The Greatest Game?

Microsoft Game Studios presents Mech Warrior 4 Mercenaries. Possibly the greatest game ever. Is it? I mean, come on, do you really think this is the greatest game ever? Well, what do you think? Before you answer, read on.

There are plenty of games out there like Doom, Warcraft, Guild Wars, Clancy’s Recon Titles, the Battlefield series, and many, many more. There are probably several of you that played or tried these games. I have the older Battlefield Games myself as well as some baseball games and Halo as well as a few others. The thing is, when a new title is released people rush out and get it and they play the crap out of it for weeks and maybe even months until, well, until it gets old.

I don’t know how many of you look at many forums beyond the Sunder Junkies (sometimes we forget about this, but let me say thanx to Prawnie for this web site), but I look at several different forums including, but not limited to, MekTek, MechStorm, The Blood Pearls, MWL and NBT. Yeah these are all Mech related, but I also do some others as well. One common theme runs on all of them. People get bored with a game and they then go through their old titles and reinstall a game and try it again.

Mech Warrior is like that too, except, MW4 Mercs seems to be the game that a lot of folks fall back on. Check some of the forums yourself. Count up the number of “I’m Back” posts there is. For some reason, this old game also seems to draw in a bunch of new folks. Look at Wilson and Macrae, both are new to MW4.

Yeah our community is small, but the numbers of players seems to stay about the same all the time, old guys stop playing and new guys fill their slots. Sunder is a prime example of what I mean. Almost every night Sunder fills up to full or near full with players. I know that’s only 20 players but look at MekMatch; there are other servers with LIVE folks in them playing this game called Mech Warrior.

What is the draw? MW4 is an old game, very old, with an outdated game engine (for the most part) and many things that defy the laws of physics. The graphics are not anywhere near the best out there and for many the game can be laggy and aggravating. Yet, people come back to it and play it almost every night, or least weekly.

I don’t want to leave anyone out, but I am going to name a few groups (and individuals) that breathe new life into the game for us. It all started with Microsoft. Yes, I said Microsoft. In the early days of MW4 there was Vengeance. For its time, Vengeance had a great engine and some decent, not great, but decent graphics and a pretty cool story line for those of you that like that sort of thing for single player. Microsoft later introduced us to the Mech Packs (notice I spell the MS packs as P A C K S and MekTeks as P A K). Shortly later or maybe even around the same time they released a few additional maps for multiplayer. You could download them and install them (no installer, you had to put them into folders) unless you bought the Mech Packs (these included the maps and the PR1 patch. After that came Black Knight introducing more missions and more Mechs.

It was after Black Knight that Microsoft changed it. All this time, everything was an addition to Vengeance. Microsoft had some management changes and team changes and instead of making the next add on to Vengeance, they released a stand alone game called Mercenaries (following the theme from Activision and the MW2 series but slightly different). Mercs (as we have come to call it) had an updated engine and of course updated graphics and new mechs.

All along this path way one thing really stood out above all the others that any version of MechWarrior 4 offered, and that was multiplayer. The single player version of Vengeance was pretty good and you followed a story with a few possible different endings. Black Knight more or less followed a small band of Mercs that lost their leader, from a lance of lights to an all out assault lance kicking butt and taking names. But the most interesting part of the game was not so much the story or stories, but the multiplayer part of the game.

Multiplayer was not anything new, but it was a different part of the game all together. You could log on to the in-game browser and see servers filled with folks playing Mech Warrior. There were leagues and open servers and it was damn near impossible to get onto a server at ‘primetime’. Even way back then I sometimes had to set up a server (manually) just to get a place to play and it wasn’t long before it filled up.

When Mercs was released, many of the MW4 folks jumped onto the new ship in the docks. Mercs storyline was ‘ok’ but it wasn’t all that great, but we did get introduced to Solaris (I think this was a break built into the game to let players go kill stuff, but they tied into the game using ‘Duncan Fisher’s’ commentary, nice touch Microsoft). Again, the drawing point was the multiplayer aspect of the game.

Somewhere during this time, Groups of people like MekTek, NBT, MechStorm, Alpha Studios and New BattleFields (just to name a few, lord knows there were many others) started adding more to our game. Each of these groups (and many I didn’t name) added something to the game we all play today. We got new maps giving us plenty of new playgrounds on which we try to kill each other. We got new Mek Paks that gave us new Mechs and weapons as well as more maps. We got the High Definition Pack to improve our graphics and sounds. People figured out ways to add to the number of players a server could hold and still play with acceptable levels of lag.

