I've read through this discussion (as well as the other multiplayer ones) and one thing seems to continuously repeated. Those saying "No" never seem to give any explanation as to why they're saying no whereas those saying "Yes" usually provide valid and very good reasons why it should exist. As I'm somewhat unbiased, meaning I have no real favor towards Multiplayer or Non-Multiplayer Skyrim I figured I would give my opinion on the matter.

CONS of MULTIPLAYER:

- Players can loot chests and drops, leaving you without the "cool stuff".
- Players can take off and do what they want.
- Players may have the ability to adjust your grief.
- Hardware requirements (may) increase.

PROS of TWO-PLAYER MULTIPLAYER:

- You can team up with your friends/relatives.
- You can share the experience with others, outside the game, instead of worrying about spoiling something.
- A better RP experience (RPing is always better with others)
- Reaches out to a larger audience (more sales!)


I know this list is far from complete, but it's the biggest factors I see. In addition, all of the "Cons" that I was able to come up with seemed to be related directly to who your playing with. Same as any other multiplayer game. If you're playing with morons, you're going to have a bad experience. If, on the other hand, you are picky with who you play with then your experience will be greater than any solo experience can provide.

"Meditating" about this (in the 40 or so minutes I've spent here) I've decided that Bethesda really dropped the ball by not including SOME form of multiplayer aspect. For those of you who simply say that Bethesda said "No", believe it or not Multiplayer WAS on the drawing board in the early stages and they decided to drop it. The idea was there, in the early stages, they just didn't want to put in the effort to program it. Even if it was allowing a single companion along, who has no "storyline dialogue" available to them, it would be a vast improvement in the RP experience. Seeing that you can already bring NPC companions along on your travels, it's not a far stretch (RPG wise) to replace that NPC with a flesh and blood player. You still have your amazing story line, but you have a real life companion that can follow you along. When they aren't available, you can still continue along soloing. Of course, player 1 still remains the Dovahkiin.

I'd love to have my brother along, or go on the storyline with my brother, in Skyrim. As it stands I don't even talk to him about the game because I don't know how far he is and what he has or hasn't done yet. Don't want to spoil anything. So instead of having a grand shared RPG experience, I'm kept in silence and can't really get hyped up about a game that should be praised. It kinda puts a damper on the whole thing.

Additional cons:
* Content will be designed for multiple players, thus leaving single players missing out.
* Time and resources will be spent on refining Multiplayer that could/should be spent adding reactivity to the single player.

There are plenty of co-op experiences out there. But the reason I keep choosing Bethesda is their focus on the single player experience.

Now off with you!
:flamethrower::obliviongate: