Development Team Q&A - May 2008

[levish]

Thanks for the interview Bercus, your effort applaudable.

Sorry for the negativity but I don't know which is sadder, that I keep checking ffxi updates expecting major changes, or their responses.

Side note, would it kill SE to say "This is what we have so far that we can show you guys on the new MMO"

[Indalecia]

Why? After the crap-shoot going on because of this one, why the fuck would I play another one?

[The Blackrose]

Why? After the crap-shoot going on because of this one, why the fuck would I play another one?

Seconded.

SE needs to pull their heads out their asses if they're planning on selling another MMO to the public. That requires them fixing shit here first.

[Lordender]

Also SE wont ever change Kings since they are the reason ppl keep playing. After so many years ppl are still after ridills e.bodys and loldramatica even tho there is other stuff might (not) be better.
Theres still so many Ls's camping kings and they wont stop any time soon...
AV is kinda the same problem, if the last frontier to ffxi players would be killed daily it would turn off players like when you beat a game and the replay it.
I guess that are the reasons for SE to not change these situations any time soon

Kings are SE's bread and butter timesink, it will never ever change, its to the point where its wasting precious time even talking about kings in interviews. Why would SE want to change the way kings are when they know some groups of people are going to devote up to 9hours a day for them?

[Septimus]

Why? After the crap-shoot going on because of this one, why the fuck would I play another one?

Seconded.

SE needs to pull their heads out their asses if they're planning on selling another MMO to the public. That requires them fixing shit here first.

Thirded. The only way I would even consider another Square MMO is if it were a direct sequel to this one since I am already emotionally invested into the world a Vana'diel. It is like they don't get that what they do in this game is going to affect people's opinions regarding picking up another. "Hmm... FFXI required a billion years to do anything, and they were amazingly slow to go after gil sellers. I am sure that everything will be amazingly different in the next game!"

If they want to sell the next MMO, they need to make people believe in their current one.

[ronin sparthos]

At least they have a saving grace: The Music Staff.

I dont think anyone can complain that SE ever botched the music ingame or for the expansion packs.

[arus2001]

At least they have a saving grace: The Music Staff.

I dont think anyone can complain that SE ever botched the music ingame or for the expansion packs.

I'll be a negative nancy on this. The synthetic instrumentation stands out a bit too much in places (in a bad way) and the total lack of music in a number of zones is a strike against them. While the overall quality is a notch above most MMOs I've dabbled in, we all know they can do better. It's kind of a universal constant when it comes to this game.

[ronin sparthos]

At least they have a saving grace: The Music Staff.

I dont think anyone can complain that SE ever botched the music ingame or for the expansion packs.

I'll be a negative nancy on this. The synthetic instrumentation stands out a bit too much in places (in a bad way) and the total lack of music in a number of zones is a strike against them. While the overall quality is a notch above most MMOs I've dabbled in, we all know they can do better. It's kind of a universal constant when it comes to this game.

Compared to anything any other MMO developer has put out, FFXI is light years ahead in the music department and they completely ravage the ever talked about WoW in this area. The music has constantly been getting *better* since zilart and zones are given fitting music, intense battles *sound* intense and overall this is one of the few MMOs where you actually *want* to keep the volume on in the game. Promathia, Odin, most of the WoTG themes, The Ashu Talif, Alexander are just some of the great music thats been churned out.

SE has a laundry-list of shortcomings that seem to strech off into the abyss but the music staff actually gives me the feeling that they put some time and effort into creating quality music for the expansion packs.

[Not Kuno]

Personally, I love the game music. It's really great.

[Maaglin]

Who the hell plays with the music turned on anyway?

[#686578]

Who the hell plays with the music turned on anyway?

[Indalecia]

/

[Lordwafik]

/

Well until the update, now I can't stand the battle music on my mages so it's off until it gets fixed.

[Shinta]

When you listen to the music separate from the game, if you can pick up the soundtrack somewhere, it becomes really obvious how good it is. Most, if not all of the WoG music is pretty incredible. The music for the Alexander fight and the music in sea and the promies are also some of my favorites.

[Shassira]

I don't rant much on BG, but i rant like there's no tomorrow in my own LS's forum about every aspect of the game there is except one: The artistic aspect.

I think there is no way to argue against the fact that most of the game's art is amazing. Check it out, we are playing with low resolution textures and low polygon models that date from years ago and they still manage to look good. It's amazing what they are doing with shitty technology. There's not a single shader applied to the game unless you count the amazingly horrible "bump mapping" (xD) this thing has and yet, a game that would run on a TNT2 (if you are old enough to remember that kind of hardware) looks very good. The people that model for this game are very good.
Before someone points this out, I'll say it: I'm aware of the rehashing that's made to base models and that is horrible, but that belongs to another kind of problem. Isolated, most models are very good.

The area designs of some of the places in Vana'diel are fantastic too. Please always keep in mind the technology used in this game, it's so basic, so archaic already, yet the areas still manage to look great. Of course in some cases they are blatant copy pastes, but that again is another point.

And finally, in general the music is excellent. There's pieces that are great to hear even outside the game. WotG music is actually good too, but it suffers from the same problem as all of WotG, which is rehashing and excessive abuse. But as i already said twice, this is another problem, more of a resource allocation problem rather than the actual individual quality (for instance, i can't freaking stand Campaign's music anymore, but it's not a bad piece).

[Xanthe]

I'm a big fan of the music as well. I'd add the SCH AF3 fight to the list of great battle tracks. I know it's not unique to that fight, and I'd heard it before, but going into that fight the buildup was awesome. It's in line with exactly what FF battle music should be.