My fear is that they are going to make the same mistake NWN made, which was to designing a game for the Single Player = Single Character (Party of 1) experience, and where multiplayer is really just Co-Op for 2-4 players each controlling a lone single character. Basically so they can try to have Golden Eye in a D&D game I guess? Whereas the thing that made Baldur's Gate for me was the full party control, God mode. 1 player controlling multiple characters, the whole party. Everquest, NWN, all the various MMOs that have come along, they all shoot for that same style of MP game, which on its face is more like PnP D&D, sure, but that's not what made Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate or the Gold Box games golden. Baldur's Gate was about controlling more than 1 character, controlling the whole party. Even in co-up multiplayer, BG was about splitting the group. Just like mentioned above, where if you had 3 people, then they each took control of a second. So you could have 3 people and still bring along Imoen or Edwin or Viconia or whoever. I agree, nobody is going to hang around and wait for 6 players to get their act together, so it's much more likely that you have two players each control 3 characters. Or 3 players each controlling 2 characters. Or 4 Players, where control of the remaining NPC companions just rotates depending on who showed up first/last. Or perhaps they don't bother with companions at all, but right now they'd have no choice, because of the "looks like you're full up" at 4 deal.
