7. Must-Play Multiplayer
Remember when Mass Effect 3 told you to get maximum "galactic readiness" in multiplayer before doing the final mission in single player? Well, god knows what that achieved - I got the same ending as everybody else, more or less - but I went and did it anyway. Even though I don't like multiplayer and avoid online gaming in particular, developers are shoe-horning it in aggressively with increasing regularity to increase the shelf-life of their game and keep its value from plummeting after a month in the charts. GTA V will do this as well. What started as an interesting (for some) take-it-or-leave-it diversion in the last game will become a more invasive part of the sequel. It'll link into the main story in some sort of annoying way that'll force me to play it, or else you'll have to play it for 20 hours straight in order to unlock the best ending - or some such contrived, unnecessary ball-ache. Worse still, perhaps my "friends" will be able to drop into my game and steal all the old lady pedestrian money I was collecting in order to buy an especially amusing haircut. Whilst it
is admittedly fun to run over real players at high speed with an articulated lorry, I don't want to be forced to do so as it would drain the experience of the fleeting sense of fun that it might otherwise enjoy.