Ordinaryundone said:
MailOrderClone said:
Ordinaryundone said:
Obviously, because someone asked for it? Really, if the single player portion is enough for you, then don't worry about it. Multiplayer has no impact on the single player, and vice versa, so you won't be missing out on anything you would be interested in.
That's not quite accurate. Including multiplayer does have an impact on the single player campaign in the form of diverted man-hours and diverted funds. A game without a multiplayer component is generally going to be better off than a game with a tacked-on multiplayer component.
That's paranoia and a leading argument. You assume the multiplayer is "tacked on" without having played it, and you also assume that Bioware did not budget to have both. Its not like they are sitting back and saying "Hmm, we could make a good game, or we can have mutliplayer!" They've already addressed that (fallacious) argument. Many companies use different studios for their multiplayer, including Bioware, so I doubt any of the single player programmers or writers have been diverted.
Dead Space 2 and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood were both fantastic even with "tacked on" multiplayer. Ditto Condemned 2, Dead Rising 2, Bioshock 2 (whose multi I actually really liked), GTA 4, and Red Dead Redemption. Just because you do not like multiplayer doesn't mean it drags a game down.
It's a matter of opportunity cost. Bioware has a finite amount of manpower and resources, as far as I know. Ergo, they have to make decisions in what they use that manpower and resources to do. If we boil it down to a simple choice, given a portion of their budget, they could either use it to A) fund multiplayer development, or B) do something else. Now, "something else" can be anything- adding content to Mass Effect 3, refining existing content, working on a new project, retirement plan for Ed in the janitorial department, I don't know. What is is irrelevant. The resources that have gone into the multiplayer could have gone into something else. As the shrill voices on this thread will attest, this has not been a horribly popular decision.
Now don't get me wrong, it could still be a good game, and the multiplayer could be good as well, though I really wouldn't know about the latter. It's not going to deter me from waiting out in the cold on release day. I'm just trying to provide the best reason as I see it that people are getting their various undergarments contorted about this.