One of the most discouraging aspects of the modern gaming industry is the almost compulsive need to include an online component of a game, regardless of whether or not it is actually necessary, wanted or practical; studios just seem hellbent on incorporating a competitive element to almost any game, particularly when it enters its second or third iteration. Sometimes, against all the odds, it works: Mass Effect 3 and Assassin's Creed both managed to turn furrowed brows into cracking smiles by managing to nail multiplayer components to games that never really needed them, but gave fans an increased longevity in the process. With Game Of Thrones though, that simply isn't necessary, nor will it work. There is scope for a multiplayer segment to work here, but it would be dangerously easy to get it wrong. Mingle the assassination and stealth elements of Assassin's Creed with the combat mechanics of a game similar to Skyrim or Dragon Age, and Game Of Thrones may just have a chance at competitive multiplayer, but there are simply bound to be awkward moments of floundering your sword about wildly mid-combat as someone else sneaks up behind you and surreptitiously lops your head off. If it can be made to work, to really work, all the better, but it seems highly unlikely.
When not writing Chris spends more time thinking about playing videogames than actually playing them and can usually be found reorganizing his Blu Ray and book collections. He owns four different editions of A Song of Ice and Fire and no, it isn't overkill. He's left the neon haze of Tokyo and Seoul for the more sedate streets of Bournemouth.
