RPGFan Interview with FFXI Developers

[Gannon]

http://www.rpgfan.com/features/squareenix2007/ffxi.html

We had a chance to sit down and chat with Hiromichi Tanaka, Senior Vice President of Software Development, Keiki Usui, Global Online Producer, and Koichi Ogawa, Planner for Final Fantasy XI. There are two things of note: because these were group interviews, questions will be marked to the publication of those who asked them. Additionally, because the interview was conducted through a translator, all three speakers' responses will be marked as "Square Enix". So take a look at the interview below, we hope you enjoy!

RPGFan: First off, does Wings of the Goddess do anything with the level cap?

Square Enix (SE): We're not thinking of probably ever raising the level cap again. We do have the merit point system in place so that people who get to 75 can still get the limit points and use those to customize their characters further, but there won't be any raise of the level cap.

RPGFan: So if you're not raising the level cap, are you adding any new jobs?

SE: Yes, there will be new Jobs. [Laughing] Yes, that means there will be more than one.

Official Xbox Magazine (OXM): How is your experience with the 360 and dealing with downloadable content via [The Xbox Live Marketplace]?

SE: At first, when we first did the developing for FFXI, it was being developed for Windows, PlayStation 2, and the original Xbox. However, due to some specification issues and through talks with Microsoft, it ended up being that we couldn't work it out with Microsoft and so we canceled the developed for the original Xbox version. However, with the release of the [Xbox] 360, we went back into talks with Microsoft and we found a good middle ground and we came to a compromise and decided to take the Windows version we had and import it to the 360. Because it was the same type of environment with the DirectX technology, it was very easy to import the Windows version [to the Xbox 360].
As for the downloadable content, as you know, to have all of the versions running on the servers, we have the PlayOnline servers. This was [set up] before Xbox Live started, and so it's not quite as compatible with Xbox Live [as we could have hoped]. It's a different system, and we require players to go through that. That's something we had to come to an agreement with with Microsoft about, because they wanted us to use Xbox Live and we had to use PlayOnline. As for the downloadable content, because of that situation, we can't have downloadable content ready. But it's something that we're in talks with Microsoft about. Hopefully in the future we'll be able to offer the downloadable content through the Xbox Live Marketplace.

RPGFan: Final Fantasy XI is unique in its approach to storytelling, at least in regards to western MMOs. Do you plan to continue with the same sort of cutscenes in Wings of the Goddess, or go to more quest-oriented storytelling as you see in games like World of Warcraft and EverQuest II?

SE: With the new expansion, we're going to try to make it a little more quest-oriented, the story will be told more through quests. But there will still be the event scenes that FFXI is known for. Not a big step away, but a little step.

Play Magazine: How much content is divided between casual and hardcore content?

SE: The new expansion is pretty much aimed for the higher level players, the players that have been playing for a long time. There's probably 70% for the hardcore players, and 30% for the casual players.

OXM: How do you approach expansion packs, are these ideas that you've had previously, or ideas that have come about because of player input?

SE: As for getting feedback from the players, we're always doing that. A lot of that is shown in our version updates that are usually bi-monthly. We try to use those bi-monthly updates to give the players feedback on that. The expansion packs, while that feedback is also important, we've had a lot of ideas over the years and big ideas, ones that we can't achieve in the version updates and put those in the expansion packs.

RPGFan: A lot of western MMOs have started to focus a lot more on PvP, are there any plans to expand FFXI's PvP [beyond the current Conflict system] in Wings of the Goddess?

SE: Currently there are no solid plans on something new yet, but, again, it's still early. However, in the upcoming patches, maybe not Wings of the Goddess, we do have what's called The Pit, where players will be able to have monsters to fight, as well as the chocobo races. So it's maybe not fighting against each other, it's battling against other players using other things, in that sense, there will be some new things.

Play: How does census data affect the expansion pack content? Meaning, the game is heavily mage-based right now. How much of the expansion content encourages distribution among the other jobs?

