Well I am sure they are playing with all the friends they have...which sounds like a diss but its more a statement on how these games isolate us from our communities. I reject that, emphatically. Humans are social creatures and if we can't create games that reinforce positive community interaction then we are failing at creating a healthy and sustainable culture.
Multiplayer is nothing but a boon. Those games may be great, but they would be better with friends.
No matter how good solasta is or how faithful it may be 5e dnd, it will never be able to deliver what Bg3 can, because it is and always will be a single player experience.
I can only speak for myself and myself only - but I am with CJM (again) on this.
I already have other games dedicated to playing with friends - moba games, MMORPGs, not mentioning my DnD campaign. But not CRPGs - CRPGs are mine to enjoy by myself - I tried playing CRPGs with friends, but it was a DISASTER and not enjoyable at all and not something I will repeat in any near future.
Here's why: I play CRPGs for the same reason most do - I want to get immersed in the story, the characters and the game entirely. I want to be able to dwell for hours, and hours if necessary (I got MUCH better stamina than all of the people I play with, with the ONE exception being my brother which is pretty much my equal). It is basically the same for me as reading a good book or watching a good movie - I hate being interrupted or distracted unless I feel ready to leave by myself - but adding the human element invites for 1110 different possible distrubances and distractions.
And - inviting more players ruin ALL of the positive points mentioned above for me - the game automatically became more like the standard multiplayer game where tactical gameplay got the better of the roleplaying experience - and the party was all over the place with the thief going around pick-pocketing at random, our newest person standing AFK reading spells for the entire session, our returning vet running all over the place impatiently wanting to continue and me just standing there somewhere in the middle wondering why the F I got the idea to play a CRPG with friends. You are not even the slightest immersed in the story anymore, nobody wants to hear the dialogue that the random flavor NPC has and everybody wants to min-max their classes.
Take PoE for an instant! Remember all of those backer-NPCs that had their own flavors? I clicked and read each and every one of them that I came across - including it in my RP experience. That would have been nothing short of IMPOSSIBLE with another player tapping their foot, waiting for me.
In my particular case - one of the best things about CRPGs in my particular scenario is *getting rid* of the human element without necessary feeling lonely (because of well-written characters). Being able to play for the entire party feels like a blessing when you come from a catastrophic session of MMORPG dungeon running. Like for real - it feels sooo amazing to just take control over the entire encounter and not "wiping" over and over due to things you have no power of. :']
So no - the only person I'll consider playing CRPGs with again is my brother. He shares my stamina and my die-hard dedication to story elements and he is kind enough to never rush me in any way when we're playing even if I want to read each and every book we find, or speak to each and every NPCs - quite the opposite, he often encourages me. At the same time I *KNOW* he will always pull his weight because he is just a damn prodigy at gaming in general. :'] We played some BG3, but he does not want to spoil too much before release so we did not get very far, so instead we're currently on a DOS2 adventure on the highest difficulty, doing remarkably well.
