Gamasutra : GDC Austin: Running A Global Community In Final Fantasy XI

[Mistress Stowastiq]

I spent a long time trying to figure out what heading to post this under. Gahoo from Eorzeapedia submitted this on there and credits to him because I saw it there before going to Gamasutra to read the full article. I think it only addressed a small part of FFXIV and focuses more on FFXI, especially the issues with addressing the Elemental resist bug and Pande Warden. So mods please feel free to move to appropriate category, as I cannot decide.

Gamasutra - News - GDC Austin: Running A Global Community In Final Fantasy XI

GDC Austin: Running A Global Community In Final Fantasy XI
by Christian Nutt

September 21, 2009


What does it take to run an MMO on three platforms and in three regions, with one player base? Square Enix's Final Fantasy XI requires answers to a number of questions about coordinating internationally and communicating with a diverse group of players.

Robert Allen Peeler, assistant community manager, delivered a speech on Game Developers Conference Austin's last day regarding the problems that Square Enix faces globally with a player base who enjoys the game on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, and PC. The game operates in Japan, North America, and Europe, in Japanese, English, French, and German -- all on one set of servers.

And, of course, says Peeler, "we have customer service set up in every region we sell to." When it comes to patches, "for every region and every platform we use simultaneous global updates."

Though the game is run in multiple regions, "one of our problems is conveying the users' opinions in any language to our developers, who live in japan and speak only Japanese," says Peeler. "One of our biggest concerns is being able to address the thoughts and concerns of all of the players in our game."

Combining Requests And Communicating

The team has to have a more formalized method of dealing with communicating player concerns to the development team -- so they can be addressed in game. "We have multiple regions involved, so that involves speaking to players from Europe, Japan, and North America, deciphering their problems, and prioritizing them for our developers," says Peeler.

With language barriers, minimal time developers can devote to problems, and a policy of fully localizing the questions and answers for high-quality communication, the team was globally forced to rethink the way information flows in FFXI.

"We look at the ways we select the questions... We simplify. We combine questions to create one general question. We try to avoid repetition. Different regions will ask the same question in a different way. We also try to create efficient translation schedules... We can use our quick translation schedules to get questions from the players to the development team into a quick amount of time."


The community department runs large in-person events -- i.e. fan fests -- to build the community interest in the game. Says Peeler, "One of our concerns is that we always want to create a closer relationship between our developers and community, especially because they're from a different country."

Obviously, however, this is costly -- in multiple ways, says Peeler. "The costs are financial, and regards to time management of our departments working together, and getting our developers arriving." Since all regions have to coordinate and the developers have to fly from Japan, it's tough. And though it used to have smaller regional events, Square Enix now runs one large global event -- which increases cost, planning time, and requires a larger staff to run. Some locales are, obviously, left out. 


Connecting The Developers, Fans

The goal is to "increase developer communication and are trying to do that with better developer interaction," says Peeler -- a challenge when a limited number of team members can participate. "We'd like to get as many individuals to speak to players," in every discipline. To do this without travel, sometimes prerecorded videos are used; developers who can act as representatives for their teams are sent to talk live.

Inviting the right attendees is also crucial. Fan sites are used to "interact with players on a more intimate level. We take player advocates who are often fansite leaders... Who come to events and interact, and report on their sites as well." This is particularly helpful in dealing with regions where players cannot easily attend the event.

Global communication coordination is not simple. Schedules are one obvious reason. Says Peeler, "Sometimes it's difficult to schedule something between one department and another, but ours is on a larger scale when we [in North America] have to coordinate between Square Enix Japan and Square Enix London." Time zones delays in communication and translation delays can cause confusion.

Peeler described a few situations where communication delays caused problems for the company. 
"We released a version update, and there was an issue in which players noticed that elemental resistance effects were either ineffective or less effective. This caused a lot of concern in the players. We noticed it right away in the forums but the communication issues... It took a week to get to the developers," says Peeler.

Noticed first in North America, it was communicated via the forums; it then had to be translated into Japanese, answered, the answer translated back into various languages, and then reposted to the forum.

The problem? "It made the players more upset with each day that went on." Square Enix is very careful with its answers, which adds even more complexity. Says Peeler, "Sometimes when we address issues it takes a little longer because we have to make sure this addresses the concerns of every region involved."

The Pandemonium Effect

There was a notorious boss released in a content pack. Named Pandemonium Warden, the boss took 18 hours before being defeated by a prominent linkshell (guild) in the North American version of the game. Says Peeler, "Players reported feeling exhausted and thinking this was way too long to fight this monster."

