I've played and while that's not a bad thing – it takes getting used to.

What Should Stay The Same?
Fast Paced Action: I died like eight times, but I never felt like I was out of the game too long. Once I got back in, I could pick up right where I left off in the action without missing a beat.

Sooo Many People: The more, the merrier. It helps to have groups of players separated by eight-person squads for organizational purposes. However, knowing that there are maybe 63 other people out there is both overwhelming and exhilarating. Best of all, you'll rarely ever wander into any no-man's-land zones where you can't find somebody to shoot at.

Panama-themed Map: The map were were playing on isn't modeled after a real city per se – however, it did have a distinctly Panama theme to it. It was well-made, too, with lots of alleyways and debris-cluttered streets to provide cover and ambush spots.

Good Matchmaking: I just clicked "join queue" and the game found me a match in less than 30 seconds. God, I hope it stays that smooth at launch.

Final Thoughts
If you're the type who can get along with other people and likes realistic-ish war shooters, MAG is probably for you. If you don't like other people but you do like realistic-ish war shooters, MAG is probably still for you. After all, you don't have to do what your squad leader says – you can just wander off and try to drive a tank over people like I did and the game won't penalize you. But still, with so many people in a game at once, being antisocial seems like a waste of good game design.

If that's not you, consider this a friendly reminder that if you'd like to participate in the upcoming MAG public beta running next month, the pay-to-play program will require a pre-order from the right retailer. And if you're considering hoping into this leg of the beta fun, make sure the active beta hours fit with your personal schedule.

MAG Pre-order Public Beta Now Open [PlayStation.blog]

MAG isn't out until the 26th of January, but you can get a head start with the 7-Eleven MAG recruitment kit. It contains all you need to know about the Shadow War and its three factions - S.V.E.R, RAVEN, and VALOR. The kit contains information on the factions' reputations, skill sets, and purpose, giving you several months to do some soul-searching in order to determine which suits your personality the best.

And if that doesn't do it for you, hey - free poster.

Get Your MAG Marching Orders at 7-Eleven! [PlayStation Blog]

The exclusive S.V.E.R. character is yours if you lay your $5 down at GameStop. If your allegiance is to Game Crazy, you'll get the tuned-up RAVEN fighter. The VALOR character (pictured) is still TBD. For those not initiated, these are the three mercenary factions with which you may align in this 256-combatant shooter/MMO, once it releases Jan. 26.

The descriptions of all three are at the link below.

Anyway, if all Amazon gets is a PlayStation Home space for its preorder trouble, then wow. Someone cut a bad deal there.

MAG Pre-Order Bonuses: Choose Your PMC [PlayStation.blog via EvilAvatar]

If you caught my preview of Sony's MAG (Massive Action Game) from E3 earlier this year, it neatly sums up my feelings about MAG as they stand today, the day after the MAG meet-up at the W Hotel in downtown Seattle. It still feels like a very solid, technically competent first-person without too much personality.

What personality the game does have was plastered outside of three rooms on the third floor of the W Hotel. Emblems for the game's three factions hung outside each of the play areas, with around twelve play stations in each. While Zipper Interactive and Sony talked 256-player battles, only twelve from each faction were from the PAX crowd, with the rest of the matches made up of folks currently in the beta test.

The first round I was involved in featured the ragtag S.V.E.R. faction versus the militaristic Valor faction, with my character part of the latter. As I sat down to play, one of the helpful gentlemen standing about told me that we were going to lose. Apparently the other side had sniper rifles, and we didn't. As promised, I died a great deal, shot dead by people I couldn't see, and soon the round was over. Hmph. Time for round two.

Queuing up for the next round, I looked at the player count on the side of the screen. It read a little over fifty players on each side, with the number steadily growing up until the match launched. If there were 128 people on both sides of the conflict I didn't notice. I seemed to run into the same couple of enemy squads over and over again, never quite getting the impression that we were in a giant 128 on 128 battle.

Still, the gameplay was certainly entertaining and engaging, especially once I decided to inject my own dose of personality to the proceedings.

As I mentioned previously, the session was made up of a handful of PAX attendees and players participating in the beta test. With no headsets available, there really wasn't any communication going on. Still, the moment I saw the player named Afiercepancake, I knew we were destined to be best pals.

See, running around on my own was getting me killed, so I decided to go all Army of Two on the game, following Afiercepancake everywhere he went, making sure I had his back, and at times I was almost certain he had mine

It got to the point where I had to watch out for him. He was being reckless and erratic, at times seeming if he was trying to shake me. I had to make sure he made it home in one piece. His daughter, Mary, who he had yet to meet, needed her daddy, and I wasn't going to be the one to let her down.

It bears noting that the PAX MAG meet-up featured an open bar.

So not only had I given Afiercepancake an elaborate back story (his wife is named Edward, for some reason), I had also shared it with the folks standing around me, so soon we were all rooting for him. When I died, I respawned and immediately began looking for his name on the map. When he died, we lamented the fact that MAG doesn't have a button that makes you fall to your knees, open your arms to the sky and cry out a tortured "NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Despite repeated requests, Afiercepancake would not fist bump. We did, however, fight back to back on several occasions.

