Parakeettheprawn said:
I realize I'm saying this before even watching, and will edit upon watching if I have any reason to, but -- WHY do multiplayer and singleplayer HAVE to be EXCLUSIVE? I hate this mentality everyone has that multiplayer and singleplayer can't be in the same product and/or that one of them is useless whether included or not.
Yeah, I'd suggest watching the podcast as it'll probably give you a better understanding of the issue.
I, for one, appreciate the guys in the podcast taking the fair and balanced approach. Just as you have to respect Bethesda for saying "Look, we're pouring everything into the Singleplayer campaign of Wolfenstein to make it as good as we possibly can" you also have to respect Respawn for saying the same thing bout Titanfall, only in regards to multiplayer at the exclusion of single player.
There's plenty of games out there that focus on nothing but single player and people get upset when a multiplayer aspect seems to get forced into it. The studio set out to make a singleplayer only game so that's what they're going to do. In the same way, why can't a developer say "We're focusing all our resources into making a multiplayer game so that we can bring you the best multiplayer experience we possibly can"? Why are people demanding that a singleplayer aspect be forced into a game that's specifically being designed as a multiplayer?
There will always be games that have both aspects, but just as there's singplayer-only games, there's absolutely nothing wrong with multiplayer-only games. As they point out in the podcast: Team Fortress 2 is purely multiplayer and people absolutely love it...there's no NEED for a single player, so people don't ask for it.
So to answer your question, they don't. There isn't some big fight here about singleplayer vs multiplayer (at least I'd say there shouldn't be), it depends on what the studio wants to do with their game. If they want to make a singleplayer only game: well that's just fine, I hope it turns out well. If they want to make a multiplayer only game: well that's fine too, I hope it turns out well. The argument is between splitting up your resources to do both or focusing your resources to do only one. They're two different - but both equally acceptable - practices.