I'm still waiting on my copy of the game to show up, but I just read something that I feel an urgent need to comment on.

My opinion may change after being better-informed by, well, actually playing the game, but knowing that people are skeptical about the inclusion of multiplayer in Mass Effect 3, this RPS write-up about its influence on your playthrough's ending has me fascinated (the article talks about it in an abstract way, don't worry about spoilers).

So, apparently the end of Mass Effect 3 is kind of bleak, and there are only two ways to make it not as bleak as some reviewers seem to be saying it is: play multiplayer or do side quests.

This seems to strike a lot of people as annoying. Maybe it is. However, on paper, I think it's a beautiful decision.

I'm kind of an artgame snob. I think games should be expressive through their game mechanics (a la Jason Rohrer's Passage and Gravitation), not through cinematics.

My understanding of the game may be completely glib, but if BioWare is communicating that you need to help other people (side quests) and co-operate (multiplayer) to save the world... we have the biggest-budget artgame ever to be released.

I may be giving them too much credit. Maybe it's a shallow cash-grab. But I'm terribly optimistic and really proud of them if I'm right.