User blog comment:Crimpycracker/New ME3 details that could make you very angry/@comment-3430127-20111106122736/@comment-3268946-20111223002742

In response to the allegations of a waste of time and money for MP, a few things need to be understood about the Bioware-EA relationship:

1. For the thousandth time, the multiplayer portion of the game is being made by a completely separate studio from Bioware Edmonton. The new studio is based in Montreal. What does this mean? It means that the main studio, whose job is to make the singleplayer game, is not occupied with the development of MP.

2. "But the resources used in MP could have gone into making a better SP." Bioware and the Mass Effect team are not exactly running low on cash. In fact EA is more than content to throw money at Bioware, knowing that they are a very safe investment. Look at TOR, which is made by Bioware Austin, funded by EA, and is rumored to be the most expensive video game to ever be developed ($100+ million). Had Bioware requested more resources on ME3, EA would've happily obliged knowing that helping out Bioware is a way to insure that their pocketbooks stay fat.

On the note of the OP of the blog, most people don't seem to grasp what these new modes are; the RPG mode is the normal ME experience, Action mode is a merely a pre-set series of responses that allow those that don't care about the dialogue to get through it quickly (I assume this means that it will include the option to skip conversations altogether, something that a lot of people have wanted for awhile), and the final mode Story mode is the opposite of Action, in that it gives all the dialogue and tones down the gameplay. In terms of game design, these are hardly difficult modes to program.

This whole argument against these modes is basically, "Why would anybody what something different than the previous ME games?" Well, the thing is not everybody things the same way. Some people play games for the gameplay (shocking, I know), some play for the story, and some play for immersion. What these modes do is make the game more accessible to those who were turned of somewhat by previous installments. But these modes will continue to be perceived as a waste because when it comes to any fanbase, there is a sense of entitlement that the developer should cater to them and them alone and any attempts to expand the brand is basically sacrilege.