Of course, he says, "the developers never intended the battle to last 18 hours." They never expected a team "would fight the battle for 18 hours without giving up or changing strategy." Unfortunately, however, this was such a hilarious problem for the game that major game news sites, outside of the fan circuit, picked up on it before the team could announce a resolution. This even caused international quandaries: "The Pandemonium Warden issue was almost limited to North American players, but when the problem got out the other regions started to notice the issue."

"Because of the delay while we discussed issues internally, players felt that they were not being heard," says Peeler. "This ended up being a major problem just due to issues in communication."

Developing new and more efficient means of communication is the solution, he says. "Our answer to this is our ongoing search to regularly communicate with our development team." Teleconferencing, email, messaging, and emergency reports are all ways that the community teams report back.

In fact, reports on the mood and issues of the communities help discover problems before they blow up. Says Peeler, "We're trying to prevent issues from blowing up and getting bigger before they address them."

Account Stealing Problems, Solutions

When illicit RMT groups started focusing on malware to steal player accounts, there was no immediate solution. While the Japanese team investigated the problem, the international community teams suggested that players be more careful with their computers, but, says Peeler, "the players' perspective was that we were shifting the blame for the problem to them."

The RMT groups had figured out ways to make it hard for players to reclaim their accounts, so several solutions -- including the use of a notary public to reclaim accounts and, eventually, a dongle with a password generator, were introduced.

A "strategic task force" to understand methods RMT uses to affect the game was formed; this resulted in changes to the game to remove exploits, and removal of 20 billion gil (the in game currency) and several thousand banned accounts.

Plans for Final Fantasy XIV

Square Enix plans to introduce new MMO Final Fantasy XIV next year for PlayStation 3 and PC -- and many loyal FFXI players are interested in it; many are curious about transition benefits; and many new gamers who have not played XI will probably try the follow-up -- and the community teams have to deal with all of these situations.

"We need to address the players' concern that FFXI will recieve support in the future," says Peeler. The goal is "supporting veteran FFXI players to try and experiment with FFXIV as well as support their FFXI accounts."


The community teams identify important fan sites in Europe and North America and work with them to help spread the message of the game and act as player advocates, says Peeler. "We work directly with several fan site leaders or major player advocates in contest promotions, getting the message out, and in developer Q&A."

Fan site leaders are invited to the fan fests by Square Enix (who pays for their flights and accommodations) and set up booths to show community interaction. The benefit? "The player advocates can communicate the trust they have in us to the community."

[Rentwokay]

Making excuses, or a reasonable explanation?

I'm edging towards the latter, amazingly enough.

[ringthree]

I think the Pandemonium Warden section is telling both about the approach that the players took (banging head against a wall) and the developers took (not realizing that players were going to obviously bang their heads against a wall).

Do the developers really think that we don't understand how AV and PW should work? That instead it may be that the methods for locking them down is so complex, confused and convoluted that the players believe the only solution is to do what they already know?

It sounds like the real problem is not so much that SE has universal problems they need to deal with, but more that the developers are so sequestered and isolated from everyone else at SE and the players that they are now out of touch even with those people they work with.

[Xyle]

Peeler described a few situations where communication delays caused problems for the company. 
"We released a version update, and there was an issue in which players noticed that elemental resistance effects were either ineffective or less effective. This caused a lot of concern in the players. We noticed it right away in the forums but the communication issues... It took a week to get to the developers," says Peeler.

Noticed first in North America, it was communicated via the forums; it then had to be translated into Japanese, answered, the answer translated back into various languages, and then reposted to the forum.

The problem? "It made the players more upset with each day that went on." Square Enix is very careful with its answers, which adds even more complexity. Says Peeler, "Sometimes when we address issues it takes a little longer because we have to make sure this addresses the concerns of every region involved."

I can sympathize with this to an extent. You know what the simple solution to this would have been and could have mitigated 90% of the complaining?

SAYING SOMETHING.

Doesn't merit a front page response?

Order of the Blue Gartr - View Profile: Square Enix Community

Saying anything like "Shit's broke, we're working on it" is all we need. Or you can go the more safer route. "Hey, the community team sees things aren't working as well, we sent this along to the dev team for investigation."

Edits: Added a sentence and grammar.

[Duber]

the developers are so sequestered and isolated from everyone else at SE and the players that they are now out of touch even with those people they work with.

It has been a long time since I noticed this. Same as about the feedback thing, even GMs have problems with all the steps of the process of communicating the same message in different countries, languages and groups every time.

What does this mean ? They need to work harder on customer support and internal feedback. Seems they know it now, hope they fix it.

[Yabby]

I know it must be hard on them when they don't speak our language but com'on... you can't tell me they don't have someone in SE that can speak english and relay information faster to them. If someone from SE read about the PW thing (18 hours, etc) and didn't think that would get out they need to be fired on the spot.

