Hiromichi Tanaka Leaving Square Enix For Health Reasons

[noodles355]

Back in the day it was all tuberculosis. TB is probably something akin to a religion to Japan, considering how often it kills Anime and manga characters.

The New Zealand government doesn't consider Japan a low-risk country for TB. I had to take a chest x-ray when I applied for a NZ Visa as I had been in Japan in the last 3 years or whatever. Interestingly, the Australian embassy didn't give a fuck.

[Khamsin]

I don't see much changing. It's still going to be the same staff otherwise.

The rest of the staff are probably the ones doing the technical aspects of the work. What matters is that Tanaka's influence and role in steering FFXI is now in the hands of Matsui. Unless there were others under Tanaka who were more directly responsible for the creative direction of FFXI? I'm kind of assuming here that the FFXI division corporate structure (from Tanaka downward) looked like: Tanaka -> Manager(s) -> Programmers, Technicians, Artists, with the managerial level simply being the guy(s) in charge of the programmers, technicians and artists, rather than the ones making big gameplay decisions.

[Tsuneo]

Well, if Tanaka is responsible for the all the things people give him credit for, I don't see a reason to have a producer and a director. I assumed the director was more in control of the direction of the game, and the producer just had the final say.

[Spira]

my impression of the hierarchy was something like this..

within the same team,

producer -> director -> sub directors -> planners/designers -> programmers/artists

the producer sets the general schedule/timeline and has the power to greenlight things or give them less priority. i'm also under the impression that the producer is the first point of contact from the team with marketing, in other words he calls the shots in terms of how marketing will go.. timing of news releases and so on.
the producer doesn't work on the game directly at all, but can call those who do to change things.

the director is the one in charge of the game pretty much. he designates what each sub director focuses on and pretty much has control over how he wants the game to look/feel like. in other words, he is the one who plans and creates content for the game. however he take orders from the producer on the priority of what gets done first and what gets more attention, and doesn't have the final say.

looking at it, matsui was the director before and is now the producer. his direct control of the dev team may be weaker than it used to be but he still has the power to greenlight what he thinks is necessary and prioritize what (he feels) is more important for the game. considering his background as a battle director i'd think he would be placing more focus on that area.

tl;dr - even if only the producer changes, it'll affect how things turn out because the producer (managerial position) has the power to influence everything underneath him..

if you look at XIV in contrast, Yoshi P is both director and producer, so he really has ultimate control of the game. he calls the shots and has the freedom to pace himself. It isn't necessarily a good thing if the director isn't time-driven, but suffice to say it seems to work with Yoshi P atm

[Lordender]

Tanaka is oldschool and very set into his ways, this was his biggest problem as an MMO director/producer is his failings at adopting to what the modern MMO's were doing to keep people interested. The MMO market changed dramatically since 2002, he just kept things status-quo which is exactly why 14 failed as hard as it did. MMO's need to constantly be evolving otherwise you lose out to a new MMO title.

A lot of his design choices don't fit the world of MMO's, a lot of them are good for single player RPG's, the man is a legend at single player RPG's no doubt. Tanaka's legacy in FFXI would have turned out so much better if he would have just adapted to the market instead of being set in his ways aka: typical jp stubborness.

[Tsuneo]

Where does the idea that Matsui was responsible for Abyssea come from anyway? According to the playonline website that's not the case.

The development team is pleased to announce that Mr. Mizuki Ito, director of the Abyssea series of battle area add-ons and creator of a wide range of battle content to date, will be taking over the helm as director of FINAL FANTASY XI.

http://www.playonline.com/pcd/topics...65/detail.html

It seems a lot of opinions of Matsui were based on that idea. Unless someone knows more about him than I do, we can't really know what to expect.

[Spira]

Matsui was director -responsible for FFXI as a whole, and changes being made between Sept 2010 to Dec 2010 (with spillover effect maybe by a month prior and after), which was the "golden age of Abyssea", you know.. when adjustments were made swiftly and so on.

Ito is the current director since Dec 2010. Director of Abyssea yes.. but he also has a direct hand in Logwatch and everything that has come out of FFXI since 2011.

go figure

[Tsuneo]

I find it ironic because Abyssea is seen as the age without Tanaka's presence, but in reality, everything from Abyssea to present has most likely been under the direction of the same person.

