subject: Famitsu - Interview With Tanaka And Komoto [print this page] Tanaka: The current situation regarding the alpha test is conducted by testing phase of four hours each, for each region - Japan, North America and Europe. I must admit that the server is still not very stable and thus the game is not playable at one hundred percent. We are causing headaches for some players who were lucky enough to be selected for the alpha test, but with each update we improve our best experience in.
- What causes server instability?
Tanaka: We have the same number of testers by region, but referring to our experience with respect to the beta test for Final Fantasy XI, we realized that only 50% of players were connected at the same time. In addition, the testers from Japan have all been selected because they are passionate fans of Final Fantasy XI, so they really wanted to play, and the percentage of these so-called testers connected is very high. The servers do not experience too many crashes during the test phases for North America and Europe.
Regarding the update of 15 April, we increased the time required between each reconnection order to retain your place in the queue to 10 minutes and have introduced a system to see your current position in said queue . This allowed people who were waiting to be able to connect to have a visual indication as to their progress, and this allows us to better manage all of this.
Komoto: Regarding tests themselves, we apologize sincerely to those who have not tried the game and played as much as they wanted. We are also extremely grateful for all feedback and opinions on the game we were able to collect so far.
- What are your impressions of the feedback you have received?
Komoto: They are very different from those we receive from the side of the development team. They raise several small things we do not watch out. On top of that, there are differences rather interesting for the views of each region. Personally, it was a big change for me since I've been away from any action, devoting all my time working on Final Fantasy XI. Now that people can connect and that the alpha test is finally moving, I can once again interact with developers and the administration - I feel to be back home.
- Do developers have logged into the game?
Komoto: We would like also, but we have not increased the number of people can connect to the game, so we made sure to restrict (laughs). Not that many players want to have the chance to play.
Tanaka: In the first test phase was the only one in front of my PC to fight the crowd to try to connect my character (laughs).
- Really? (Laughs). We could have known it was your character if we had seen?
Tanaka: I logged on as "Azagba Tanaka," then you'd probably have had your idea (laughs). We can see the logs of conversations on the development side, but it's hard to imagine what the players can do just that with the eyes. So I wanted to connect as a representative to be able to see firsthand what was really going in.
- The producer had to do it alone, right? (Laughs). Is there any particular opinions of players that you have left an impression?
Komoto: The alpha test is currently focused on the basic controls and movements, there were comments like what the reaction time was slow, or that a particular command needed to be arranged. We had considered some problems vis--vis the controls and have suggested the site of the alpha test that people could tarnish us informed if, for example, say these orders were difficult to assimilate without tutorial. As we suspected, many people have confirmed that they were difficult to grasp. This is something that we believe needs to be arranged by the game's release
Tanaka: We strive to be interested in any problems receiving a large number of feedback. One interesting thing to note is the difference in the number of feedback received for Testing forum in Japan, North America and Europe. Japan has about 5000 messages. Europe and North America have larger numbers with respectively 19.000 and 25,000 posts. The number of testers for each region is the same, but we more or less five messages in North America for a message from Japan, which shows a difference of culture between regions. In addition, North Americans tend to make more suggestions. A bit like: "Listen to my ideas!" (Laughs).
- This means that Japanese players are a little more "tolerant", then?
Komoto: That's more than they take more time to analyze the situation. We thought they would have been more scathing feedback against us, but it did not happen as planned. It's more like they were trying to help rather than criticize us.
- So what you are saying is that you do not have time to be especially attentive to the players?
Komoto: That's good, but it's not as if we had the feeling of having accomplished something since (laughs). Although I like to be back on the administrative side of things.
Tanaka: We always have mountains of work to do (laughs). We are currently look at several aspects of the alpha test to look more closely at things that need to be modified. Even when the official version becomes available, we must prepare for the following projects, so I do not think we will feel any sense of accomplishment or completion.
- But that's part of working on an MMO - it's never really "finished".
