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4Gamer Interviews Naoki Yoshida (12/29/2010)
AmbrosiaAmor
Member Posts: 915
Thanks to Elmer the Pointy from ZAM who translated and summarized the interview.
Within the first three months of service, Final Fantasy XIV has changed considerably, both in-game and out. Now, with the development team restructured, Naoki Yoshida is at the helm and ready to win back an overwhelmingly unsatisfied audience. According to our poll here on ZAM, most players are happy with a new producer and director, but we still do not know much about him or his plans to turn the game around.
This week, 4Gamer sat down with Yoshida for his first in-depth interview since being appointed to FFXIV. Read on to see what he has to say.
Many people, including the interviewer, were shocked to see such a momentous change coming only three months into the game's life. However, Yoshida notes that this is exactly why such a restructuring was made -- to make the necessary changes early on that will make FFXIV an MMO worthy of its namesake. The new producer understands the weight the "Final Fantasy" name carries for the company and its many fans, and is ready to pump out quality updates for three, six even ten years to come.
Giving FFXIV new life is something that has begun to engulf the entire company. Tactics Ogre Director Minagawa was brought in as a UI and Web Content artist and directors from Final Fantasy XII were also tapped to spruce up the user interface. "As we stated in the 'New Development Team Policy' on the Lodestone," says Yoshida, "Square Enix, as a whole, will work vigorously, now more than ever, to deliver a satisfying experience for all our customers."
While the new team is in place and working hard, Yoshida is unable to provide any solid details on what is in store or a time frame in which the effects of the new team might be seen. The current goal is to get out updates chock full of content and carry the game towards its first major milestone. At this time, updates (including the December ones) have been putting out content developed by the previous team. What Yoshida plans to prioritize the promises the previous team made to the players and making sure everyone's voice is heard and has a part in the development process On January 1st, Yoshida will post another comment to detail more of his plans.
As for the task before him, Yoshida details FFXIV as a game in disarray, though also a victim of the times. Games like World of Warcraft and FFXI have been around for many years now, which he says has set the bar much higher for MMOs. "People want loads of content right off the bat, and third-party add-ons are a given now," Yoshida admits, "It’s a tough situation for new games." Yoshida lists end-game content, UI fixes, tutorials and in-game terminology as things that FFXIV needs to get right, and fast. The complexity of the game especially is something that players have struggled with since the beginning. As 4Gamer puts it, "If you can't understand the rules of the game, you can't understand how to enjoy it."
The user interface is set to undergo some significant changes to accommodate for the vast difference in play styles between a game controller and keyboard/mouse setup. Yoshida admits he is a stickler for a smooth UI as well, and Minagawa was brought in as someone who is "second to none" at UI development. Interface lag is another key problem the developers are looking to stamp out, and they are working to identify the technological issues behind the slowdown people are experiencing. Yoshida also shows his experience regarding MMOs, and sees games like WOW as an example of how users can also help reinvent the UI through add-ons. This is a big change from the days of FFXI, and something Yoshida wishes to support fully.
All these issues are also keeping the PlayStation 3 delayed, as the key is "regaining customer trust" before launching a new version. Yoshida takes some of the blame as well, saying part of the reason there is no longer a solid release date is because he does not like to make promises he cannot keep. The only promise Yoshida will make regarding the console port is that "they will never give up on it."
Wrapping up the interview, 4Gamer tests Yoshida as a Final Fantasy fan, and ask him what the series means to him. While he says the answer may be different for each fan (and especially different between players and developers) he sees Final Fantasy as providing a world in which the player can become fully absorbed. In that sense, presenting Eorzea as a world with yet untold wonder for players to experience makes it feel like the true Final Fantasy in his eyes.
And his favorite title in the series? "Final Fantasy VII," he says. "Even talking with fans from North America and Europe, you hear how it leaves an impact you never forget." It's that kind of powerful, lasting content that Yoshida now wishes to bring the FFXIV.
Comments
The three part interview can be found here:
http://www.4gamer.net/games/092/G009287/20101226004/
Thanks to Soukyuu from CORE who translated and went more in depth with the three page interview.
