feelings on possible multiplayer in Mass Effect 3

The Mass Effect series is one of my all time favorites. Great story, great characters, great lengthy single player campaign, etc. Apparently there might be mulitplayer in the last game of the trilogy.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/113/1139585p1.html

I'm not sure if i really like this. A game like Mass Effect doesn't need multiplayer. The only multiplayer i could see maybe working is if one of your friends could play as one of your teammates via splitscreen or something. I think an online multiplayer of some sort would be a really bad idea and feel very tacked on (ie Bioshock 2). Alot of times when games try to cater to too big of an audience it comes at the expense of the games quality. I feel that the games single player campaign (which is by far the best thing about mass effect) could be hurt with some resources being put towards a multiplayer aspect that really isnt needed. Your thoughts?

Definitelly not. The possibility of a multuplayer would NOT make it possible for the campaign to be as perfect as can be...Look at Bioshock 2: Single player was waaaay inferior to the first one, yet they added a multiplayer, which was nothing special as well. BioWare should stick to single player and try to master the conclusion of the series. After that, they can release a spin-off with a multiplayer. By the way, they have done some strange things lately - releasing ME2 on PS3 but not ME1, and now MP in ME3, but not ME1 or ME2. Why make your life complicated? Just finish this single-player masterpiece as perfectly as you can and then try to diversify to a MP-based IP/spin-off or something...

My $ 0.02 here...

Definitelly not. The possibility of a multuplayer would NOT make it possible for the campaign to be as perfect as can be...Look at Bioshock 2: Single player was waaaay inferior to the first one, yet they added a multiplayer, which was nothing special as well. BioWare should stick to single player and try to master the conclusion of the series. After that, they can release a spin-off with a multiplayer. By the way, they have done some strange things lately - releasing ME2 on PS3 but not ME1, and now MP in ME3, but not ME1 or ME2. Why make your life complicated? Just finish this single-player masterpiece as perfectly as you can and then try to diversify to a MP-based IP/spin-off or something...

My $ 0.02 here...

EvilSelf

yeah thats pretty much how i feel. multiplayer would only make the game worse in my opinion, and that would be sad because i love mass effect. and i think they couldnt release the first one for ps3 because that one is published by microsoft, but these next two are published by EA.

[QUOTE="EvilSelf"]

Definitelly not. The possibility of a multuplayer would NOT make it possible for the campaign to be as perfect as can be...Look at Bioshock 2: Single player was waaaay inferior to the first one, yet they added a multiplayer, which was nothing special as well. BioWare should stick to single player and try to master the conclusion of the series. After that, they can release a spin-off with a multiplayer. By the way, they have done some strange things lately - releasing ME2 on PS3 but not ME1, and now MP in ME3, but not ME1 or ME2. Why make your life complicated? Just finish this single-player masterpiece as perfectly as you can and then try to diversify to a MP-based IP/spin-off or something...

My $ 0.02 here...

_SOULtoSQUEEZE_

yeah thats pretty much how i feel. multiplayer would only make the game worse in my opinion, and that would be sad because i love mass effect. and i think they couldnt release the first one for ps3 because that one is published by microsoft, but these next two are published by EA.

Makes sense now, but still they should not make their life harder right when they are in the climax of the series. Dont ruin the campaign for the MP Bioware!

Mass Effect 2 has no multiplayer and its, in my opinion, the best game iv played this year, multiplayer would ruin a game like Mass Effect it is totally unnecessary and would just detract from the quality of the single player in my opinion, which is definately not a good thing

My reaction: FFFFFFFUUUUUUUU------

*Sigh* Blame it on EA, I guess, for wanting to squeeze out as much money as they can. I just don't see how multiplayer would possibly fit well into a title that puts the focus on your decisions, especially with how brilliant the single player story and characters are. It just feels so out of place and unnecessary IMO. Co-op might be interesting, but that's about it.The first 2 games have immense replay value already thanks to all the dialogue options and paths you can choose. Competitive play would be totally unfitting.

I have faith that Bioware will deliver another stellar solo experience, but I can't help but feel disheartened at the fact that so many of the solo experiences I've enjoyed in the past (Bioshock, Dead Space, Assassin's Creed) have all had online support forced upon them. I still play games to get away for a while, to forget about things for a moment. Not that I don't enjoy multiplayer; I play a lot of Halo and TF2, but being a fairly nice person, there's only so much of playing with people like xXMLGUberPr0Xx that I can take. I value solo experiences far more than any multiplayer options.

The only multiplayer I would want to see in Mass Effect 3 is the option to invite up to 2 friends into your game to play as your team mates and help you out, and they get to take some of the experience and/or credits back into their own game. But make it INVITE ONLY, I can't stress that enough, having random people join my game would just p*** me off.

