14 DAY TRIAL // A recent BioWare job listing indicates that a multiplayer component may be in store for Mass Effect 3. EA Senior Recruiter Jeff Goldstein posted the job description on LinkedIn, from where it has since been removed. It stated that BioWare's Montreal studio needed a Multiplayer Programmer for the Mass Effect franchise and that those who applied should have “to take existing single player experiences and make them multiplayer safe,” hinting at cooperative online interaction.
This comes to confirm what BioWare's Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Ray Muzkya, stated in that past when asked about co-op multiplayer options in BioWare’s next games, namely that it was a possibility. His exacts thoughts on the subject were: “Sure, we would consider it. We haven’t announced anything on that front yet, but those are interesting ideas. They could make a great gameplay experience. Whether we’ll do them or not remains to be decided. We’ve done it, and we’re doing it again now in Star Wars: The Old Republic. But it is challenging.”
Details have been slow to emerge about Mass Effect 3, other than this and the fact that the infamous mining mini-game will return. BioWare stated in the past that it wanted to deliver that title a bit faster than the last time, sometime in 2011. More details are sure to emerge at this year's E3, when it will probably be officially announced.
As Muzyka stated, BioWare has experience in cooperative multiplayer settings. Both Baldur's Gate games had a co-op mode, but it was poorly supported by the Canadian developer. With Neverwinter Nights, on the other hand, the online experience was much better developed, as players could team up and work their way through the title's story campaign, user-generated through the map editor. In true Dungeons and Dragons tradition, one player would be a Dungeon Master and they would guide the others through the story and had complete control over the server.