At one point my best pal respawned in a plane passing overhead, parachuting down on top of a building I couldn't get on top of. With Mary's tear-soaked face filling my imagination, I rushed the enemy, mowed down in a hail of gunfire all for the sake of being able to respawn and land on top of Afiercepancake's sniper spot. He seemed glad to see me.

I stayed with him until the bitter end, when S.V.E.R. once again triumphed over the forces of Valor, my attempts to rally the troops by humming the G.I. Joe theme apparently ineffective. I passed the controller to the next person waiting in line and prepared to head out for the evening, but not before making sure my successor had his sights set solely on providing backup for Afiercepancake.

Remind me to add him to my PSN friends list when I get home, and if you should see him only, let him know that Mary and Edward need him home in one piece.

In actuality, it's a nice touch; the trailer features voice-over work done by some of the game's community members and beta testers, giving the clip an air of people power while "movie trailer guy" gets the afternoon off to go play some golf.

Seattle's Best will definitely figure into the equation, as we've flown our two East coast writers over to the West coast for the show. I'm sitting here enjoying a hazelnut mocha-something or another as I look over our rather crowded schedule. We've got previews, and hands-on time lined up for everything from eagerly anticipated console titles like Forza and MAG to the latest and greatest PC MMO titles, including looks at Guild Wars 2 and Funcom's modern day MMO The Secret World.

Along with the game time, we've got interviews lined up with industry luminaries, coverage of events from the show floor, parties, cosplay, and who knows what else. Stay tuned all weekend long to see what goodness spawns from the depths of the 2009 Penny Arcade Expo.

We're definitely going to need more coffee.

Tomorrow night at the Penny Arcade Expo, Sony's MAG finally achieves its full potential, showing off the massive, 256-player action gameplay that gave the game its name. In honor of the event and for the sake of the MAG fans that couldn't make it to PAX, Sony and Zipper have come up with a little trivia contest that could score several lucky players a spot in the beta test for the game.

Sony will be posting four MAG-related questions today on the official PlayStation Twitter account. The first six people to respond with the correct answer to each question to @SonyPlayStation will score beta access. Note that this only applies to U.S. residents, and you'll be agreeing to an NDA in order to play.

I hope everything goes well. While I'll be at PAX, tomorrow night is NCsoft's Aion launch party at the Space Needle, so I will be otherwise occupied.

MAG Meet-up at PAX Tomorrow Night! [PlayStation Blog]

Some fun facts to go along with the news: the download is just under 2.5GB, and like some other betas, it has limited opening hours, namely between 1000-1300 and 1700-2000 PDT, Monday through Friday.

Kind of limiting, we know, but hey, at least you could do some proper beta work with those times; Sony need help demoing the game at GamesCom this week to those on the showroom floor, so from Wednesday through Sunday people logging in around midnight might find themselves in the unpaid service of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe!

A little bit later than some of us might have been hoping for, but considering MAG is just now entering a wider public beta phase, not totally unexpected. Cushioning that potential blow is news from Sony that MAG will be playable at the upcoming Penny Arcade Expo.

Seattle area MAG fans should keep Friday, September 4th from 6:00 to 9:00 PM open, checking in with the official PlayStation.blog for additional details.

MAG Arrives on January 26, 2010 – Jump into the Shadow War at PAX Seattle Blog Meet-Up [PlayStation.blog]

Zipper Interactive's Massive Action Game has already been beta testing for a select few, but it appears this round of invites is going out to a much much larger group—the kind needed to test those 256-player battles in a more accurate setting.

The potential bad news is the warning that "registration does not guarantee participation," which means some MAG hopefuls may remain just that.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Here are the catches: Looks like this is restricted to PSN account holders in Europe. Update: Specifically, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

No going over 30 words. Also, they say "we Google, too," so don't steal lines or rhetorical devices from history. SCEE also advices that "MAG is all about multiplayer combat on an unprecedented scale, so think big." And that references to the three private military corporations in this game - Raven, Valor and S.V.E.R. - will probably assist your entry. They offer a link where you can study up.

Also, keep it clean. No cussin'. And the speech has to be in English. You don't have to record it, just write it out. They'll pick about 10 winners, who will receive "a fantastic MAG prize that we'll be announcing soon."

I've never seen combat, but what makes a bona fide battlefield speech memorable is probably more history than word choice. So if you're entering, try to think more about the story this game's presenting than actual tactics.

Write an Inspirational Battlefield Speech and Appear in the New MAG Trailer [PlayStation.Blog.Europe via Play.tm]

Both GameFly and GameStop are listing the title for release during the month of January 2010. Those retailers were expecting MAG on November 24 of this year as of a week ago. When the PlayStation 3 game was being shown at E3, Sony Computer Entertainment America pegged MAG's release date more vaguely, as a "Fall 2009" title.

Earlier this year, Sony named MAG, along with God of War III, as one of the PS3 titles that would ship during its fiscal 2009, a window that extends to March of 2010.

While Sony hadn't yet applied a firm release date to the online shooter, it's looking less likely that the game will make that Fall window, if retailer listings are correct.

Update: A Sony Computer Entertainment spokesperson said "We haven't made any announcements in regards to the launch date, the retailers are just speculating."

Thanks to Kev for the heads up.