SE: While we take the census data into consideration, we don't look at the census data and say, "the census says this, so we're going to make this type of game." We think, "Oh, yeah, there's this type of thing happening, so maybe we'll use that and change these things." You also have to remember that the census data we give the players is only the tip of the iceberg. There's all this other data that we don't display, and that's the type of data we use, as well as posts on forums and feedback to GMs. That's what we use developing expansion pack content.

OXM: A lot of people dropped out of Star Wars Galaxies [when the game had its NGE changes]. How do you guys feel about feedback on the user interface, and things like that? How do you make tweaks without losing users, and things like that?

SE: This is a very difficult thing, but it's not a closed community, it's not just like we're doing everything we want to do and not listening to the voices, that can be a real problem. We always have people listening to what [users] are saying. We also have the census data and the background data that we don't give out. We're always listening to the [users], and reading forums, and we gather that data and then we make our changes based on what we hear. So it's not like we're going to be doing something that's so crazy that the people aren't going to be ready for it. So things the users have been talking about for the past half year, we take that and try to implement it.

RPGFan: A lot of content in Chains of Promathia was capped at level 30, so it was available to a larger amount of players. [Since] Wings of the Goddess is for more hardcore players, does that mean that dungeons will not have a level cap?

SE: Probably there won't be any level capped areas. There might be something like Assault Missions from Aht Urghan, where you choose if you want to put the cap on. There will be things like that, but for [mandatory level caps], there won't be any.

Play: With each expansion pack, you've had sort of a singular event that's changed a lot of core gameplay. Like with Aht Urghan, a lot of the hardcore players moved from Jeuno to the new areas as their home base. What do you see as the big change over the next expansion?

SE: Probably the biggest thing, is because the game takes place in the past, rather than the present, it's that players will be able to move to the past. However, as in moving to just one area, as in from Jueno to Aht Urghan, [we're] going to try to make it balanced, where there'll be a lot of different places that we hope players will move to and make that their home base.

RPGFan: Now for the one question that everyone gets when they develop MMOs now. How has the success of World of Warcraft affected Final Fantasy XI, and how will it change Wings of the Goddess?

SE: As for game design, pretty much nothing. We don't look at that and try to make our game like it. One of the biggest things we've been affected by via World of Warcraft is Real Money Trading (RMT). Before Warcraft came out, all of these RMT sites were underground, and then because of the popularity of WoW, and extended over. But, because we've been working hard to handle that problem, we've gotten rid of probably 90% of the sites that are doing RMT for FFXI. One of the biggest things that WoW did that affected us was increased RMT. [Laughs] Another thing that we saw with the popularity of WoW, a lot of MMORPGs started dying out, because their user base moved to WoW. That's one thing we really haven't experienced in FFXI, our user base has been pretty solid. People sometimes will go over, but then they'll come back. We haven't seen a really big swing in the numbers like other games have.

Play: With the game on 360, and a lot of the PC platforms that play the game having such incredibly technology behind them, are there any plans to increase avatar customization? Or, because of the userbase of the PS2, are you capping your customization.

SE: Because we want everyone playing the same version, we have the wall of the PS2 version. While there is the ability to create better stuff with the PC, it would leave the PS2 players stuck. But more than the memory issue, probably the biggest problem with adding new hairstyles or races or face types, we would have to go back and [re-model] those pieces for this type of hair, and do that for the thousands of models of armor. That's probably the biggest thing, there's just not the time and manpower to do that.

OXM: [A lot of players have used MMORPGs to do things outside the game, like marriage.] Is there anything you were surprised that players used your game for?

SE: There's one kind of armor for the black mages that have tattoos on the arms; there are people who have gone out and gotten those tattoos. We were pretty surprised about that. There have been a few marriages, as well. Last year, we had the fan festival here in America for the first time. It was the first time that the development team got to see the American side. [We'd] seen the reaction of the Japanese people, but this is the first time [we'd] seen the reaction of the American people and see how excited they were. They were just as excited as the Japanese fans, everyone is excited, and that's what surprised us.