But as for competitive multiplayer, people have been talking about a Mass Effect based FPS for a little while now, I'd love to see that set during The First Contact War, Humans versus Turians, with skills and such unlocked over single player and multiplayer.

How does multiplayer make a singleplayer campaign worse??? If they took the time to do both who cares. Just don't play the MP if you don't want to. They made it work for Assassin's Creed and it will work for dead space. It would def work for this kind of gameplay. 3 on 3 or even free for all. Of course its not necessary as the SP is so awesome as a stand alone. But companies are always trying to add MP for replayability.

How does multiplayer make a singleplayer campaign worse??? If they took the time to do both who cares. Just don't play the MP if you don't want to. They made it work for Assassin's Creed and it will work for dead space. It would def work for this kind of gameplay. 3 on 3 or even free for all. Of course its not necessary as the SP is so awesome as a stand alone. But companies are always trying to add MP for replayability.

firefox59

I think what everyone else is getting at, from what I understand, is the more time they spend on making multiplayer, the less time they can spend on polishing the single player experience.

[QUOTE="firefox59"]

How does multiplayer make a singleplayer campaign worse??? If they took the time to do both who cares. Just don't play the MP if you don't want to. They made it work for Assassin's Creed and it will work for dead space. It would def work for this kind of gameplay. 3 on 3 or even free for all. Of course its not necessary as the SP is so awesome as a stand alone. But companies are always trying to add MP for replayability.

cain19822004

I think what everyone else is getting at, from what I understand, is the more time they spend on making multiplayer, the less time they can spend on polishing the single player experience.

Exactly. Lets say you have $100. You can either put all of it towards making a game with only single player mode or a multiplayer mode, or you can split it 50/50 and end with a game that has both, but they are half as good as they could have been.

The only way I see a mulitiplayer mode working is if they offer something that hasn't been done before (like what Assassins Creed did). Anything else and it will end up like Bioshock 2, where people played it for a couple of weeks, then they all left to play the games that specialize in multiplayer, like CoD and Halo.

[QUOTE="firefox59"]

How does multiplayer make a singleplayer campaign worse??? If they took the time to do both who cares. Just don't play the MP if you don't want to. They made it work for Assassin's Creed and it will work for dead space. It would def work for this kind of gameplay. 3 on 3 or even free for all. Of course its not necessary as the SP is so awesome as a stand alone. But companies are always trying to add MP for replayability.

cain19822004

I think what everyone else is getting at, from what I understand, is the more time they spend on making multiplayer, the less time they can spend on polishing the single player experience.

I would not like to see multiplayer come to the Mass Effect series.

As long as it's like this:

*Disk 1 Single player

*Disk 2 MP/Co-op. (Miranda & Tali are playable characters)

*Disk 3 dedicated to the many ways that Jack can die

Seeing as it is a rumor I think it will only be co op or the rumor is not true.

Mass Effect doesn't need MP at all, and I really wish they wouldn't go down that route.

I don't mind the addition of multiplayer as long as it doesn't screw with the story.

[QUOTE="firefox59"]

How does multiplayer make a singleplayer campaign worse??? If they took the time to do both who cares. Just don't play the MP if you don't want to. They made it work for Assassin's Creed and it will work for dead space. It would def work for this kind of gameplay. 3 on 3 or even free for all. Of course its not necessary as the SP is so awesome as a stand alone. But companies are always trying to add MP for replayability.

cain19822004

I think what everyone else is getting at, from what I understand, is the more time they spend on making multiplayer, the less time they can spend on polishing the single player experience.

Bioshock 2 was a good game but inclusion of multiplayer sort of ruined what could have been a better single player. I'd hate to see this happening to the end of the trilogy of mass effect.

[QUOTE="cain19822004"]

[QUOTE="firefox59"]

How does multiplayer make a singleplayer campaign worse??? If they took the time to do both who cares. Just don't play the MP if you don't want to. They made it work for Assassin's Creed and it will work for dead space. It would def work for this kind of gameplay. 3 on 3 or even free for all. Of course its not necessary as the SP is so awesome as a stand alone. But companies are always trying to add MP for replayability.

firefox59

I think what everyone else is getting at, from what I understand, is the more time they spend on making multiplayer, the less time they can spend on polishing the single player experience.

I wouldn't mind seeing co-op, but not a multiplayer feature.

Multiplayer including co-op would weaken Mass Effect 3's game play since Multiplayer game play needs to be ATB. The other two ME games are tactical pause. For a game to go from tactical pause to ATB, the needs to give up some thing(s). That could include reducing the number of power or have it where the play will need to cycle through menu(s) during combat.

Adding multiplayer and some of what they have said about Dragons Age2, great to see Bioware dumbing down their games to appeal to the Halo crowd. They might end up as bad as Bethesda soon, nothing but watered down versions of games that used to be the best.

