All Square Enix Games are Going Online

[Mirage]

You can say that it doesn't affect you if you only play single player, but it does. All the resources they put into multiplayer content are resources that could have gone to enhancing the single player experience. Adding something like a simple duel mode isn't a huge undertaking, but to include a comprehensive multiplayer experience consumes a large amount of resources meaning the game will either be longer to develop, or have the single player experience compromised due to lack of development time/manpower/budget.

I don't have anything against people enjoying games online. After playing White Knight Chronicles I can certainly see that it isn't for me, and how it seriously compromises the single player experience. Thats fine, that is how the game was developed. Different target audience.

I think it is a different story if ALL games have to include an online component though. With FF13 taking three years and a whole ton of money I can't help but feel that adding these features would have anything other than a detrimental effect on my gaming experience.

With the huge budgets S-E games have these days, the only way it'd significantly decrease the quality of the single player part would because of stupid design choices and resource management, not because there wasn't enough resources all in all.

Not to mention, multiplayer helps push more copies (and even more than that if it wasn't for uninformed people hating on it for no real reason), meaning they could have a larger budget and still make money on it.

And I love your new sig and avatar, Mo.