Ben-DutkaHave you given Mass Effect 3 's online multiplayer element a try? If not, you're apparently in the minority.
EA has released a little infographic giving us some early statistics for multipalyer participation in BioWare's hot new title. Who said multiplayer wouldn't be popular in a traditionally single-player RPG?
According to the numbers, players have already earned a combined 83 billion credits, and have spent a grand total of 1,800 years playing. …that's a lot of time. Other interesting results include the 2 million Cerberus Phantoms that have been dispatched, the fact that the Battlefield 3 Soldier Kit has been used in 618,000 online matches, and that exactly 1/3 of all matches end in a "failed extraction." Only 1% of all online matches are on Gold difficulty level, 36% of players go into battle with the Assault Rifle, and the Turians are the most commonly chosen non-human race at 6.43%.
Given the depth and incentive to get online with ME3, it's no surprise that so many fans are diving in. The only question left is whether or not it has the staying power of, say, an online shooter that remains popular until the next installment in the franchise launches. It's a different genre, though…probably not fair to compare.
Related Game(s): Mass Effect 3
The multiplayer component of Mass Effect 3 is the first online shooter I've played since my time with Counter Strike a decade ago. I can't say I've missed it too much, but I really enjoy the objective-based gameplay of the ME online component, and that it maintains the leveling up progression of the single player experience makes it immediately accessible and enjoyable for me!
I'm saving the coop in ME3 until I am further into the story and more familiar with all the different places and races and stuff. But I'll most definitely play this part of the ME3 package too. Coop is king.
there are no spoilers in the co op mode and id actually suggest getting into it now. It gives you ideas of what to do in the single player game and vice versa. Some powers work slightly differently in co op like throw gets extra damage on its top last skill instead of double throw.
I woulda preferred double throw – but yes the coop mode is great!
You would, Aaronis? That's an advice I've been looking for everywhere. Thank's alot, I'll tell my coop buddy!
the only thing to worry about if you play co op mode is the random people who may be discussing the ending. I haven't ran across that, but im sure it has happened to someone.
Another thing about the co op, is it may suck you in if you're a fan of the battle system, the leveling up and the buying of items, it may take away from time you could have used to play the single player lol. It doesn't take too many matches to raise ur galactic level, well at least it didn't for me.
1800 years certainly seems like a lot, but when you consider their claim of 3.5 million units shipped, it actually averages out to be about 4.5 hours per player, which isn't a whole lot. It would be interesting to see, though, how many of the people who bought the game are playing it online.
3.5 million shipped doesn't mean sold. It was only 890,000 in North America, for instance.
Ah, good point. But still, I'd be curious to see how many people are playing online.
I beat the game without playing the multi-player (Online pass wasn't working, got a new one just yesterday). Played it on the Demo though, was quite fun..
Its highly addictive, but there is room for improvement. A mute function would be nice. Also, the fair treatment of ps3 players who bought the game.
I love it but it doesn't make me happy when xbox360 and pc players get special events like a new soldier class for online if you purchased Battlefield 3 (never hit the ps3) and the challenge weekend thats going on right now on 360 and PC that allows you to get co op versions of the Collectors Edition Weapons.
They claim technical limitations, but thats extremely vague. If it truly is, Bioware needs to be more specific so ps3 users can rightfully voice their dislike at the right source, if not, then the fault lies with them.
Check it again in a month. "Hey, there's nobody on this thing"
Possibly – coop games tend to burn out a bit more quickly than competitive shooters, as it gets a bit samey after a while, but I'd say the interest in ME3 is big enough to sustain it for a while. It's proper good fun, and that's a good start at least.
this is what happened with Resistance 3 sadly…
Last edited by aaronisbla on 3/17/2012 5:16:59 PM
It's what happen in – simply put – every game where MP is not the prime focus. But R3 died particularly fast.
There's plenty of folks who still play Crysis 2 MP. Just sayin'…. It's an awesome MP game. (I still play it now and then!)
Last edited by Beamboom on 3/18/2012 3:25:26 PM
What I'm more surprised is that 82% play as male shepard in the single player. All this praise for femshep and and not that many play as her? The 18% are really noisy about it. There's also another poll where 66% play as soldier in sp. I'm really surprised by that since I thought I was one of the few who play as that class only that find out is the most popular.
That class could be a bit bland in the past, but thankfully they added a bit to their skill set to make them more fun than they were in the last game, at least to me.
It also doesn't hurt that they made it possible to get more than one bonus power from your teammate. So that concussion shot? yeah, id replace that with Carnage once you get friendly enough with James Vega
Never use carnage. Which enemy is that meant for? Also can I buy all the powers or only get one at a time?
only one at a time. Carnage is the skill thats gained from James Vega. Its good against armored enemies and normal enemies. It doesn't drain shields fast. But its really strong. upwards to about 700 points of damage if speced out right and depending on which class you give it to. Since concussion shot does minor damage, i gave him this. Also, it doesn't recharge as fast as concussion does
That being said, he can get by without it if you so choose, concussion shot doesn't suck especially with radius expansion on it as well as power amplify that allows ammo skills to affect the concussion shot. Really good when used with Cryo ammo
If a million people played online, that would only amount to 15.768 hours each, sounds more impressive how they state it..
I've been playing ME3's multiplayer after I finishing the first mission in Tuchanka. As a big fan of co-op, I really enjoyed the game's multiplayer component. It's fun and they at least make varying objectives.
However, you there are still some technical annoyances that happen in the game that can be quite game breaking. For instance, the game makes your character take cover instead of reviving an ally who fell right next to an area where you could take cover. This happened when I was playing with Excelsior the other day and I really hated it. I'm not sure if it happens to others too or if it's only isolated to me, but it's really annoying when it happens. We got to wave 9 (or is it 10?) and we failed because of that. I would have been glad if I was able to help Excelsior and his friend get their first co-op extraction.
That's not much. Surely that can't be considered much.
In NA, almost 900k sold. If you consider a 1 hour play time, that only leaves room for 1.8k people playing for one hour… Or close to 11k people playing for 10 minutes. Or nearly 10% of NA's numbers playing for 1 minute.
That's really small… and I'm going by NA numbers even… not even worldwide.
100k hours? That's a little more… well… expected.
Not impressed.