March 23, 2004 - On the eve of the launch of
the HDD and Final Fantasy XI, a crowd gathered at the doors of the PlayStation store at the Metreon in San Francisco. Gamers were eager to be the first ones in the whole country to play FFXI on the PS2. While they spent a few hours for a glimpse of the massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG for short), we got a chance to talk to Yasu Kurosawa, producer, and Keiki Usui, online service manager, and pick their brains on the game that is sure to devour hundreds, if not thousands, of hours for Final Fantasy fans.
IGNPS2:
How does it feel to have everything done with the release of FFXI?
Yasu Kurosawa: It's very exciting to see a lot of players on there. A lot of players who haven't played MMORPGs before, too.
IGNPS2: Have there been any translation issues between the American and the Japanese players online?
Yasu Kurosawa: We didn't think it was going to be used that much, but almost every player has been using it. Before they go into battle they pre-macro sentences. A lot of people also use that for searching for help or party members.
IGNPS2: So people haven't been having any problems with it?
Yasu Kurosawa: I'm sure
there are problems in the communicating, but in terms of playing the game and looking for party members and doing the battles and quests it's working out pretty well.
IGNPS2: Right now, FFXI goes up to level 75 and I've already been running into people who are at level 75. What are you going to be providing for those who have reached that level?
Yasu Kurosawa: Increasing the level is not the only way to entertain high-level people. [We're ] introducing new quests and monsters that require more than one high-level character to finish. We're also bringing in [Peer vs. Peer]. It's not like we will turn this game into a PvP fest, but it will be there.
IGNPS2: We'll be hearing a lot more details soon? Is there anything we can learn about the downloads for the game?
Yasu Kurosawa: We are coming up with a new expansion pack. That detail will be announced shortly. We will continue to do a monthly patch for new items.
IGNPS2: Have there been any problems with people cheating online?
Yasu Kurosawa: It does happen and we think that we can prevent most of it because it's not fair to other players. There are a few ways to monitor that and prevent it. One of course is 24/7 GM, the other is to keep changing the method of encryptions. Most of the important stats are on the servers so it's difficult to change it.
IGNPS2: Could you tell me more about the 24/7 GMs?
Yasu Kurosawa: These are the Game Masters, the in-game supporters. They will be invisible until they are required to show up. They're mostly invisible.
IGNPS2: How has the community been shaping up so far?
Keiki Usui: There are a lot of English speaking players. About one-third is speaking English. And now with PS2 players there should be even more. Part of the beauty of the MMO is that players are not just leveling up, but they
are also teaching other players. After they reach the high levels they love to teach the new players. Some of the link shell, their purpose is to be teaching the others.
IGNPS2: Are people getting any compensation for helping others or is it just because they want to do it?
Keiki Usui: Well, we are planning something about this. We will announce it maybe in a couple weeks. Maybe the next patch will contain something for those who teach other players.
IGNPS2: Are people staying on one server or are they moving around?
Keiki Usui: Not many players [move around]. They are sticking to one world. The average players have two to three characters per world. They don't change servers.
IGNPS2: So is everything separate from server to server?
Yasu Kurosawa: In other games people can have characters on different servers. One of the features that we have in FFXI is sending items, like FedEx. Our shipment feature is very well received and people tend to create different characters in different locations and purchase something and send it to another character. So creating another character in another server is beneficial for this.
IGNPS2: So people are running two to three characters on average, but what is the maximum that you've seen?
Yasu Kurosawa: The biggest is 16, that's
the maximum per account. Some people create characters just to reserve the name or for storage.
IGNPS2: How many people are playing online right now?
Yasu Kurosawa: We have over a million characters and 500,000 accounts. We'll be seeing a lot more in the next couple of months. We're seeing a lot of different people. People who have never played an MMORPG before. We designed it in a way so that those people can also enjoy the game.
IGNPS2: What are the biggest barriers for people who haven't played MMORPGs before?
Yasu Kurosawa: Once you log in, they don't know what to do. Final Fantasy will
usually greet people with a storyline and cutscenes and then they're motivated to do the next thing. We incorporated that into this game also. We greet them with a cutscene. The major people, including the high-level people will come up and tell the user what the world is like and give you a real easy quest. Then people who have never done and MMORPG can do that and then figure out that there are other people around you that you can ask for help and also party up with.
IGNPS2: Right now we see different companies entering the MMORPG genre such as Blizzard with their World of Warcraft for PC. What are you emphasizing for the flavor of the Final Fantasy series?
Yasu Kurosawa: The same feel that we've been bringing to the users with the previous games in the series. The whole storyline to enjoy, the characters, the magic, the spells, the Chocobo. We have small quests and also missions to follow
for people in your nation. As you help out with an adventure for your nation you find out what's going on in the world of Vana'diel right now. That's the way the storyline progresses and each expansion pack is the next chapter in the storyline.
-- Ed Lewis
Source : http://ps2.ign.com/articles/501/501231p1.htmlArticle Source: www.warcry.com
