So, at the end of the DLC where you are talking to Hackett, the topic of "open war with the Batarians without the other species picking sides" is brought up.  To me, this seems like a giant arrow pointing at a "MASS EFFECT 3 WILL HAVE MULTIPLAYER!" sign.
 
Sigh.  Don't do it Bioware.  EA is probably pushing you to do it, but don't!  For the love of god don't!

...What? I'm really not seeing how that acts as a hint towards ME3 getting multiplayer. Also thinking about it, so little actually happens in Arrival that it probably doesn't even need any spoiler tags... sad, really =/

No, not really. 
 
Multiplayer could've been set in the countless wars that have already taken place in the galaxy. they could even just say that the multiplayer part is a military combat simulator.
 
If bioware wants multiplayere, there is going to be multiplayer.

"...What? I'm really not seeing how that acts as a hint towards ME3 getting multiplayer. Also thinking about it, so little actually happens in Arrival that it probably doesn't even need any spoiler tags... sad, really =/ "

" @Abyssfull said:

"...What? I'm really not seeing how that acts as a hint towards ME3 getting multiplayer. Also thinking about it, so little actually happens in Arrival that it probably doesn't even need any spoiler tags... sad, really =/ "

I don't think it's true that nothing happens. The fact that you fuck over the Batarians pretty bad could be major in ME3, perhaps a potential reaper ally? "

wha....? It's more of a hint that there will be a big divide in the galactic community over Shepard blowing up the Relay for ME 3.

I think you're seeing what you want to see, here. Doesn't mean that ME3 won't have multiplayer, but I heavily doubt this would be the context for it.

I think you're wrong.

" wha....? It's more of a hint that there will be a big divide in the galactic community over Shepard blowing up the Relay for ME 3. "

" @Afroman269 said:

" wha....? It's more of a hint that there will be a big divide in the galactic community over Shepard blowing up the Relay for ME 3. "

That is the point?  Multiplayer would involve two sides of the "galactic community" going to war with each other?  Like they said in the conversation?    Am I really the only one that sees someone saying "open war with these dudes that hate us" as a sign that they could use Humans vs Batarians at the premise for multiplayer? "

" @Afroman269 said:

" wha....? It's more of a hint that there will be a big divide in the galactic community over Shepard blowing up the Relay for ME 3. "

  Am I really the only one that sees someone saying "open war with these dudes that hate us" as a sign that they could use Humans vs Batarians at the premise for multiplayer? "

" @Cataphract1014 said:

" @Afroman269 said:

" wha....? It's more of a hint that there will be a big divide in the galactic community over Shepard blowing up the Relay for ME 3. "

That is the point?  Multiplayer would involve two sides of the "galactic community" going to war with each other?  Like they said in the conversation?    Am I really the only one that sees someone saying "open war with these dudes that hate us" as a sign that they could use Humans vs Batarians at the premise for multiplayer? "

Or it's just how Bioware line it up to make the Batarians the most difficult race for Shepard to unite with the Alliance against Reapers. "

" @PhatSeeJay said:

" @Cataphract1014 said:

" @Afroman269 said:

" wha....? It's more of a hint that there will be a big divide in the galactic community over Shepard blowing up the Relay for ME 3. "

That is the point?  Multiplayer would involve two sides of the "galactic community" going to war with each other?  Like they said in the conversation?    Am I really the only one that sees someone saying "open war with these dudes that hate us" as a sign that they could use Humans vs Batarians at the premise for multiplayer? "

Or it's just how Bioware line it up to make the Batarians the most difficult race for Shepard to unite with the Alliance against Reapers. "

If that is what this is setting up, I will be extremely disappointed with Mass Effect 3. "

There are more than enough wars in the Mass Effect galaxy to set multiplayer around.  Geth-v-Quarians in the Homeworld Battle, Turians-v-Krogan in the Rebellions, Turians-v-Humans in the First Contact War.
 
Mass Effect multiplayer should be judged on the quality of its execution, not its existence.  People who start getting snarky and derisive because a game has multiplayer that they've never played really bother me.  I remember Vinny actively campaigning that there be no multiplayer in Mass Effect 3, as if somehow adding a feature outside of the main campaign would ruin the game for him.  Maybe it would, Brotherhood and Dead Space 2 received nothing but Goddamn vitriol for daring to try something new.