RPGFan: So, returning to the RMT issue, early on, inflation was a big issue; has that at least been somewhat curbed with the elimination of the majority of the RMTs?

SE: We think that we're back down to deflation and trying to get back. We're pretty close to back to what we think the norm should be. Because the RMT sites, some prices are going down because they're easy to get, but other prices are going up because they're not [farmed nearly as much]. Overall, most of the prices are going down.

Play: Are there plans for another fan festival in America?

SE: Yes, we'll be announcing plans later this year.

We'd like to thank both Square Enix's American and Japanese offices for allowing us to interview the Final Fantasy XI team!

The comment about WoW increasing the amount of RMT really made me lol.

 

[Skaw]

Well, it's pretty true. 8.5 million subscribers is a pretty big profit area for RMT. It's not like they said WoW birthed RMT. It just made it mainstream compared to beforehand.

 

[Lenneth]

Oh wow, some people got that blm armor tattoos IRL, thats pretty hardcore.

 

[Celvantes]

Oh wow, some people got that blm armor tattoos IRL, thats pretty hardcore.

No kidding - those would be some pretty serious sets of ink.

 

[Rorschach]

I would love to see those tattoos on someone, i searched and found nothing

 

[Winklewil]

I wish I could write some of the questions for these interviews. I'm not really interested in "l0lz iznt WoW scariez!?" I want to hear about content and balance. There really wasn't a single new thing, here. Same questions, same answers. I get the feeling that the guy conducting this interview doesn't even play.

I want to ask, "How likely is it that one of these new jobs will be able to satisfy a 'tank' role to the standard that would be expected of current high-level players?"

I want to ask, "You're pretty much committed to taking huge measures to balancing the current party setup situation. Will you be tackling this by nerfing TP-heavy melee jobs (or the environment that's so beneficial to them), or buffing 'traditional' spike damage jobs?"

I want to ask, "Does the fact that you're finally releasing a fully windowed version of the game mean that you're admitting some measure of pigheaded thinking in previous versions?"



They never ask the 'right' questions. >_<



Thanks for posting, though, Gannon.

 

[Gannon]

I wish I could write some of the questions for these interviews. I'm not really interested in "l0lz iznt WoW scariez!?" I want to hear about content and balance. There really wasn't a single new thing, here. Same questions, same answers. I get the feeling that the guy conducting this interview doesn't even play.

I want to ask, "How likely is it that one of these new jobs will be able to satisfy a 'tank' role to the standard that would be expected of current high-level players?"

I want to ask, "You're pretty much committed to taking huge measures to balancing the current party setup situation. Will you be tackling this by nerfing TP-heavy melee jobs (or the environment that's so beneficial to them), or buffing 'traditional' spike damage jobs?"

I want to ask, "Does the fact that you're finally releasing a fully windowed version of the game mean that you're admitting some measure of pigheaded thinking in previous versions?"



They never ask the 'right' questions. >_<



Thanks for posting, though, Gannon.

I know how you feel. I bet most of those questions would get the we can't answer that now thing SE likes to do.

 

[DarkMagnus]

In almost every interview about jobs, SE says nothing, no point in asking again imo.

 

[Pastry]

Getting tattoos of the armor? How stupid.. hope they know those are permanent.

 

[ForteTeppo]

I wanna know if it's some how possible to switch the ps2 harddrive to the ps3 for incress of power (I know you can do it, but seems to be still no differeance). So they can then upgrade faces, hair and races.

 

[Xalioniaf]

Getting tattoos of the armor? How stupid.. hope they know those are permanent.

Or they'll play the game forever.
Or quit and go to WoW.
That might be funny if they go to a WoW real life meetup.
"What kind of tattoos are those?"
"They're of the weskit!"
"Weswhat?"
"Weskit, from Final Fantasy XI."
"..."
"What?"
"HEATHEN! GET BACK I SAY!"

Ahaha...and then they shoot him.