The multiplayer aspect of the game is really what makes the game. Every game is different even if you play the same map over and over. You can take a different mech or try a different load out. You can try different tactics, snipe, rush, missile, cherry pick, brawl oh the possibilities are countless and that is what keeps us coming back. Variety.

At this stage of the game the regulars are a tough group of players. By regulars, I mean the crew that can usually be found in Sunder on any given night. Too many to name, but all who read these forums should be included in that statement. Yeah some folks are better than others but anyone can kill anyone else at any time and that is another thing that makes this game great. A little teamwork, the right weapons mix, the right tactics and a lot of luck, hell, even I can kill any one of you at any time. Next round, I may not make it very far from spawn before I am watching the rest of you from my dead camera view.

That’s another thing that Microsoft had the forethought (or copied from others) to do, was to put various games types into the game. Not only the game types, but the styles as well. Our choices are not limited to mission play (my fav), you have team battle, regular battle (Solaris style), Capture the Flag (just straight up fun), King of the Hill (also a lot of fun) and some that groups or teams or individuals created like Urbie Dodgeball and Thunder Scats. On top of all that, you can play from inside the mech or outside using an external camera view. Microsoft made the Mech Lab simple (much easier than that of Activisions MW2, maybe less confusing is a better choice of words) so that any weapon from either tech base will fit in the correct slot type and size on any mech (in short, mix tech).

Mercs generated lots of leagues. Many no longer exist, but two have withstood the test of time. NBT and MWL. NBT uses (Our style) Forced First Person View on Puretech chassis. MWL allows mixed tech play with Third Person View (FFP is available if you want it). NBT is about territory while MWL is about wins and losses. NBT gives us Clans, Inner Sphere Houses, Pirates and Mercs while MWL gives so many ladders it difficult to name them all. The point is, both these leagues have been around and are still around. Both have lots of members. Both lose members everyday and both gain members everyday. There are also several open servers for people to play on if they choose not to be part of a league or if they are part of a league and just want to play for fun.

Another thing about both those leagues, they both had endeavors to other games. NBT had its own Battlefield 2142 league and MWL did too as well as other games. I find it very interesting that, even though they had their own leagues, the Mech Warrior part of it all still stands and is still the most popular. Sure there are plenty of servers out there with lots of other games and tons of players playing them, but people find their way back (or never leave) Mech Warrior.

What is it? What makes people want to play this game? Is it the mechs? Is it that you are supposed to be the pilot of some gigantic war machine? Is it the comradery? Is it the customization ability? Is it the fantasy? Is it the books? Is it the old board game? What is it?

Lets look at some of these things. First the mechs. I agree they are pretty cool, but you have to be interested in this in the first place right? So what go you interested? Was it the books? I gotta tell you some of the writing in those books is not the best. Was it the board game? I doubt there are too many of you that actually ever saw the board game much less actually played it. Yeah a few of you did, but I bet the majority of you never played the board game. A bunch of rules, card board counters or miniatures and a few maps or some ‘modeled’ terrain. I played Advanced Squad Leader for years (and still do) even to the point of having some of the miniatures. Those games are fun, but they are very ‘rules intense’ and you spend a lot of time ‘rules questing’.

Board games like BattleTech and ASL take lots of time. LOTS of time. The ASL game I am involved with is a simulation of the Germans invasion of Stalingrad in 1942 (Overall, ASL is about ALL of the infantry actions from all the major and some minor participants in WWII. There si some aerial action and some naval action, but it is mostly about the ground war). The part we are doing is only about a few blocks of the city. The Nazis are moving in on a Russian Arms Factory named Krazni Barricady (Red Barricades) and it simulates roughly a month of actual history. There are stuka attacks as well as hand to hand fighting. The fighting, for the most part is very close quarters. All the weapons and vehicles are represented that were actually there. I am on the team playing the Russians and I have to hold the (From my point of view) right flank where the German Assault Engineers have just set off a couple of demo charges wiping out a fortified stronghold I had assembled. My sniper has been deadly accurate killing 2 German officers and 3 squad members as well as pinning 2 other squads in place allowing me to send some conscripts to the factory interior to hold the line while the rest of my troops dig in. My Offboard Artillery has done a decent job of scattering the Germans while my own Engineers are making their way thru the sewers to try a rear flank if they don’t get lost in the sewer. The Germans have pulled a couple of Panzers into position to try to take out a machine gun nest I have in the upstairs of a very tall building. They have fired a couple of times on me but have not yet been able to penetrate the walls with enough fire power to bust up my elite gun crews. We are on day 6 of a possible 31 day fight, we have been playing roughly once a week for 2 months. We leave this ‘set-up’ and un-disturbed until the next ‘game night’. We play anywhere for 3 to 6 hours at a time depending on what day or night we play.