I really hope they don't have multiplayer on Mass Effect 3 because the story could really suffer.

Mass Effect 2 has no multiplayer and its, in my opinion, the best game iv played this year, multiplayer would ruin a game like Mass Effect it is totally unnecessary and would just detract from the quality of the single player in my opinion, which is definately not a good thing

NoDzombie

I agree with this completely. MP will take focus away from closing the trilogy and I expect the end to be amazing.

[QUOTE="firefox59"][QUOTE="cain19822004"]

I think what everyone else is getting at, from what I understand, is the more time they spend on making multiplayer, the less time they can spend on polishing the single player experience.

_SOULtoSQUEEZE_

Well they could do a beta. And I don't know what kind of polish they'd have to put on this game. I don't know for sure but I don't they are overhauling the game engine and graphics. Also, hopefully EA will learn from Medal of Honor and change their ways to a degree (lol like that will happen). But still.

In my opinion, Mass Effect 3 does not need and/or should have Multiplayer. Why waste time putting MP in it when the developers could use that time making it a better Single-Player, storyline driven, awesomeness having game. The two key words are: Single Player.:P

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!!!! Please don't ruin my favriote game in years.

[QUOTE="cain19822004"]

[QUOTE="firefox59"]

How does multiplayer make a singleplayer campaign worse??? If they took the time to do both who cares. Just don't play the MP if you don't want to. They made it work for Assassin's Creed and it will work for dead space. It would def work for this kind of gameplay. 3 on 3 or even free for all. Of course its not necessary as the SP is so awesome as a stand alone. But companies are always trying to add MP for replayability.

firefox59

I think what everyone else is getting at, from what I understand, is the more time they spend on making multiplayer, the less time they can spend on polishing the single player experience.

You do realize that time is less of an issue than money? Games only have so much of a budget, and every dollar spent on multiplayer is one less than can be used to make the single player even better. I for one truly hope that there is no multiplayer. But if there is to be one then I can onlyhope it will be only co-op with friends playing as your squad.

[QUOTE="firefox59"][QUOTE="cain19822004"]

I think what everyone else is getting at, from what I understand, is the more time they spend on making multiplayer, the less time they can spend on polishing the single player experience.

jirca87

You do realize that time is less of an issue than money? Games only have so much of a budget, and every dollar spent on multiplayer is one less than can be used to make the single player even better. I for one truly hope that there is no multiplayer. But if there is to be one then I can onlyhope it will be only co-op with friends playing as your squad.

[QUOTE="jirca87"]

[QUOTE="firefox59"] I know. I said "if they take the time to do both". Do you guys really think that bioware would screw up the all important last piece of the trilogy just to add MP? This game has HUGE hype and there is no way they'd skimp on the SP to add MP. My point being that if they add MP they will have plenty of time to do so.firefox59

You do realize that time is less of an issue than money? Games only have so much of a budget, and every dollar spent on multiplayer is one less than can be used to make the single player even better. I for one truly hope that there is no multiplayer. But if there is to be one then I can onlyhope it will be only co-op with friends playing as your squad.

The team behind Bioshock is also very talented. But that did not stop Bioshock2 from having a tacked on multiplayer or from having a lackluster single player. It's not a matter of mismanagement of resources. It's a matter of resources that could have been put into single player that are now being put intomultiplayer.AnRPG, especially one that's the third in a trilogy where prior choices actually mattered,is not going to make up the R&D put into multiplayer by any increased sales and is going to have to have to allocate at leastsomeresources from single player into multiplayer. That's just simple business.

I am all for it if they make a good mulitplayer experience its not like no one would try the mulitplayer if they make one. Everyone who is gonna buy the game would try it so not really a big deal to me. Just hope they make a good long single player experience. I don't expect them to change much if anything from Mass Effect 2 to Mass Effect 3. They gotta start somewhere with making a multiplayer game because its what every game seems to need to have now. With Live being so big as it is and multiplayer gameplay online im not suprised a popular game like Mass Effect series is going the multiplayer route. I would be shocked for them to stay away from it actually and not attempt it. I just hope they make a Mass Effect 4 and not end the seriers at 3.

NO!

There are already enough games with a lackluster mp. If Bioware wants to go into multiplayer please please let it be after ME3 in some sort of spin-off. The trilogy started as a single player game and should end as one. I think Bioware would simply be wasting resources if they put in an mp, so many people are opposed to it which is not a good start and imo mp does not fit with the style of the game (a story driven experience), not some game where the sole purpose is to blow the head off of anything that moves. Even if the single player is unaffected I still wouldnt want to see it included in the game. I'm not opposed to an mp game after ME3, a game based of a regular alliance marine in some of the other battles in the ME universe could be quite fun. And if in this spin off game they really want an mp element by all means they should go for it.