 

[Avalar]

Very very very funny Japanese developers

You have to give SE credit for trying to kick dirt on WoW. I mean stating something without stats or factual reports is arther amazing considering we come from a time where seeing is believeing. Well since SE developers can do it,....I think I will give it a shot myself.

1.) I admit I play FF and still have a subscription,..but Dec of last year I tried WoW and I see what FF lacks. SE isnt only effected by WoWs so called influence of rmt,..they are also efected by WoWs non-restricting gameplay. That being the freedom to quest without asking for any assistance,...crafting without mats breaking, leveling without having to find a specific job to tank or heal.

2.) Its funny how SE stated that they dealt with 90% of rmt,..but they havent been doing that until recently. The past 2 years I have played FF,...Auction House prices have been ridiculously high,...do to rmt. SE also benefits from the number of rmt that subscribe to monthly subscriptions,hell I will even go out on a limb to say that maybe half of rmt site can be traced back to SE,...cashing in on the rmt craze. The difference between SE and WoW economy is that in WoW,..money making to a regular player like myself is quite simple where as the FF community solely relies on the Auction House as a means of profit. Vendoring meager items in WoW is another means of making profit in WoW,...but in FF,..you are lucky if you get 1,000 gil for a stack of anything that would normally sell on the Auction house for 10,000 gil.

3.) I have noticed that yes,...individuals that decide to leave FF do comeback...then leave again,..then comeback.Well that is simple,everything tends to get boring at one point or another. Players that were on FF that have left for WoW comeback to FF stating that ,..WoW is tooo easy,..then days later complan about how FF is too restricting. That is an even flow of things,..but I say,.in my opinion, that I rather be investing my time in something where I am constantly doing something rather than Looking for a party for hours/weeks/months on end.

4.) Lastly comes the number of expansion packs,...say what you will but if you look closely, it will become clear even to the most die hard FF fan. SE has released 3 expansion not including the 4th installment due later this winter. Hmm,..WoW has released only 1. If anyone know anything about marketing and selling a product,..you will understand why that is a huge issue. SE didnt create those expansions due to customer requests,..they released those reduce the number of migrating players. Of course players are going to flock back everytime an expansion is released,..its human nature to experience certain things that have not been experienced before,..especially when it comes o MMOs and if you read SE developer interviews when an expansion is annouced,..they always state the same exact thing,."They always comeback",..but they never state "Well they comeback and leave again".

In closing ,..SE doesnt listen to their consumer,..I mean (chuckles) how long have many of you have been complanning about CoPs difficulty,..and look how long it took SE to listen to you.

 

[Rorschach]

Getting tattoos of the armor? How stupid.. hope they know those are permanent.

Common, lick on full body tattoos! Who's with me! :nyam:

Seriously though, I wish they had shirts or something with this kind of print on them, that would be pretty hot. And I'm surprised they never made shirts with prints on them that looked similar to the armor that we have in-game rather then those plain-ass white shirts with a bigass nation logo on the front. I mean they can do better then that. They could do it like those anime shirts you always see. Then ones with generic anime characters with Jp lettering on them that prolly just means "Super A #1" on them or something equally as lame but it looks cool cause its in kanji.

 

[pchan]

You have to give SE credit for trying to kick dirt on WoW. I mean stating something without stats or factual reports is arther amazing considering we come from a time where seeing is believeing. Well since SE developers can do it,....I think I will give it a shot myself.

1.) I admit I play FF and still have a subscription,..but Dec of last year I tried WoW and I see what FF lacks. SE isnt only effected by WoWs so called influence of rmt,..they are also efected by WoWs non-restricting gameplay. That being the freedom to quest without asking for any assistance,...crafting without mats breaking, leveling without having to find a specific job to tank or heal.

You know I tried WoW one week. The first time in logged into the game before even seeing the first image there was a message in english on the screen telling that you could get golds by visiting www.blabla.com ... I mean i was on a french server ... So yeah i think wow is infested. Ive never seen such thing in FF.

