Gamasutra Interview with Yoshi-P and Sage Sundi

[BelgianRofl]

And coming off what I said before, if we had used investors' money to do this, we probably couldn't do this. It's because Square Enix is funding this project 100 percent. That's why we can do this. Only Square Enix can do something like this.

Wada's biggest mistake was entrusting Tanaka to do his job.

Another thing is what type of information each region wants on their posts. For example, in Japan, they just want the hardcore facts. They want to know what's going in the game, how much stuff will change, is it going up or is it going down. Whereas, in America, it's more like they want to know more about what type of person is this new director. Is he crazy? Is he nice? What is he thinking? They want to know more about him as a person. And the thing is, on the other hand, Japan, they don't really care much about that.

I agree. The american's make a huge deal about factors OTHER than what is actually going to be done.... With gossip magazines all over our grocery store checkout lines, and america's #1 show being Jersey Shore, this does not surprise me... just saddens me to see where we've gone since the 50s.

Again, we do realize that the people that are still playing now are people who are very loyal, so they're going to want to expect the best. But we do realize that there are a lot of people who play, but then quit. And so our next step is that we have to show them that, yes, we have this plan and we have this vision and we want to change this. And so that's our next step. That's also very important to us.

Sage Sundi... you're essentially reading a transcript of Belgian Rofl posts but not giving credit for your source.. That's ok... I forgive and forget.

[Corrderio]

Betting it has more to do with the particular engine than anything.

Guess we'll see. Someone said the game could do better in terms of how it uses hardware (I'm not sure to what extent, but given SE mostly uses consoles for games it wouldn't surprise me since FFXI was the first real PC game they've released outside of the days before FF) so who knows.

[Shelia]

I agree. The american's make a huge deal about factors OTHER than what is actually going to be done.... With gossip magazines all over our grocery store checkout lines, and america's #1 show being Jersey Shore, this does not surprise me... just saddens me to see where we've gone since the 50s.

Yeah, I agree with you. What they do should matter, not who's developing. In a sense it kind of does matter, but unless the person has a consistently bad track record it's not really anything to bother with as long as they're doing what they're supposed to.

[Dreamer]

This line really jumped out at me:

"So, for this one, I'm saying that yeah, maybe, a 70 percent change might be necessary to get it to something that I envision as a cool battle system."

I expect them to make a lot of changes, but that's essentially a completely refactoring of the battle system. That worries me quite a bit, since I actually LIKE a lot of stuff about the current system.

Also, I found the below to be just interesting in and of itself:

"For example, in Japan, Japanese people have a really busy lifestyle, a lot of stuff to do, work. So, the Japanese players wanted us to keep a lot of the solo aspect, because they liked the aspect that you can solo a lot.

Whereas in Europe, a lot of the European users wanted more of a Final Fantasy feel to the game. They wanted airships and Chocobos. They wanted it to feel more like a Final Fantasy game that they envisioned.

Whereas the U.S. was more "Okay, we want parties. We want to have big battles where we get with our friends and put together strategies." And so, while everyone is saying that they want the changes, this 20 percent, there are some differences between the regions."

[Abriael]

it's sanitized PR, did you expect the "I'll be truthful with you" approach?

Actually he looks pretty much candid to me.

Wada's biggest mistake was entrusting Tanaka to do his job.

Pointing fingers while knowing absolutely nothing about conditions and backgrounds is rather silly.

Sage Sundi... you're essentially reading a transcript of Belgian Rofl posts but not giving credit for your source.. That's ok... I forgive and forget.

Maybe he's not giving undue credit because it has nothing to do with the source you mean. He's not saying "game sucks! SE sucks! Tanaka sucks! Rotflcopter!"

Thankfully, I'd add.

[BelgianRofl]

All Yoshi-P needs to do at this point to restore hope is to come out and tell us exactly what his plans are for changing the current system. Such a simple task would at least pull teetering fans pack onto FFXIV's side of the fence.

Please, Yoshi-P... Give us something! Anything! We tire of Eorzea!

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ll=1#post63186

Posted 2 hours before the news about auto-attack. Hence the fine brandy and cigar at work.

You see - you do not need to cater to the die-hard fans. They'll stay no matter how much you change the game! In Fact, you shouldn't even be surveying the people who still play the game. You need to find out why people left or don't even want to play. The few die-hard fans will be with you to the end, no matter what you do or say!

Posted an hour after that.

Yoshi-P has a task force dedicated to reading my posts and acting on them. He also understands that it'd be suicide to respond to my posts or use my name in anything. It would be political suicide; it'd be the only way to get the super-fans to leave eorzea.

Knowledge of this makes me happy.

http://youtu.be/GGXzlRoNtHU

[Abriael]

Posted 2 hours before the news about auto-attack. Hence the fine brandy and cigar.

Correlation does not imply causation. Yoshida responded to a specific question from several tens of constructive posters, not from uncostructive and extremely generic doom&gloom complaining from someone that never actually ever touched the argument.

You see - you do not need to cater to the die-hard fans. They'll stay no matter how much you change the game! In Fact, you shouldn't even be surveying the people who still play the game. You need to find out why people left or don't even want to play. The few die-hard fans will be with you to the end, no matter what you do or say!

You seem not to be aware that this is exctly the opposite of a large part of what Sage says.
He says they need to cater to both groups, you say that they need to care just for one (of course, YOUR group, how convenient is that...) and disregard the others because they'll stay anyway (which is grossly untrue). Completely different.

Yoshi-P has a task force dedicated to reading my posts and acting on them.

It must be nice to live on dreams.

He also understands that it'd be suicide to respond to my posts or use my name in anything.

He actually has no reason to respond to them, as there's not an ounce of constructiveness in them. It's that simple.

[BelgianRofl]

You jelly?

http://i.imgur.com/y8Lax.jpg

[Abriael]

You jelly?

I mostly enjoy demolishing flawed arguments and crushing silly delusions of grandeur Makes for great entertainment while working, and you're quite perfect for that.

But mind you, you're free to continue thinking that your continuous barking gets anything done. I'll continue to support the ones that actually provide constructive feedback, to which Yoshida and the team continue to directly answer, while completely ignoring you

[Zaene]

You jelly?

http://i.imgur.com/y8Lax.jpg

This my friend is pretty epic, I cannot lie.