Page I:
The first part is mostly about the re-organization of the team and the company...
They are still in the process of re-organization and he cannot say when it will be completed.
Next steps are going to be "organization/sorting of information" (possibly talking about rumors, as in, telling which are true and which are false, not sure about that) and finding the reason for the hardware problems (lag issues? or maybe system requirements?).
There will be a comment posted on the Lodestone on 01.01 explaining more about this and their plans and expectations for the next year.
Next part is about the game itself
The first time he played the game was when he got assigned to his new post
This means the first improvement of the UI was not his work.
"Ease of understanding/interaction [of/with the game] comes before "making it interesting [for the player]", since a player cannot judge what's interesting about the game and what not if the interaction doesn't work properly.
They are currently trying to make a system to be able to communicate with the players better (bi-directional communication, it seems).
The most important thing to them at the moment is to make sure that if they promise something will be implemented, it really does.
They are currently investigating what has to be done to get back out trust and make the service worth paying for.
As far as I understood what he is saying, they base the decision on what to fix next on the feedback.
Page II:
Next part is about the UI
If I understood him correctly, he is thinking about implementing a similar add-on-system for the UI as WOW depending on the feedback.
He is not satisfied with the UI himself and that was the reason he asked Minagawa to be added to the team as he believes Minagawa won't lose to anyone when it comes to designing an UI.
About lag
They are still working on optimizing the latencies, one of the reasons why the team got a new technical advisor, Hashimoto Yoshihisa.
About re-organization
They are trying to work as efficiently as possible, concentrating at one issue at a time instead of trying to improve everything at once.
He doesn't see FFXIV as finished and thinks the game will adapt itself to meet the expectations of the majority, BUT getting the player's trust is of higher priority.
They categorize updates into 2 types, the ones making it easier to play the game (Interaction?) and ones adding new content. They are thinking about how to balance those 2 types and whether there might be a way to satisfy both expectations.
As for the reason known bugs are not being fixed fast, he says it is because of the strict schedule the quality assurance team has to work under - they don't have enough time to test the patches before they have to be released.
Solving these types of problems is one of the first steps the new team is taking.
About a public test server
He says he played some NA MMOs and understands the demands for a test server. The reason SE didn't want one was because they thought it was a waste to set up a server for ~3000 players and only see about 100 of testers online a days. His personal opinion, however is that it's still worth it and even though he definitely wants to make a test server, he can't promise when.
He also adds that even though they want more direct feedback and communication, it doesn't make sense to concentrate too much on the idea of a test server.
About graphic and the fact that recent updates made some improvements to frame rates
They don't really want to change the graphics themselves to suit the slow systems like WOW does as it makes FF lose its own quality and style.
They will continue to work on optimizing the system, but it is currently not of very high priority. He also mentions the PS3 version of FFXIV hinting that this should be the solution for those with weak PC systems.
About the PS3 version
The reason for delaying the PS3 version this time was the fact that all the problems of the PC version piled up to the point of them wanting to concentrate on fixing those problems first.
Since there were problems with the PS3 version itself, they thought it would be better for all players playing under same conditions for now - on the PC.
At the end he assures that SE has not given up on the PS3 version and will definitely release it.
Page III:
About Yoshida himself:
So far he was working on Dragon Quest and Monster Battle Road Series (?)
He has been playing games for about 13 years; his first multiplayer game was Diablo, played for about 1 year. After that he played Ultima online for about 2 years and a half before moving on to Unreal Tournament. Next he started playing Diablo II LOD, stopping after 1 year and a half, moving on to Dark Age of Camelot which he played for 6 years. He also gave WOW and Everquest a try.
He was mostly involved in developing consumer games so far (I guess they mean the offline games by that?); he had some experience in developing MMO related projects too.
Even though his job at the moment is to understand how to make the most of the FFXIV client, he has to keep himself informed about the competition like WOW at the same time. He mentions something called Dungeon Finder; I guess it's an add-on for WOW? It seems as if he's trying to evaluate which ideas from other games could be put into FFXIV.
