ADorothy

I'm sorry for the necro-post, but this seems like the most recently active discussion about multiplayer and I didn't want to start yet another thread on the topic. I respectfully dispute the assertion there are 'plenty of other multiplayer games out there.' The other multiplayer games are MMO's, which do not in any way operate like the multiplayer in BG, BG2 and ID did. What I'm looking for in a game is a top-down isometric RPG that lets me use TCP/IP to include 1-5 of my friends in my group and play through the SP content. I'm ok with only allowing one player to select dialog options because that's how we did it in the BG days. There have been many RPG's created since the original BG, and many purported "spiritual successors" to those games. None of them have allowed a simple multiplayer component like the one I described. Dragon Age and DA2 is the best example where, just like here, the devs said "maybe later" and argued they wanted to make "the best SP experience they can." I also don't know a single person who has ever said Baldur's Gate or BG2's single player experience suffered due to its multiplayer component. I realize my complaints are useless here, since it's clear there will be no multiplayer component to this game. But the result of that decision is I'm not going to buy it. And I once again wait for someone to make a game that's an isometric, top-down RPG in the BG and BG2 style that has simple TCP/IP multiplayer capability that lets my friends from various parts of the world share the SP story. I've been waiting 12 years (since Icewind Dale 2) and I'll probably be waiting forever. And there are a ton of people out there like you, I'm one of them. And I'm happily playing Divinity Original Sin, which seems to be shaping up to be much more of a spiritual successor or descendant of Baldur's Gate than this game. It's also selling a lot more like BG did too (160k units in the first few days, Steam top 3 in sales since launch).

My point is this: add cooperative play Obsidian! Make a new kickstarter to do it, if you can't fund your own business. Or how about just going with the proven successful formula and open up your game to the maximum audience? When you make a good multiplayer game, you sell many copies, not just one. And you get legions of sales reps for your games out there telling their friends to buy it. With as many friends spread out across the world, and the ability of the internet to form communities, it's the perfect time in gaming to rekindle the classic cooperative multiplayer experience. Until then, I'll be buying many many copies of BGEE and BG2EE, because it's still more fun to kill goblins with my friends than by myself.

Well, let's look at the sales numbers: " As of 2006, total sales for all releases in the [baldur's Gate] series was almost five million copies" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldur's_Gate "Planescape: Torment received widespread critical acclaim upon its release,[50] but only made a small profit." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planescape:_Torment Icewind Dale 1 and 2 also both sold very well and spent a lot of time a the top of PC game sales. Planescape? Didn't sell. Even Fallout, one of the greatest games in PC history, was a niche game that didn't sell anything like the Infinity engine games. Fallout 2 sold an awful 200,000 copies. Bottom line, BG almost single-handedly saved the PC gaming industry. And it was on the backs of D&D fans, many of them playing multiplayer on their LAN's or via direct IP connect. The devs had no way of gauging how popular this was. They downplay it because they don't want to code it. So what's being made here is another Planescape, at very best, and no successor to the BG series. It may be a good game. But very few people will ever play it. You'd be lucky to get to the 200k units threshold.

BG2 was the largest selling RPG game in about forever, game of the year, etc etc. It had Coop play. If they really want to say they're making a spiritual successor to the BG series, then they need to add Coop play. D&D and all types of PnP games owe their existence to social gatherings of friends trying to kill goblins and dragons and solve puzzles together. If you people want to play by yourselves, that's fine. But don't act like Coop is some new-fangled, non old-school thing. And like 2% of people want it. A HUGE portion of players want it. I am one of them. I will not buy or back this game unless that is added, and in that case, all of my friends will buy it as well. I am not against single player games. But don't act like this is the next BG or IWD game if it doesn't have Coop. And they shouldn't be plastering this BS all over their home page: "Miss classic cRPGs like Baldur's Gate,Icewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment? So do we!" Well, clearly they do not. Because they are leaving out a fundamental part of those games