End of the Year/New Year Greeting

[Camate]

Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone had an amazing holiday season and is ready to make 2013 into an awesome year. :)

While this might be just a tad late, I wanted to share Producer Akihiko Matsui’s end of the year greeting with you all.



This year (2012) was the FINAL FANTASY 25th Anniversary and in this time I have been requested to work on a few projects – the old person that I am.

While this is completely unrelated to FFXI, since the there won’t be too many posts during the year-end through New Year holidays, I decided to pick something from long ago to post about today.

(Warning: There are spoilers for the Super Famicom version of FFIV. For those of you playing the iPhone version please be careful.)

Now then, the first team I belonged to was the FFIV team.

I think I wrote this some place before, but the first work that I was delegated was the creation of memory maps. This was my first official task, but there was actually an unofficial first bit of work of sorts, which I personally believe I did a pretty good job on.

Back in that time, each cubicle at Square had a Mac and the LAN was set up with Apple Talk. Sakaguchi shared the unfinished plot of FFIV with everyone on the LAN and the development team members were able to post their complaints ideas. It was a very nice environment.

It was here that I was able to influence a change in the one portion of the plot related to Edward even though I wasn’t asked. In Sakaguchi’s original plot, after Anna’s death Edward awakens and becomes extremely powerful in battle. I just couldn’t agree with this.

I told him that a weakling does not stop being a weakling just because his girlfriend dies, and I thought he was going to lash back saying that I was the world’s biggest weakling, but I managed to persuade Sakaguchi. He was set things in motion as if it was a pain enthusiastically and changed the plot to the current FFIV plot.

Though very minor, this was just one thing that I was able to do.
Edward was created to save the party through his songs. Don’t you think this was a good way to change it?

With that said, please have a wonderful New Year!

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/attachment.php?attachmentid=5455&d=1356685363 (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/attachment.php?attachmentid=5455&d=1356685363)

[Ophannus]

I'm glad he did that. I'm tired of those 'shounen' moment in manga/anime where a weak character suddenly gets a power boost just because they're avenging somebody i.e every anime ever.

[Seyomeyo]

I don't want to derail this too much, but maybe I can get an answer for this.

FFIV spoilers:

If that was the case with Edward, what was the thought process behind Edge?

[Prrsha]

This year (2012) was the FINAL FANTASY 25th Anniversary and in this time I have been requested to work on a few projects – the old person that I am.

While this is completely unrelated to FFXI, since the there won’t be too many posts during the year-end through New Year holidays, I decided to pick something from long ago to post about today.

(Warning: There are spoilers for the Super Famicom version of FFIV. For those of you playing the iPhone version please be careful.)

Now then, the first team I belonged to was the FFIV team.

I think I wrote this some place before, but the first work that I was delegated was the creation of memory maps. This was my first official task, but there was actually an unofficial first bit of work of sorts, which I personally believe I did a pretty good job on.

Back in that time, each cubicle at Square had a Mac and the LAN was set up with Apple Talk. Sakaguchi shared the unfinished plot of FFIV with everyone on the LAN and the development team members were able to post their complaints ideas. It was a very nice environment.

It was here that I was able to influence a change in the one portion of the plot related to Edward even though I wasn’t asked. In Sakaguchi’s original plot, after Anna’s death Edward awakens and becomes extremely powerful in battle. I just couldn’t agree with this.

I told him that a weakling does not stop being a weakling just because his girlfriend dies, and I thought he was going to lash back saying that I was the world’s biggest weakling, but I managed to persuade Sakaguchi. He was set things in motion as if it was a pain enthusiastically and changed the plot to the current FFIV plot.

Though very minor, this was just one thing that I was able to do.
Edward was created to save the party through his songs. Don’t you think this was a good way to change it?

With that said, please have a wonderful New Year!


Happy new year Matsui-san! May you have good fortune in the following year.

FFIV was one of my top 3 favorite Final Fantasy series of all times (yes I have played every one of them. I still have my NES cart of FF1 and the manual/box and strategy guide :3). I was really excited when I heard that you were going to take over leadership of FFXI many months ago. I know your main role in designing the original FFXI was in the design of the battle system, I am pleased that a member of the original crew still holds the lead developer post. I was saddened to see so many of FFXI's original developers go by the way side. I was really saddened when Koichi Ishii and Hironobu Sakaguchi left as well. =;_;=

You are one of the last people that were a part of the making of FFXI and that gives me hope. Also I was wondering, is Kenichi Iwao still working with SE? I know Iwao was responsible for much of FFXI's lore and storyline. Rumors said he was working on the storyline for the new FFXIV now. As writer of the of the first Resident Evil video game, he has much to offer to the storyline of the upcoming expansion. Will he be returning?

I know how hard it must feel to be tossed into a mess of code with complaints galore. I have hope you can bring FFXI back on track to the game that Ishii, Sakaguchi, and Tanaka envisioned. I know it is a large legacy and a tall order, but I wish you the best of luck. I also hope we as a community can come together and guide you to an end goal that players of all nationalities will enjoy and FFXI can be an example to all other MMOs of what a great game should be.