About his view on developing an MMO
He is aware there are differences between developing a MMO and a single player game, and is calling MMOs "theme parks", a collection of "attractions" to appeal to different types of people, motivating them to play the game. But simply throwing different types of content wouldn't be a good idea (I didn't really get his theme park example about Disney Land and Cinderella’s Castle), so keeping the general theme of the park, in our case the MMO is very important.
He sees the base of a MMO in the economy and the balance between the production, consuming and gathering of goods, so it's important to him for it to work properly.
Some random questions
His favorite FF is FF7 and he wants to somehow bring the powerful atmosphere and the impact of FF7 to FFXIV.
He says that there will be more events since he likes them himself and calls MMO a service business, meaning not listening to the customers won't work. The events are fun for them and fun for the customers at the same time. That's why he thinks it's important to keep organizing them.
As for what kinds of events except for the seasonal ones are planned, he cannot say - look forward to it.
The last question is about how confident he is about the future:
He doesn't want to promise too much and rather watch and see how things go. For now, they want to go step by step and not rush things and make sure they keep their promises. He mentions better communication once again...
"People want loads of content right off the bat, and third-party add-ons are a given now," Yoshida admits, "It’s a tough situation for new games."
I don't know anything about this Final Fantasy MMO, but I'm pretty sure people just want a finished game, right off the bat. Not an unfinished and buggy product delivered to them in a 60+ dollar box from the store shelf. How is this a tough situation? It's only a tough situation unless you expect to sell an unfinished and buggy product. That's what a tough situation is. Or was he simply referring to game development being hard? I'm not sure. Yeah, game development is incredibly hard to do. As for third party addons being important, not really imo, not if the default UI makes sense.
Problem is, the term "finished" means different things to different people. It's one of those entirely subjective statements. Everyone will say "Launched with most bugs sorted out and enough content to keep players entertained". The trick is in the latter half of that statement. Everyone who says "the game is unfinished" has their own idea of what "finished" is. It could be a very general statement regarding the amount of content. It could be referring to a specific type of content (e.g. PvP, end-game raids, etc...).
Some people feel what's in the game right now is enough to keep them entertained. Others feel nothing short of 100s of hours of content, up through and including a fully realized and developed end-game would be enough. Others are at various places in the middle.
My personal opinion is there should be enough options, and enough to do among those options, to keep a variety of players entertained at a pace where they feel they're making progress, but not so fast that they're able to burn through everything in a few weeks, or are doing the same activities over and over, simply because there are no other options. To me, that's where FFXIV is right now. There's just not enough variety in the activities. Levequests, for example, are seriously lacking in the "variety" dept. in my opinion. There have been a number of times where almost every leve I did was a version of the "kill 9 mobs, the 10th runs away and spawns 4 more" deals. That gets extremely boring. I still hope they borrow from the idea behind Assault in XI for leves, making more of them completely unique, rather than based on the same template.... but that's a whole other story.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
oh god...
This game was trying to be WoW straight from the get.
It had a confused and blurry vision, which at its core was "how do we get numbers like WoW" , straight from the get.
To think that FF14 was the product of a team and director with a strong vision and desire to carry it out, is delusional.
They have wanted to cater to the masses from the get. The only question is will they eventually create a finsihed and working game, or will it always be clunky and broken.
I love snails.
I love every kinda snail.
I just want to hug them all, but I cant.
Cant hug every snail.
I don't think using a UI that is functional to the vast majority of the MMO player base is all that bad.
Having a strong vision/desire has nothing to do with 'my way or the highway'. If you really want your product to succeed, there is little to gain by trying to reinvent the wheel.
UI is one of the greatest scorn FF14 is getting from critics at the moment.
FF7 redefined the PS/N64 era that is still being felt today. FF7 was the system seller for PS that nintendo never recovered until the Wii.
If you want to aim your game to something, aiming it to be a re-defining game of an era is ambitious/worthy IMO.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
That's if you use that part of the definition. I'm talking about 100% completion. For instance, if a game claims it is gonna have end game content and some of it is missing when the players get there.