Komoto: Make sure to create an event where all fans can get together we still brings a sense of accomplishment. A way of saying: "We did it!" (Laughs).
Tanaka: I'm having this feeling every time I log in and I see the players enjoy their experience in. The alpha version is not there yet so I work hard in order to achieve this outcome.
- Since Final Fantasy XI has been announced, you suggested that the game will evolve according to feedback from various players. Is it still possible to assert that right now and say that nothing has changed on this side?
Komoto: No, nothing has changed. It does not change when the game officially released and that services are available. There are many things we want to arrange and we can not provide a product with only the things we love. At this stage, we want to know what you want most. Of course we do not just want to hear about the negatives, we want to make sure to consider everyone's opinion for the future of the game
- In other words, during the phases of alpha and beta, you want players you do share their opinions even if they are benign?
Tanaka: Yes.
Komoto: As mentioned, the opinion of the players often contains things we do not especially gaffe-side development team. Even before the alpha test begins, we released a manual for the game, and players had to give their opinion on it (laughs). Developers have learned something by looking at what players have raised.
Tanaka: In some cons, we were able to confirm some assumptions we made on our side.
Komoto: There are two aims: explore the things we do not particularly care, and confirm our hypotheses. That's why every comment is important to us.
- Let's talk about phases of testing and planning. Can we say that the size and capability during the test phases will increase over time?
Tanaka: We always look it, but for this first phase of alpha testing we try to combine the three phases of testing per week.
Komoto: We believe it is necessary to maintain server stability so that people can enjoy the game
Tanaka: As far as the test region, we plan to change that. There are always people who can not attend in time to connect during the hours data.
- How long do you think this alpha test will last?
Komoto: We had a general idea at first, but the server stability has caused more problems than we thought. It still plans to watch the evolution of the players once their character has taken a few levels.
Tanaka: Currently, we have provided two ways to change the characters, so we plan to remove all of the characters at some point during the alpha test. Once we have collected enough information about the current trend of people, we will remove them and start over but this time with the latter possibility.
- So at some point we will all start over.
Komoto: That's right. This does not concern only the alpha, beta but also, once things are proceeding smoothly, we plan to do this several times until the official release of the game
- Once you have considered how to develop characters, did you take to the beta?
Tanaka: Currently, the alpha test takes place in one world. The next step is to give access to several of these worlds, which will multiply the number of testers. This will be the beginning of what we may call "Beta 1" or perhaps "Alpha 2".
- The plans vary depending on the situation then.
Tanaka: It depends on the kind of feedback we collect and rate of development towards a final product, we can thus claim the current game being a "beta version".
- Currently, the regions are separated during the test, it is expected that players can play together in the future?
Tanaka: It will probably happen when the world in question will run 24 hours on 24. We are currently working on that.
- How things work she later development?
Tanaka: The graphics are almost completed. For the next step, planners and programmers will need to make final adjustments, but it's hard to say what percentage currently is finalizing the game (laughs). Even with the graphics done, there are things that need to be improved. For example, the brightness in Limsa Lominsa will completely change.
- Is the overall structure of the world is she, it, complete?
Tanaka: The bases are more or less finished. As I mentioned, it is mostly cosmetic changes to do (laughs). Things about the system, like interface, or equipment necessary for additional quests are for their always up to date. If we consider the fact that Final Fantasy XIV is in development for five years, we're probably about the remaining 10% of its development cycle, which represents 50% of the game
Komoto: With the launch of the alpha test, we begin to look at character development, making it even larger today's world, quests and more. Looking at the Alpha as it is currently, fewer than 10% of the game available.
Tanaka: In terms of development progress, a conservative estimate would favor 65% (laughs).
- Currently, the alpha test is only available on PC. How is development on the PS3?
Tanaka: We work a lot on the PS3 too. We plan to launch the two services simultaneously.
- Is it legitimate for PS3 players to remain on their guard?
Tanaka & Komoto: Yes! We hope many of you will play.