[Edyth]

I think that your suggestion was a very good one. You avoided a cliche even though it cost Edward his power. Unless Edward had once been planned for the final party in FFIV, there were no endgame repercussions caused by this decision; just a more believable story.

[Corey]

edward's tragedy of losing his lady may certainly lead him to singing to soothe his heartbreak. all the better if it benefits the party. keen decision, i'd say. here's hoping you can discover the "edwards" of ffxi!

[Prrsha]

Maybe he will send some love to BRD in FFXI as tribute now. :3

[Yrusama]

I don't want to derail this too much, but maybe I can get an answer for this.

FFIV spoilers:

If that was the case with Edward, what was the thought process behind Edge?

Haha, technically Edge is the only real Edward there (Edward Geraldine). In any case, Edge was more of a hot head than Edward, who spent most of his time moping. Plus his ability list makes more sense for a super charge. How would it work with Edward Chris von Muir? "Edward learns sadder, more potent songs due to his deep grief."

Don't get me wrong. I like both Edwards in IV, but I'm glad one of them could serve as a frame of reference that not everyone who joins your party is destined for combat greatness. He really proves his political worth in The After Years, though.

[oliveira]

Camate, tell your boss to get Ishii back ! We need our Seiken Densetsu fix.

Also thanks for translating Matsui awesome post. m(_ _)m

[Rosalie]

I don't want to derail this too much, but maybe I can get an answer for this.

FFIV spoilers:

If that was the case with Edward, what was the thought process behind Edge?

*SPOILER ALERT*

[Camate]

Greetings everyone!

The development team has just returned to the office after their customary new year's celebration and a couple key members have a nice message to kick-off 2013.

Producer Akihiko Matsui:



Happy New Year.

Last year I focused on gathering and listening to your opinions. This year, in addition to that, I would like to place more of an emphasis on keeping you informed about the vision of FFXI.

I'm sorry that this is somewhat abstract, but first, I'll be putting all of my energy into raising the satisfaction levels of all you adventuring in Vana'diel. Then I would like to adjust the difficulty of content and each their targets as well as modify features so that past adventurers can return to FFXI.

This year marks the release of Seekers of Adoulin and although I took a somewhat long winter break, I will be working at full speed toward its release at the end of March.

I'm looking forward to a good year with you all.

*Sorry that my New Year's greeting was late. I'll start posting a lot more from tomorrow onward.

Director Mizuki Ito:



Happy New Year.

Last year I spent a lot of time on Adoulin-related development and a full year has come to an end. We're currently in the midst of the final stretch finalizing Seekers of Adoulin.

The development team has a mountain of work this year as well, but as opposed to 2012 where the manpower wasn't being divided, this year we're working with Matsui to build a structure that allows us to better meet the feedback seen on the forums.

Everyone is working passionately on Seekers of Adoulin, so please look forward to a great year of FFXI.


Associate Director Yoji Fujito:



Happy New Year!

Since the middle of 2012, I started popping up a bit more around the forums. Thinking back, I think I might have been a bit too much of a tongue-in-the-cheek kind of character, but I hope you're all enjoying it.

In preparation for the release of Seekers of Adoulin, the entire development team is working extremely hard and even I, who is normally calm and composed, am running around as busy as a bee. For real!

This year we'll be developing new content and stories centered around Seekers of Adoulin, but we'll also be putting in all of our energy to tackle some of the outstanding issues as well. (Such as the PS2 blackout issue, as well as fishing and synergy revamps.)

We appreciate your continued patronage of FFXI this year as well!

[Michizane]

Can I take Yoji Fujito home with me and give them to my niece as a pet? She would love a baby chocobo. >.>;

[Mayoyama]

Can you also (in amongst all the Adoulin stuff) please look back at not only all the stuff that was meant to be implemented last year (as per the timeline), but all the topics that the dev reps said would be looked into and never got heard from again?

I know I personally would love to hear Mr Matsui's answer to the upgraded COP/TOAU/WOTG rings threads that sounded like they were genuinely interested and may go ahead with it.. and then nothing for over a year.

Also the increase of meritable ws from 3 to 5... which has been brought up in countless threads

All you would have to do is look back through the dev rep's posts to be able to find several examples of these unanswered threads

[xbobx]

What I would like to see is simple changes to be put through faster. My bet is adding the recycle trait to rangers like you said months ago would probably take a few hours to program and probably wouldn't need testing.

So, question is, why has it not been implemented yet?

[Camate]

Hello!

I'd like to pass along the below response from Producer Akihiko Matsui in regards to acquiring new players.






Happy New Year!

I'm really happy that you are placing such an emphasis on increasing the satisfaction levels for current adventurers as well as looking to bring adventurers back.