" @PhatSeeJay said:

" @Cataphract1014 said:

" @Afroman269 said:

" wha....? It's more of a hint that there will be a big divide in the galactic community over Shepard blowing up the Relay for ME 3. "

That is the point?  Multiplayer would involve two sides of the "galactic community" going to war with each other?  Like they said in the conversation?    Am I really the only one that sees someone saying "open war with these dudes that hate us" as a sign that they could use Humans vs Batarians at the premise for multiplayer? "

Or it's just how Bioware line it up to make the Batarians the most difficult race for Shepard to unite with the Alliance against Reapers. "

If that is what this is setting up, I will be extremely disappointed with Mass Effect 3. "

" @Afroman269 said:

" wha....? It's more of a hint that there will be a big divide in the galactic community over Shepard blowing up the Relay for ME 3. "

That is the point?  Multiplayer would involve two sides of the "galactic community" going to war with each other?  Like they said in the conversation?    Am I really the only one that sees someone saying "open war with these dudes that hate us" as a sign that they could use Humans vs Batarians at the premise for multiplayer? "

Its more Shepard uniting all the other races to fight the Reapers. 
 
Or maybe Mass Effect is the next battlefield. 
 
Oh god.

" @Cataphract1014 said:

" @PhatSeeJay said:

" @Cataphract1014 said:

" @Afroman269 said:

" wha....? It's more of a hint that there will be a big divide in the galactic community over Shepard blowing up the Relay for ME 3. "

That is the point?  Multiplayer would involve two sides of the "galactic community" going to war with each other?  Like they said in the conversation?    Am I really the only one that sees someone saying "open war with these dudes that hate us" as a sign that they could use Humans vs Batarians at the premise for multiplayer? "

Or it's just how Bioware line it up to make the Batarians the most difficult race for Shepard to unite with the Alliance against Reapers. "

If that is what this is setting up, I will be extremely disappointed with Mass Effect 3. "

How? Makes perfect sense. Batarians already hate humans enough already, this will out them at the boiling point. "

" @Cataphract1014 said:

" @Afroman269 said:

" wha....? It's more of a hint that there will be a big divide in the galactic community over Shepard blowing up the Relay for ME 3. "

That is the point?  Multiplayer would involve two sides of the "galactic community" going to war with each other?  Like they said in the conversation?    Am I really the only one that sees someone saying "open war with these dudes that hate us" as a sign that they could use Humans vs Batarians at the premise for multiplayer? "

I think you are the only one. there's plenty of divides between races and organizations in Mass Effect. Geth v Quarians, Humans v Batarians, Alliance v Citadel Council. It seems to me that this is all leading up to those conflicts coming to a head in the context of Shepard gathering forces to fight the reapers a la Dragon Age: Origins. "

didn't read any of these posts because i still haven't played it, in fact i downloaded the DLC, it took over 12 hours to download, and now that i have it, it doesn't work, i boot the game up and it doesn't say "commander you have a new message at your private terminal", i put in disc 1 and disc 2 and waited, searched the galaxy map, all that.
 
i'm bummed out, my first reaction would be to download it again but since it took that long... any one encountered such a problem?  i mean i paid money for that, i feel like i've been stolen from. I hope it's just a server problem, maybe it didn't download yet but the screen says it did.

" @JustTheDoctor said:

" @Cataphract1014 said:

" @PhatSeeJay said:

" @Cataphract1014 said:

" @Afroman269 said:

" wha....? It's more of a hint that there will be a big divide in the galactic community over Shepard blowing up the Relay for ME 3. "

That is the point?  Multiplayer would involve two sides of the "galactic community" going to war with each other?  Like they said in the conversation?    Am I really the only one that sees someone saying "open war with these dudes that hate us" as a sign that they could use Humans vs Batarians at the premise for multiplayer? "

Or it's just how Bioware line it up to make the Batarians the most difficult race for Shepard to unite with the Alliance against Reapers. "

If that is what this is setting up, I will be extremely disappointed with Mass Effect 3. "

How? Makes perfect sense. Batarians already hate humans enough already, this will out them at the boiling point. "

I meant more of the "run around the galaxy uniting the species against the reapers".  That would be boring.  We did that in ME2.  I'd rather have a story more like ME1 rather than 2.  That is why I would be disappointed.  I'd rather have something crazy happen rather than run around the galaxy gathering an army.
 