Needless to say, there are many better books out there about wars and the things that have happened in history. Hell, there are even better written fantasy books about things that might happen. I’m not taking anything away from the fiction writers that brought us the BattleTech Universe; I’m just saying that there is better stories and writing available to us. I suggest for those of you who never read any of the BattleTech books that you do so. IT adds a lot to what we do. I also suggest that you don’t start with one called “The Trilogy”. It is certainly not the best of the BattleTech books by far, but it is very readily available at most book stores.

The ‘friends’ aspect does come into play as to why we play and so many others come back to the game. I consider lots of you my ‘friends’ even though I haven’t met you. I suspect many of you feel the same about some of the people you play with. I know my board gaming group asks about ‘you guys’ every time we get together. “Still Playing Mech Warrior?” or “How are the Blood Pearls?” or “How goes the Sunder Junkies?” comes every time we get together. None of these guys have ever played MW4 on line (a couple played MW2) but they do play things like Black Hawk Down and World of WarCraft, but they always want to know about MW4 and have even watched me as I took part in a few league games (back in NBT) and thought it was great. They have played at my house, we had a LAN party and played some kickazz 2 v 2 games and they had a ball.

I know I look forward to starting up my game and connecting to teamspeak. For those of you that don’t have it, I high recommend downloading teamspeak and jumping on comms with us. It’s a free download available from www.teamspeak.org . One of the other posts in the Sunder Junkies forums gives you some addresses to connect to. For team play, this is essential. For fun, you cant beat it. Every night there are 3 to 15 people on the Blood Pearls Comms. IF we go into my server, we split the channels based on teams and we go at it. Sometimes, we leave everyone in the same channel so you can hear the taunts back and forth.

Maybe this is the cement that holds this game as a centerpiece, the ‘friends’ or comradery of it. I think that is a big piece of the mystery, but the game itself would need to be good and fun or people would just get bored and move on taking their friends and comrades with them. There must be more to it than that.

Maybe it’s a combination of all those things. I learn something new about the game almost every time I play. I have been playing Mercs since it came out (what is that 4 or 5 years?). You could say I am dumb or a slow learner and that may be the case, but I do learn something nearly every night. I try to share some of the intimate secrets that I have learned through Vettie’s Views. I find it fascinating that I have so many configurations of so many mechs and yet every night I play, I see a new possibility, something that someone has put together either with a lot of thought or on a whim, but something I never considered. I learned a lot by being privileged enough to be on the beta team for MP3. I have learned a lot about bot scripting from the team over at MechStorm (thank you Griskard). I have learned a lot about map making from both MekTek and MechStorm. I have learned a lot about tactics from many of you.

Every year that MekTek decides to do a new MekPak a funny thing happens. People you haven’t seen in ages show up out of the wood work to play the game again. Some come back to see what MekTek is up to and to whine and complain about this being changed or that not being changed. Some come back to see the new models and will play for a bit then fade back to obscurity. Other will come back and stay. New people will come on board and some of the old folks will leave because of changes or additions. Another thing you will see is a bunch of ‘smurfs’ you have never seen before. Some are old players trying to get their gaming legs back before they come back. Some are actually people on the MekTek team getting feel for how things currently work outside of ‘Area 51’, you know, some real life experience so they know how to adjust things. They also use this time to get a feel for the player’s feelings about certain parts of the game and whether things should be changed or left alone. They look at what mechs are being used and the weapons. They look at the damages and the complaints by players. They also look at the positive comments and actual usage. This happens every where, not just Sunder because remember, they have multiple communities to serve.

This game is old, but it holds our fascination. It sucks up our spare time and draws us to the computer night after night. You can quit and walk away. You can not play for weeks at a time, but something draws us back to it. No other game that I have played pulls me back like this one. I can get frustrated and pissed. I can get excited and full of laughter. I can have lots of fun or I can have a sucky night. All of those, sometimes all of those in the same round! But every time I go online, I go to play the greatest game of our time. Sure we all have ideas of what would make it better and sure all of us have things we totally despise about the game and sure we see things that are obviously screw ups from Microsoft or the map makers or the modders, but there is something about this game that keeps us or draws us back. I am not saying this game is the perfect game and I am not saying Mercs is the best ‘programmed’ game ever, but I am saying all in all, it’s the greatest game of our times. All the things I talked about, the mechs, the maps, the customization, the comradery, the fantasy and maybe even a few things I didn’t mention all rolled up together in this thing called Mech Warrior 4 make this the greatest game.