I find your lack of faith disturbing.
If you mean by that faith in online communitys, ive lost that a long time ago by playing various types of online multiplayer games on the PC over the years.
One is worse than another, fool language/behavior, cursing like no other, death treads, ddosing other players for day's by catching their ip's just for the hell of it, attacking the game servers, jealousy resulting in trying to piss you off like no other, idiots no matter the age that scream like complete retards over microphones, blasting their music over microphones, and i could go on and on...
And ofcourse, i am aware of the actuall mature people (by that i mean behavior, NOT age), but the existence of those are slim, and imo decreasing over the years.
Firstly, the obvious issue of people just being trolls is a problem for every multiplayer game. It exists for anything involving multiple real people so how this would be worse for this game I don't understand. Minecraft is hugely successful and it all basically boils down to people doing the digital version of building castles in the sand. The great image then is some older kid kicking your castle down. Somehow people have thriving Minecraft multiplayer servers. Its astonishing I know. There's this thing called "Moderation" and "Administration" that they do in most communal areas. Its extraordinary. Like most things involving teamwork though it takes dedication, patience, and the right personalities. I play Arma 2 with my clan and we run both a public server and a closed private one. Hackers are a constant problem, but that doesn't deter people from wanting to play together.
The times you encounter actuall moderation and administration within games (not counting the forums since those are mostly a mess to), is almost never or not at all.
I'm not necessarily talking about the hacking scum, but more over the general behavior of the actuall players.
I'd wish to see companys/publishers to put some dedication in moderation and administration within online games, but have not seen this happening allot at all, plenty games dont even do that at all.
Hackers/cheaters etc, those are roaming freely around way to much in online games to, they are hard to catch and stop yes, but so many times you see ingame moderaters hardly give a crap about kicking them out or they dont care at all.
And yes, it does drive people away, by dozens everytime again.
As for the notion of multiplay being pointless in a trucking game... well maybe its not the same in Europe but in North America the camaraderie of Trucking is notorious.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_CB_slang
There is this fixed notion in my culture that trucking is basically some fat sweaty guy alone nearly 24/7 on the road in his cab kept company only by other voices on the radio with him all doing the same thing. Its incomprehensible to think that there wouldn't be a thriving group of people who'd want to sit in their cabs and talk to people instead of just doing it alone. There's a reason SCS added the radio feature. They knew you'd get bored listening to the admittedly banal sounds in the game.
I know of CB's being used in trucks, they have also been used, but banned, from normal cars years ago.
Having a virtuall CB could be fun yes, but i'll see it getting spoiled pretty fast with the today's imo rotten interwebs population.
As it is I sit in my Arma clan's Teamspeak and talk to my friends while driving a load and comment to them about what I'm doing. I can't see why people wouldn't want to be able to take the conversation into a shared experience, even if its on a map where you don't even see each other. Imagine talking to someone and then seeing them drive by on the road. Imagine being in game and hearing them honk their horn at you as they drive past. That lone would be extraordinary, even without having any game mode other than sharing the roads on pre-existing single player content.
Teamspeak or any other voice service outside the game is the way to go than in my opinion if you want to hook up with friends.
There you can moderate who's able to come in and talk, not like so many games with a voice service that you have to turn the service off completely cause of idiots ruining it for the descent people.
I'd also like to state that people should get a descent microphone if they want to use a voice service so you could actually hear them clearly instead of crackling/screeching/ear bleeding noises.
Also the random knocking on mics, blowing with mouths into mics etc.
Wich in turn pisses me of resulting in me wanting to disable that persons mic.
I'm not saying its easy, I'm not even saying its plausible. I'm just disagreeing with the notion that MP isn't fun. This game is a sandbox. Sandbox games are some of the most successful multiplayer games. Consoles have just confused people about it I think. Its changed the vision of multiplayer. PC multiplayer requires no global servers even. Games have lost their server support and communities always create their own matchmaking programs.
I have never said MP cant be fun, i know it can, but there is just way and way to many people that kill the fun.
If there was a way to get just the somewhat descent people to play multiplayer games, and block any other, i'm all for it.
GTA never used to have multiplayer. I remember when GTA San Andreas' multiplayer mod came out. It was community made. Imagine that, next version, GTA V, came with multiplayer. They created in GTA SA a multiplayer game without any netcode from Rockstar either, which is the hurdle.
I have played SA:MP and the other version they have for GTA San Andreas for years, had my own server to till it got hacked down a few times.
It's pretty nice, and something like this is better done for a game like ETS2 to in my opinion instead of directly build into the game.
This way SCS Software doesnt have to put up with it either and can spend and work on singleplayer all they want.
You have to take into account that SCS Software is no EA Games or Rockstar and the like, their growing yes, but limmited.
I'm not saying its necessarily plausible, but its possible and frankly its the smartest way for them to sell their game. Single player experiences get lonely, you get used to things. They become predictable, even with mods. Multiplayer lets you play the same thing over and over and somehow still enjoy it because there is new content, you and your friend(s).
I'm pretty sure there is a group of people out there willing and able to make a standalone MP for ETS2 just by theirselves, like others did with GTA3/Vice City/San Andreas/i believe GTA4 to, also Mafia 2, and probably more games.
Maiby some outside coders are already working on it, who knows.
The naysayers can say what they want about the likelihood of it happening this version, but I can confidently call them ridiculous for saying that MP wouldn't be fun. Maybe you're just those... peculiar gamers who find some distaste in multiplayer gaming. Your loss, but realize that multiplayer has come in later versions of games specifically because people demanded it or made their own mods, and in the case of Minecraft was even added post release.
MP is the only sensible conclusion to gaming in my opinion. SP is ultimately futile, if you want to keep enjoying something anyway. There are ancient games I still play because of MP that I would never go back to for the SP.
For years and years on people have played games for hours/days straight while there was not even a connection possible to other ''computer/device'' users, back than that was no issue either.
What bothers me nowdays to is the ''everything has to be online'' mentality allot of people have i.e. facebook.
Or the ''always be connected mentality'', i.e. cell(smart)phones/tablets always dragging with you etc.
Sure the world changes over the years, but it's getting to the point of being rediculous.