However, I feel a bit uneasy that there was no mention of acquiring new players. Even though it's a 10 year old game, XI is still awesome and I’d love to see new adventurers coming in.


Sorry to worry you, but we're not giving up on acquiring new players.

From a task perspective, focusing on new players and adjusting low-level content is easier.

However, focusing on that would mean that adventurers playing now would have to wait quite a while to then address their needs. So we'd like to add and adjust high level elements. (This is the general principle, though there exceptions on an individual basis.)

Our main goal is to make FFXI fun for everyone currently playing, so that you can tell your friends who haven't played yet, or those that used to play, to join and play with you and that the game is much more fun now that it was before.

I believe that at this current point in time, this is the most important aspect for new player acquisition.

[FrankReynolds]

Hello!

I'd like to pass along the below response from Producer Akihiko Matsui in regards to acquiring new players.


However, focusing on that would mean that adventurers playing now would have to wait quite a while to then address their needs. So we'd like to add and adjust high level elements. (This is the general principle, though there exceptions on an individual basis.)

I believe that at this current point in time, this is the most important aspect for new player acquisition.

I think the best way to do this would be to bring on more staff so that you can do both. Instead of constantly deciding who / what to ignore.

[Zhronne]

I'm sure more staff will come after the release of FFXIV, and I'm sure even more if the sales of Seekers of Adoulin will be satisfying :)

[Kraggy]

In all honesty, XI will never attract any great number of new players, because old-style grind-fests which is what XI still largely is is not what 'new gamers' want.

Even after the 'dumbification' as some long time XI players refer to features like FOV/GOV etc., XI is still a group-centric mob grind, the quest system such as it is plays no part in character leveling and precious little in terms of character development: the entire trip 1-99 is about killing mobs, of the same few types, over and over and over again.

Players who love XI generally like game features which are the antithesis of 'modern' games: witness what Yoshi had to do to XIV to convert it from a poor XI-clone that Tanaka made it (and, to be honest like many XI players were demanding) into something he [Yoshi] thinks he can actually sell to gamers in the year 2013 .. we're not in the late '90s any more, MMO-wise, which is largely where XI is stuck.

Whether the upcoming expansion succeeds in pleasing current XI players or not, it will do little to nothing to gain many new players.

[xbobx]

I'm sure more staff will come after the release of FFXIV, and I'm sure even more if the sales of Seekers of Adoulin will be satisfying :)

Don't you mean after FFXIV fails and they need to reassign the programmers?

[Winrie]

Don't you mean after FFXIV fails and they need to reassign the programmers?

FFXIV in its alpha/Beta stages is more entertaining than XI. Just throwing that out there.

[Helel]

FFXIV in its alpha/Beta stages is more entertaining than XI. Just throwing that out there.

Um, no.

Just throwing that out there.

[Waldrich]

Bring a new player to an officer and ask him to play the game for 3 months w/o asking question or checking internet... if he meet "actual standard of the FFXI" and what "veteran players ask from a new player", I'd love to see him doing some missions w/o any "shared information" out there. I'm sure he would need like 1 whole year to be where I can put my mule in 1 month.

[Trumpy]

although i think i got the jist of what waldrich just said i am not wholey sure.

you are saying if you put a new player in the game with no outside information sources he would have no idea what to do?

[xbobx]

That is what he is saying. This game is horrible when it comes to guidance. Missions hardly ever point you to what you need to do. Most rpgs at least say, go get iron ore. This game would say i want something and leave it at that.

[Waldrich]

although i think i got the jist of what waldrich just said i am not wholey sure.

you are saying if you put a new player in the game with no outside information sources he would have no idea what to do?

"w/o asking questions or checking internet" some of basic stuff become a big achievement:

- I would love to see that guy getting sub job quest done.

- Having more than only 30 inventory spaces.

- Getting airship pass to Kazham.

- Getting Mog Locker unlocked.

- Getting Storage space.

- Finding the way to Xarcabard to do his LB Quest.

- Getting SMN leveled with all avatars! "Just messing"

[Waldrich]

The thing is you need to actually make your friend believe they'll enjoy the game 3~4 months after they first started playing.

You gotta ask your friend to not give up on doing nothing but running around and pressing "Attack".

[Trumpy]

I remember a mission for COP where there was no guidance from the last mission of what to do. checkin online of course i found that i needed to go to one of the zones near tavnazia and click a door which spawns a Detector mob. at no point was there any rationalization to do this. and further more a detector which was only seen in game in sky at that point was the mob it spawned?! to this day the only thing i could think of that would lead me here was i might have gotten 1-2 CSes there in the past. from the moment i spawned that thing i remembered thinkin WTF is wrong with this game, how would anyone figure this out without lookin online or even DAT mining. this is jsut an example of what we are talkin bout.

[Elexia]

In all honesty, XI will never attract any great number of new players, because old-style grind-fests which is what XI still largely is is not what 'new gamers' want

Yes yes, people like you said this every year after the NA PS2 release.