No kidding... All they have to do for core ideas is do what has taken them 8 years of hard work to do...follow FFXI. You can change tons of little things to give it it's own flavor but ffs, FFXI did grouping RIGHT! Funny thing, EQ2 tried to be a "group game, but solo too" once WOW started kicking ass and look where it's winded up. Final Fantasy was never meant to be a western game so STOP FUCKING BUILDING IT AS SUCH.
Like I said... everyone has their own idea of what "finished" is. I was sharing mine, you expressed yours. Perfect example of what I mean. The game could have come out in a state that was 100% finished to most people, and still left you feeling it was incomplete. It wouldn't make you 'wrong', it would simply mean your personal preferences hadn't been met. It's really one of those things that can never be solved for everyone; right up there with "too much grind" or "fast enough progress", etc.
Every person who says any of those things has their own personal definition of what "good enough" is and it's impossible for a developer to appease everyone. Not that they shouldn't try... just that there is no objective measure of it. There is no book of rules out there that sets the guidelines for "what a MMO must have at launch to be considered complete". I don't say that just for SE and FFXIV, but for all developers.
I'm not quite sure how that kind of thing can be "fixed", really. And, yes, I know some smartass is going to say "it can be fixed by releasing a completed game"... but that would only lead to a circular argument.
For me personally, I feel it ultimately comes down to the individual. The developer has to release the game they feel is as complete and "ready" as possible. At the end of the day, I as the consumer have to decide "Okay, I'd like the game to be in "this" state. However, I find it's falling a bit short and is only in "this" state. Is it still enough for me to enjoy while they get the rest up to speed? Yes? Great, then I'll play. No? Then I'll pass for now and check back later. That seems to have worked for me.
It's a tricky scenario that, actually, Yoshida seems to understand as he touches on that in his recent interview. The repeatable nature of levequests might have been a way SE was trying to get around that in XIV with levequests, by providing a sort of "endless" supply of quests... trouble is those quests lack variety. They've been compared a lot to dailies though, in my opinion, they're worse than that. Dailies supplement the core content in other MMOs. Leves pretty much (at this point anyway) are the main content in XIV.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
For an interview of this magnitude, I think Square Enix should have provided a translator. Considering that major changes to the entire game may be coming sometime this year and the person interviewed was none other than the new Director/Producer, I don’t think that asking for the lengthy interview to be translated is asking too much, even though I understand the interview was done specifically for a Japanese online video game website. FFXIV is a global product, so you might as well get the message out.
While Elmer’s translation was accurate, it turned out to be a very short summary of the entire interview. Soukyuu went more in depth, but the questions were not translated at all, and there were a few mistranslated sentences hence why some parts had a question mark or in parentheses trying to give his best interpretation. But for the most part he was spot on.
Corinth from Eorzeapedia did an amazing job at translating both the questions and answers word for word. While it is not translated from Square Enix, this is probably as an “official” release of this interview as we are going to get. It is definitely much more fluid throughout. He has translated Part I and II but has yet to finish III which currently has no ETA (although he said he will try to finish it sometime this week).
I am only posting the links because I didn’t realize how long the interview was going to look like translated in English and also because most of what was posted here is in that interview. But for those that want to see the interview with the questions here are the links:
Naoki Yoshida (Part 1)
Naoki Yoshida (Part 2)
Well now, I'm ever more excited for XIVs future!
Seriously though, why couldn't this guy have been the original Producer/Director for FFXIV, there was more exciting info and competence in everything he said than Tanaka ever did from all his interviews combined. He's sounds very smart and appears to be well versed in western MMOs as well as their history. And regardless of the heavy WoW references, {which was expected} but as long as all they make similar are the UI and LUA Scripting, then all is good.
FF14 has won 'Jury Rigging' ability... add scraps of others games to a broken one still makes a pile of crap.
Wow is basically the game which bitch slapped the mmo world, just like FFVII was the game that did it for regular rpg's way back when. it makes sense he mentions and gives credence to it (even if you don't like that he does, which part of me doesn't).....i don't think they want to match the wow numbers...frankly they lost alot of people on first impression, but they at least want to offer a alternative that would grab hold just as much.
Played:FFXI, WoW, LOTR,EQ. Playing:FFXIV.
Looking Forward To:DCU, SWTOR.