Rockstar Reveals Multiplayer "Crews" For Max Payne and Beyond

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Rockstar Reveals Multiplayer "Crews" For Max Payne and Beyond


Rockstar is pushing the multiplayer envelope with Max Payne 3 "Crews" that will offer unique gameplay options and even carry over into future games like Grand Theft Auto V.

Online multiplayer action is fun but it's rarely very deep, and while conventional gaming clans have been around for years, they tend to be DIY affairs and not always terribly welcoming to new members. That's something that Rockstar is aiming to change with "Crews," a Social Club-integrated system that will debut with Max Payne 3.

"Crews are groups of players that you can join up with via the Social Club that go beyond what's possible by using your Xbox or PS3 friends list, and joining crews will have benefits both in-game and out," Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser told IGN [http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/122/1221371p1.html].

Crews can be either private or public, with no cap on membership size, and help casual players keep up by offering experience bonuses to members who perform special tasks, like killing rivals during a Feud. Crew members will automatically be matched up if they're in the same lobby and will have customizable emblems on their equipment so everyone in the game knows who they run with. Players can initiate "Vendettas" against opponents, singling them out for special attention, and because everything is tracked through the Social Club, even non-Crew matches can have an impact.

"You can be playing any team-based game with a completely new set of players, but if you spot two or more members of a crew you're feuding with on the opposite team, any kills you get against them will count to the overall feud so rivalries will spring up automatically - and when they do, you'll be notified and the grudge will come to the forefront of the game," Houser said.

But perhaps the most intriguing part of the Crew system is that it's persistent. "Multiplayer is an ever-more important part of all our games moving forward. And by creating crews through Social Club, the crews that you create in Max Payne 3 will be ready and available for you to play in Grand Theft Auto V from day one," he continued. "It's all part of our larger approach to make multiplayer deeper and richer than what's currently available, much more easily accessible to the newcomer and rewarding for the hardcore."

Max Payne 3 [http://www.amazon.com/Max-Payne-3-Xbox-360/dp/B0022TNO7S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332437058&sr=8-1] comes out on May 15 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and May 29 for the PC.


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Therumancer

Citation Needed
Nov 28, 2007
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Hmmm, well I have mixed opinions, while I see the advantages it does seem like it's just going to make multiplayer even more unapproachable to the guy who prefers to play solo and not get involved socially in the shooter communities.

For all the benefits mentioned to casuals, it seems like it's pretty much going to turn into a way of formalizing elitism and making the elitists even more unassailable. The end result is that your actual newb or scrub is going to probably lower crew ratings by getting pwned, thus your going to find crews wanting to get selective for their relative ratings.

Like most forms of PVP I think what we need is not more crew/clan/guild options, but increased segregation to let pugs and casuals fight other pugs and casuals, and limit those guys to fighting each other exclusively. That's my thoughts at any rate, it doesn't much matter because I'm not a big shooter player to begin with.
 

Owlslayer

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Nov 26, 2009
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Well, all is fine and dandy as long as the Singleplayer doesn´t get any cuts because of it.
Hopefully it`ll be a great gaming experience.
 

Elementary - Dear Watson

RIP Eleuthera, I will miss you
Nov 9, 2010
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That actually sounds pretty cool!

Although it's the Apple technique of selling... take something that exists... (Gaming clans) rename it and add rules and limiting factors to its function, and then rerelease it as something new, (Crews)...

(Apple example... Video call... take that, make it only iPhone to iPhone, and then call it Facetime... suddenly popular!)
 

Weaver

Overcaffeinated
Apr 28, 2008
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Why does Rockstar have to make everything "bro thug gangsta tough"?
 

ThePS1Fan

New member
Dec 22, 2011
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I like sounds of this. I'm not getting Max Payne 3 but GTA 5 is probably my most anticipated game right now. Hopefully the multiplayer gameplay is better than GTA 4 this time.
 

Jiefu

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May 24, 2010
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Now all we have to do is get actual gang members addicted to gaming, which should be much easier thanks to this similar system Rockstar is instituting, and we could see sharp drops in crime.