[Spira]

lol its really hard to say.. and we may never know..

but generally people seem to think that because between sept to dec 2010 tanaka was probably busy trying to handle the shitstorm that was FFXIV's failed launch. its also possible that Tanaka appointed matsui as director because he knew that he was capable enough to run FFXI without his guidance as producer.

based on a recent interview it seems tanaka holds matsui in very high regard

taken from andriasang report.

Tanaka also had some kind words for Akihiko Matsui, his replacement as FFXI's producer. Matsui was selected because Tanaka beleives he's the only one he could do the job. Although Matsui is busy with his work on Final Fantasy XIV, Tanaka wanted to see him return to FFXI at some point.

its also plausible that his capability was the reason why they moved him over to XIV as a battle planner in the first place.

[Gokulo]

This wasn't the only reason, though. He also said that he asked to resign because he wants to return to the game development scene as a single creator.

So, yeah

[Celebrindor]

I was going to be of the belief that the "health reasons" bit was the graceful way given for CEOs and other high level members of companies to leave without embarrassing them. Then that picture was posted by sorantia. God he looks like a US President after his first term.

Best wishes, and yes, we must remember (especially those of us like myself who play/played FFXI merely because it's a FF game, not b/c its a MMO) the huge role Tanaka had in our video game lives. I know I have some very good memories pretending to be asleep until my parents went to bed only to wake back up and enter Eblan, or having to stay home to finish a huge 5th grade project I had completely skipped because I had spent forever playing FFI instead of doing the project, night after night.

So yeah, possibly FFXI will be better for the change, but I doubt anyone wanted to see it go down in a fashion like this. If you are callous enough to not give a shit or actually find it funny, get on the bus with those assholes who harassed that grandma.

[ringthree]

In the case of FFXI, change is good. It doesn't matter who is in charge now, Tanaka just generally had a bad influence on the game. It may have even been a generational issue. Tanaka appears to be from an older school of thought of game design. New blood is good for FFXI.

[NynJa]

I love the people who enjoy naysaying about Tanaka's negative influence on MMO's, trying to find reasons to blame others as well. I'll cliffnotes it, again:
Tanaka on FFXI: FFXI steadily declines in overall population and enjoyment value
Tanaka moves from FFXI to FFXIV: FFXI receives fresh new content, feedback is listened to, adjustments are made swiftly, including positive adjustments, people actually return to the game...in turn FFXIV was a total bust, failed so hard SE actually has to call it FFXIV 2.0 in their attempts to fix it
Tanaka is removed from FFXIV and returned to FFXI: FFXI becomes a shittatic grindfest dependant on shitty drop rates and nerfs all around, FFXIV is actually enjoyable and playable now.


Whether others are to blame as well or not are irrelevant as the MMO curse seems to follow him around.

[Tsuneo]

But you guys can get excited about guy stepping in as producer who was recommended by Tanaka himself? I honestly don't really care either way, but that recommendation is all the guy seems to have going for him. I don't want to come off like I'm defending the guy because I'm not. I'm just stating his influence may never actually be gone from the game.

[Kincard]

FFXIV is actually enjoyable and playable now

lol

[Gokulo]

lol

It is

(one of my most MMO picky friends even said so after buying the game again a couple of days ago, I was actually amazed!)

[Tsuneo]

I actually think XIV is pretty decent now. The reason I don't have fun while playing it isn't because of the game. It's because I don't enjoy anything anymore. Apathy destroyed the fun that I got from gaming.

[machiko]

I actually think XIV pretty decent now. The reason I don't have fun while playing it isn't because of the game. It's because I don't enjoy anything anymore. Apathy destroyed the fun that I got from gaming.

I felt the same, then I found an MMO I enjoy and realised it wasn't that I was jaded with the whole system. Just that I needed something good and different.

[Tsuneo]

I felt the same, then I found an MMO I enjoy and realised it wasn't that I was jaded with the whole system. Just that I needed something good and different.

I'm apathetic towards life in general, so I wouldn't really get any enjoyment out of any game. It's the reason my Adderall is almost gone, and I'm only like half way to my next psychiatrist appointment.

[wipers]

FFXIV so good no one is talking about it.