(If you're groaning about yet another multiplayer thread, my apologies. However this is really intended to be about singleplayer, and thus I think it's better in it's own thread, rather than tripping over actual multiplayer discussion.)
We've been told that MP is seperate from the SP campaign, and that it won't affect the ending of the game, hopefully putting some people's fears to rest. And if you doubt that, there's not really much to do but hold off on playing the game until after we get reviews, so this isn't what the thread is intended to be about.
But that doesn't mean SP hasn't been affected by MP, as they were developed side by side.
Firstly, I wonder if there will be references to events and people from the MP in the SP campaign?
It makes sense that there might be, since they after all are part of the same universe, and indeed working for the same organisation. I don't think we've seen any suggestions that there would be, aside from the fact that the advisors will give the pre-mission briefing, but it seems like a good idea. It could get annoying if such references were written as an unsubtle prod to go play MP, but I'm not going to assume the worst.
Probably more significant, however, is the impact that it may have on the gameplay.
The FAQ says that "The multiplayer environment gave us a perfect opportunity for testing combat, creatures, and encounter design, and since the two environments are near-identical, every improvement spread to both parts of the game."
Which sounds logical enough, yet MP and SP are still quite different in important ways. SP has pause, an important part of my play style, while MP does not. And of course in MP you're only controlling a single character, while in SP you control a party, which means that whereas in MP requiring extra actions on the part of the player - maybe by actively dodging enemy attacks, or having a more involved "rotation" with quick cooldowns - may be good because it increases the involvement of the player, in SP those actions spread across all 4 party members may become tiresomely fiddly micromanagement. And in SP you can have a high degree of co-ordination between characters that would be wholly unrealistic to expect from a group of players, particularly a random pick up group.
Mostly I worry that this will encourage Bioware to emphasise the control of a single character over that of the group, as often seems to be the preferred style in gameplay videos. Though the inclusion of the tactical camera is a hopeful sign of an earnest desire to serve a more tactical gameplay
We've also seen a couple of changes that seem very much like they are motivated by MP. The addition of the ability to revive other characters, and the removal of the ability to select abilities from the radial menu on consoles. Though tracing those to MP is purely speculation - and the addition of reviving may be a good thing, so long as it's not overly forgiving.
edit: It doesn't seem like the change to console GUI is caused by MP
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