I am all for it if they make a good mulitplayer experience its not like no one would try the mulitplayer if they make one. Everyone who is gonna buy the game would try it so not really a big deal to me. Just hope they make a good long single player experience. I don't expect them to change much if anything from Mass Effect 2 to Mass Effect 3. They gotta start somewhere with making a multiplayer game because its what every game seems to need to have now. With Live being so big as it is and multiplayer gameplay online im not suprised a popular game like Mass Effect series is going the multiplayer route. I would be shocked for them to stay away from it actually and not attempt it. I just hope they make a Mass Effect 4 and not end the seriers at 3.

EasyNormalHard1

No, every game doesn't need multiplayer, and Mass Effect is one of those games. Mass effect 2 is my favorite game this year, and it had no multiplayer. And that people would give it a try if they did add multiplayer isnt the point. The point is that if they do add multiplayer and use time to do that, it takes away the time and resources that could have went into making the single player the best it could be.

[QUOTE="EasyNormalHard1"]

I am all for it if they make a good mulitplayer experience its not like no one would try the mulitplayer if they make one. Everyone who is gonna buy the game would try it so not really a big deal to me. Just hope they make a good long single player experience. I don't expect them to change much if anything from Mass Effect 2 to Mass Effect 3. They gotta start somewhere with making a multiplayer game because its what every game seems to need to have now. With Live being so big as it is and multiplayer gameplay online im not suprised a popular game like Mass Effect series is going the multiplayer route. I would be shocked for them to stay away from it actually and not attempt it. I just hope they make a Mass Effect 4 and not end the seriers at 3.

_SOULtoSQUEEZE_

No, every game doesn't need multiplayer, and Mass Effect is one of those games. Mass effect 2 is my favorite game this year, and it had no multiplayer. And that people would give it a try if they did add multiplayer isnt the point. The point is that if they do add multiplayer and use time to do that, it takes away the time and resources that could have went into making the single player the best it could be.

If you say so but I think it would be fine.

Keep it a single player, close out the series that way, and then develop a spin-off. Be it FPS, multi-player or whatever.

I think co-op will just detract from how awesome a series this can be. Tey should just develop all of their resources to capping off the series.

[QUOTE="firefox59"][QUOTE="jirca87"]

You do realize that time is less of an issue than money? Games only have so much of a budget, and every dollar spent on multiplayer is one less than can be used to make the single player even better. I for one truly hope that there is no multiplayer. But if there is to be one then I can onlyhope it will be only co-op with friends playing as your squad.

jirca87

The team behind Bioshock is also very talented. But that did not stop Bioshock2 from having a tacked on multiplayer or from having a lackluster single player. It's not a matter of mismanagement of resources. It's a matter of resources that could have been put into single player that are now being put intomultiplayer.AnRPG, especially one that's the third in a trilogy where prior choices actually mattered,is not going to make up the R&D put into multiplayer by any increased sales and is going to have to have to allocate at leastsomeresources from single player into multiplayer. That's just simple business.

You say that because this is the third game people will have to buy it because they played the first two and want to see the story come to an end, with previous choices affecting the game and all that. But Mass Effect 2 sales are still below the first one. It isn't a certainty people will keep playing the series as they may not like it. Multiplayer (because sooo many people play online MP now) is a way to attract new players to the franchise or get people who only bought the first Mass Effect and went "ehh I don't want the 2nd one" to try out this third game.

I understand what you guys are saying trust me. Some devs make the mistake your talking about. But I honestly don't think Bioware will, not with this kind of a game.

How does multiplayer make a singleplayer campaign worse??? If they took the time to do both who cares. Just don't play the MP if you don't want to. They made it work for Assassin's Creed and it will work for dead space. It would def work for this kind of gameplay. 3 on 3 or even free for all. Of course its not necessary as the SP is so awesome as a stand alone. But companies are always trying to add MP for replayability.

firefox59

I'm thinking people don't like that not all possible resources are being allocated to the single-player experience (which is a valid complaint if you ask me), but I have faith in BioWare so I'm not too worried if they do happen to include it.

[QUOTE="firefox59"]

How does multiplayer make a singleplayer campaign worse??? If they took the time to do both who cares. Just don't play the MP if you don't want to. They made it work for Assassin's Creed and it will work for dead space. It would def work for this kind of gameplay. 3 on 3 or even free for all. Of course its not necessary as the SP is so awesome as a stand alone. But companies are always trying to add MP for replayability.

guitardude1243

I'm thinking people don't like that not all possible resources are being allocated to the single-player experience (which is a valid complaint if you ask me), but I have faith in BioWare so I'm not too worried if they do happen to include it.