2.) Its funny how SE stated that they dealt with 90% of rmt,..but they havent been doing that until recently. The past 2 years I have played FF,...Auction House prices have been ridiculously high,...do to rmt. SE also benefits from the number of rmt that subscribe to monthly subscriptions,hell I will even go out on a limb to say that maybe half of rmt site can be traced back to SE,...cashing in on the rmt craze. The difference between SE and WoW economy is that in WoW,..money making to a regular player like myself is quite simple where as the FF community solely relies on the Auction House as a means of profit. Vendoring meager items in WoW is another means of making profit in WoW,...but in FF,..you are lucky if you get 1,000 gil for a stack of anything that would normally sell on the Auction house for 10,000 gil.

This statement is not true. Yes if u know that your items will actually sell on AH you will put them there. However most of the shit you get while farming doesn't sell and you'll NPC them. If you actually run around and kill monster in FF you'll notice that some item sell to NPC for decent price, and this is all the more true that the economy is low. And tbh, if ppl didn't NPC stuff, there won't be any gil in FF ..

 

[Garvin]

This statement is not true. Yes if u know that your items will actually sell on AH you will put them there. However most of the shit you get while farming doesn't sell and you'll NPC them. If you actually run around and kill monster in FF you'll notice that some item sell to NPC for decent price, and this is all the more true that the economy is low. And tbh, if ppl didn't NPC stuff, there won't be any gil in FF ..

Uh... no, that statement is perfectly true. The AH is the main source of most actual income. The gil accumulates slowly due to vendor trash and quests, but trade of said gil occurs on the AH. This is in a completely different league from WoW, where vendored items sell for amounts comparable to thousands of FFXI gil.

Not to mention, more than likely vendors account for some of the smaller influx of gil, all things considered. I'd say merit parties account for a lot more gil coming in than vendored items.

 

[Avalar]

Im not Bias,...I just call a spade a spade,..it just is what it is.

Both points on the last 2 threads were very clear,..but lets just take a look at one aspect shall we. There is plenty of room for rmt to fester an MMO that spans over 8 million subscribers,..kinda difficult to keep track of. Though true that FF doesnt show any promotion for rmt forthright,..it shows in FFs economy. Haubergeon,.. at one point was 5 million gil,..now if your farming say beast bloods from the marshes south of Jeuno,...you could make, at that time 140k gil,...but when ppl seem to get keen on what sells,..before you know it,..you have over 55 stacks of the same item on the AH, thus inflating its orginial AH price. So when you finally cant make enough gil on the AH or it takes days for your items to sell,...frustration sets in,..you outsource,..meaning turn to rmt for that little extra help. The gil sellers basically controlled the AH, making it difficult for honest players to obtain anything without means of hours and hours and hours of stalking the Auction House. So rmt influence was greatly prevelent and promoted,..not forthright,..but somewhat subleminally,.though I wouldnt put it paste anyone if WoW has some hand in rmt sites as well,..everyone is looking to cash in. But for SE to use WoW as a scapegoat for thier 100k players of leaving the game due to rmt is absurbed. Did SE mention anything in that interview that rmt existed back in the days of EQ for the past 7 years in the form of emoney? I honestly like both games,...but it seems to me that SE,..despite what they say,..is a bit frustrated at WoWs success,..and maybe a bit jealous that Blizzard actually listens to their consumer suggestions.

In terms of killing monsters to get gil and vendoring items that are dropped by them,..well,...compare the AH prices to how much you would get from killing mobs,..now apply that comparison to how much you are willing to grind in terms of vendoring items. In a rmt controlled environment,. you would probably get your Haubergeon or whatever the case maybe days before SE decides to close their servers.

 

[Skaw]

Did SE mention anything in that interview that rmt existed back in the days of EQ for the past 7 years in the form of emoney? I honestly like both games,...but it seems to me that SE,..despite what they say,..is a bit frustrated at WoWs success,..and maybe a bit jealous that Blizzard actually listens to their consumer suggestions.