I'm not saying that is what is going to happen, but I would be disappointed if something like that happened.
   

Oh shit. 
 
This could be true. 
They could set it up like the Bioshock 2 MP. 
"before everything went to shit, there was team deathmatch!"  
 
2 factions : Human/Citadel space aliens vs   Reapers/Bartharians 
Maps : i call dibs on BigBen 
Class: Soldier/Adept/Egineer 
Progress: perky perks!
Game type: capture the asari whore?  

..but for ME MP to work, they kinda gotta work on the shooting. Its still not on par with *most* third person shooters.

" @The_Laughing_Man:  With as powerful as Bioware has made a single reaper seem, how will any fleet of the citadel races stand a chance?  I think EDI will play a role, but I hope it isn't just gathering an army for a big battle.  That would be so cliche. "

What?

I don't think it hints at multiplayer in ME3 at all! It sounded to me like the galaxy needs to unite to fight the collectors instead of fight amongst each other.

" @Cataphract1014 said:

" @The_Laughing_Man:  With as powerful as Bioware has made a single reaper seem, how will any fleet of the citadel races stand a chance?  I think EDI will play a role, but I hope it isn't just gathering an army for a big battle.  That would be so cliche. "

Why would they tag on MP to a game that has such a strong single player for two games? Again you are just seeing what you want to see.  "

Like others have said there are so many conflicts in the fiction already that just assuming this one is here for multiplayer is presumptuous. 
in the fiction there already exists. 

• Human Vs Turian unease due to the first contact wars
• Quarians Vs Geth
• Batarians Vs Humans

Sorry to say this, but Evel Knievel  couldn't make that leap. I think all the recent anti-Bioware sentiment is leaking into their other games seeing as how they've been setting up "factions" (Krogan/Rachni; Quarians/Geth) since game 1, so I don't really see Hackett's comments as anything but a setup for something else you'll have to deal with in ME3. It seems like you're going to have to try to unify the galaxy against the Reapers.

" There are more than enough wars in the Mass Effect galaxy to set multiplayer around.  Geth-v-Quarians in the Homeworld Battle, Turians-v-Krogan in the Rebellions, Turians-v-Humans in the First Contact War.  Mass Effect multiplayer should be judged on the quality of its execution, not its existence.  People who start getting snarky and derisive because a game has multiplayer that they've never played really bother me.  I remember Vinny actively campaigning that there be no multiplayer in Mass Effect 3, as if somehow adding a feature outside of the main campaign would ruin the game for him.  Maybe it would, Brotherhood and Dead Space 2 received nothing but Goddamn vitriol for daring to try something new. "

"If bioware wants multiplayere, there is going to be multiplayer. "

Keep your god damn multiplayer out of my story-driven rpg.

CALLED IT!
 
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=29874797&postcount=1

CALLED IT!
 
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=29874797&postcount=1

There will not be MP in ME3, I believe that has been EXPLICATELY STATED

Those Batarians are nothing but bitches and whores!

@MordeaniisChaos said:

There will not be MP in ME3, I believe that has been EXPLICATELY STATED

Lots of things get explicitly stated - things said at a particular point in time may be accurate at that point, but minds and goals can change thereafter. I'm not into multiplayer at all, for my part - however if ME3 head multi-player, so long as I didn't feel like the single player aspect had been shortchanged in any way, then its inclusion would not sour the game for me.

That that, if there were one franchise I liked enough to consider checking out multiplayer if it were there, Mass Effect would be it. If it came to it, I'd prefer cooperative multiplayer, or at the least competitive multiplayer predicated around small squads, because squad-based combat, and the tactical thinkink that goes along with it, is a big part of what makes the combat in the game enjoyable to me.