Interesting post, Raf. I must admit though that having to do the multiplayer in Mass Effect 3 really freaked me out. I was last on the list and getting in the way most of the time. I ended up playing solo and getting to level 3 by myself but that was taking forever. In the end I just sucked it in and played public on Bronze setting and did my best. It actually helped my normal play watching how the pros did it, but I’m sure they were silently cursing. That was a strange decision of Bioware making it almost mandatory to do that if you wanted a decent readiness level.
Again, they didn’t appreciate who their audience was.
Thankfully, once I got past the tutorial in Guild Wars, you didn’t really have to play with peeps. But the few missions where it was almost impossible to finish them with just RPGs I lucked some good groups. I wasn’t past asking my kids or their friends to help me out on occasion. Lol.
It can be intimidatng for a female…..
I also found it strange that the gender of my character affected how I reacted in hand to hand combat. If my character was a male I had no compunction in bashing them but avoided it with the female even though some part of me knew they had the same “strength” if I put the points in there.
I never got into Guild Wars. It was not very “solo” friendly. I did get into WoW for nearly a year, although I became dissatisfied with the “End Game” dungeons. Wasn’t willing to do all that grind just to have to play by route. As for Mass Effect, the problem for me is twofold: 1. it was a fine single player franchise that did not need multiplayer, 2. I play on the 360 which is not hooked up to the internet unless I need to download an update or DLC.
I think it was more of, “Mutiplayer is the trend, we gotta gave multiplayer!”
As for Guild Wars, I haven’t played in years and I found the NPCs disappointing. I died so many times in one mission that I gave up on it and switched to WoW.
Neither Here nor There.... 
Interesting post, Raf. I must admit though that having to do the multiplayer in Mass Effect 3 really freaked me out. I was last on the list and getting in the way most of the time. I ended up playing solo and getting to level 3 by myself but that was taking forever. In the end I just sucked it in and played public on Bronze setting and did my best. It actually helped my normal play watching how the pros did it, but I’m sure they were silently cursing. That was a strange decision of Bioware making it almost mandatory to do that if you wanted a decent readiness level.
Again, they didn’t appreciate who their audience was.
Thankfully, once I got past the tutorial in Guild Wars, you didn’t really have to play with peeps. But the few missions where it was almost impossible to finish them with just RPGs I lucked some good groups. I wasn’t past asking my kids or their friends to help me out on occasion. Lol.
It can be intimidatng for a female…..
I also found it strange that the gender of my character affected how I reacted in hand to hand combat. If my character was a male I had no compunction in bashing them but avoided it with the female even though some part of me knew they had the same “strength” if I put the points in there.
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I never got into Guild Wars. It was not very “solo” friendly. I did get into WoW for nearly a year, although I became dissatisfied with the “End Game” dungeons. Wasn’t willing to do all that grind just to have to play by route. As for Mass Effect, the problem for me is twofold: 1. it was a fine single player franchise that did not need multiplayer, 2. I play on the 360 which is not hooked up to the internet unless I need to download an update or DLC.
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That alone would have pissed me off about the ending of Mass Effect 3.
Plus they didn’t take into account the fact that people might want to play this a fair while into the future when other peeps might not be playing it.
Guild Wars is quite doable solo once you start getting NPCs along. Have you played any of the Elder Scrolls? Morrowind etc?
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I think it was more of, “Mutiplayer is the trend, we gotta gave multiplayer!”
As for Guild Wars, I haven’t played in years and I found the NPCs disappointing. I died so many times in one mission that I gave up on it and switched to WoW.
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