They didn't have to say it, because they never said WoW spawned RMT. They said WoW had made RMT more common. Which if you do not believe that a target of 8.5M subscribers made RMT in all MMOs more common, you're pretty fucking naive. A huge target like that opens up the oppurtunity for more RMT "companies" to sprout up, which in turn, spread in to other games as a mere side business from their main target.

Yes, RMT has existed since the days of UO and EQ. However, they were very hard to track down compared today, post-WoW .

It's not frustration, it's not placing the blame. It's merely stating what is true. If not for the subscriber numbers of WoW, RMT would not be as large as it is. They would still exist, but they would not be as problematic.

Lineage and Lineage II are at fault for the spread of RMT as well, considering they were immensely popular during their time, just not as much as WoW.

In terms of killing monsters to get gil and vendoring items that are dropped by them,..well,...compare the AH prices to how much you would get from killing mobs,..now apply that comparison to how much you are willing to grind in terms of vendoring items. In a rmt controlled environment,. you would probably get your Haubergeon or whatever the case maybe days before SE decides to close their servers.

You have shown you have no idea how virtual economies work. If vendoring for minute amounts of gil was the only method of aquisition, costs for items would be fractions of what they are.

The reason items currently cost what they do, is because gil comes from vendoring, quests, and missions. Vendoring is only a small percent of the gil introduced.

 

[Sharpe]

You know I tried WoW one week. The first time in logged into the game before even seeing the first image there was a message in english on the screen telling that you could get golds by visiting www.blabla.com ... I mean i was on a french server ... So yeah i think wow is infested. Ive never seen such thing in FF.

Yeah they just shout selling B Haidate etc instead

 

[Tagrineth]

2.) Its funny how SE stated that they dealt with 90% of rmt,..but they havent been doing that until recently. The past 2 years I have played FF,...Auction House prices have been ridiculously high,...do to rmt. SE also benefits from the number of rmt that subscribe to monthly subscriptions,hell I will even go out on a limb to say that maybe half of rmt site can be traced back to SE,...cashing in on the rmt craze.

Bullshit.

SE has been cracking down on RMT for more than a year now and prices haven't been lower than they are now for a very, VERY long time. As I recall, when I first started in like october 04, Haubergeon was 500k. We're very close to returning to that price point. That's huge.

If RMT sites were "connected to SE" as you so brazenly point the finger, why the fuck would SE be cracking down on them so hard lately?

Yes SE was very lax about RMT early in FFXI's life cycle, but that was also before WoW was released. It really is true that RMT became much more main stream and I daresay accepted by the general public since WoW's release... notice that WoW's exploding popularity bringing RMT sites forward more also, in due course, brought about huge changes in FFXI to progressively destroy the sellers' ability in XI to exploit the economy and cause mass inflation.

It's in the last 2 years that SE has done the most to crush RMT activity in SE. We'll never, ever again see prices as high as they were 2 Decembers ago. Thank God.

4.) Lastly comes the number of expansion packs,...say what you will but if you look closely, it will become clear even to the most die hard FF fan. SE has released 3 expansion not including the 4th installment due later this winter. Hmm,..WoW has released only 1. If anyone know anything about marketing and selling a product,..you will understand why that is a huge issue. SE didnt create those expansions due to customer requests,..they released those reduce the number of migrating players.

Bullshit.

WoW's expansion actually got delayed very heavily (HI BLIZZARD, GOOD TO SEE YOU'RE THE SAME COMPANY YOU ALWAYS WERE).

One expansion per year is actually the *norm* for MMORPGs. Period. Look at EverQuest and EQII. They both get, on average, one expansion per year.

WoW is the exception, NOT the rule. FFXI getting an expansion roughly each year is PERFECTLY NORMAL and has nothing to do with grabbing the attention of players back.

Quit deluding yourself. It's obvious you hate SE on some personal level (did the bad man at SE kill your doggy? ; ; ), but don't make baseless accusations without doing some research first.

 

[Blackchaoshero]

one idea in my travels that i've seen that really struck me as something that could improve FFXI was a community forum like D&D Online has. creators and developers interacting and taking direct feedback from the community.