Like above a simple "We are working on it" would solve 99% of the problems the players are having. Half the time they don't even say there was a problem or they are fixing it; they just ninja update, place their hands on their ears, and sing LA LA LA.

I really want to give FFXIV a chance because SE is the only MMO that has a controller interface that i like. I love Aion but i hate using the keyboard. I love hooking my computer to my TV and sitting back and enjoying the game with a controller. If SE gives vets on FFXI a chance to play the closed beta and see for themselves that a lot of the problems in FFXI are address i think they will be able to bring a lot of them to the new game. If not, i think they will lose a lot of players.

[liggy 0]

"We need to address the players' concern that FFXI will recieve support in the future," says Peeler. The goal is "supporting veteran FFXI players to try and experiment with FFXIV as well as support their FFXI accounts."


idk why, but that made me giggle a bit

[Izzy]

You know exactly why you giggled!

[Duber]

If SE gives vets on FFXI a chance to play the closed beta and see for themselves that a lot of the problems in FFXI are address i think they will be able to bring a lot of them to the new game. If not, i think they will lose a lot of players.

They should fix them on ffxi as long as they provide support and bid for playing. If they only fix them towards FFXIV chances are new incoming problems in FFXIV won't be fixed until FFXX or something.

[ringthree]

I can sympathize with this to an extent. You know what the simple solution to this would have been and could have mitigated 90% of the complaining?

SAYING SOMETHING.

Doesn't merit a front page response?

Order of the Blue Gartr - View Profile: Square Enix Community

Saying anything like "Shit's broke, we're working on it" is all we need. Or you can go the more safer route. "Hey, the community team sees things aren't working as well, we sent this along to the dev team for investigation."

Edits: Added a sentence and grammar.

Did you even read the article? They said that its the bureaucracy within SE and also their perfectionism when it comes to translation that slows everything down and they know it's a problem. You are complaining about something that they already pointed out as flawed.

[ringthree]

I know it must be hard on them when they don't speak our language but com'on... you can't tell me they don't have someone in SE that can speak english and relay information faster to them. If someone from SE read about the PW thing (18 hours, etc) and didn't think that would get out they need to be fired on the spot.

Like above a simple "We are working on it" would solve 99% of the problems the players are having. Half the time they don't even say there was a problem or they are fixing it; they just ninja update, place their hands on their ears, and sing LA LA LA.

I really want to give FFXIV a chance because SE is the only MMO that has a controller interface that i like. I love Aion but i hate using the keyboard. I love hooking my computer to my TV and sitting back and enjoying the game with a controller. If SE gives vets on FFXI a chance to play the closed beta and see for themselves that a lot of the problems in FFXI are address i think they will be able to bring a lot of them to the new game. If not, i think they will lose a lot of players.

I am not judging your criticism, but can we just please get over the "if they don't fix the problems that I think are most important they will lose a lot of players" thing?

Really, 99% of the FFXI players don't care about our main concerns. They don't care about PW, they don't care about a lack of community communication, they don't care about Aion or ninja updates or a million other things that we think are important.

We (me included) need to get over our inflated sense of importance. FFXI is a good game with some flaws, FFXIV will probably be the same, those small flaws might cause some people to quit, but the vast majority don't give a shit.

[richardd]

i was talking to stan about this on vent the other day.


isnt EQ1 > EQ2? who's to say that cant happen with FFXI and FFXIV? lol. XI really is a good game, despite my rants about it in the past. you never know what'll happen!

[Snprphnx]

XI really is a good game, despite my rants about it in the past. you never know what'll happen!

yea, like a widespread banning of the top 3% of the player community, just for taking advantage of a mistake on the programmers fault.

did matthew broderick get tossed in jail when he accessed the WOPR through the AIs back door and nearly nuked us all in WarGames? Silly SE.

[OctavoGilgamesh]

i was talking to stan about this on vent the other day.


isnt EQ1 > EQ2? who's to say that cant happen with FFXI and FFXIV? lol. XI really is a good game, despite my rants about it in the past. you never know what'll happen!

EQ2 is a really good game.................................now.

It simply suffered from a terrible launch and then everyone left for WoW. EQ1 is that nostalga game just like xi will be. People will continue to play it as long as new stuff keeps coming and the servers still have power.

So yeah, I guess FFXIV could suffer from the same problems, but if SE continues to build on it, it will eventually be better than xi for most people.

[Xyle]

Did you even read the article? They said that its the bureaucracy within SE and also their perfectionism when it comes to translation that slows everything down and they know it's a problem. You are complaining about something that they already pointed out as flawed.

Apologies; Rereading the interview and my post, I saw that I was pointlessly bitching.

I'm quite good at that.

I think the point I was driving at is that it shouldn't take 20 steps to post an announcement that tells the community that they are aware of the issue. I'm hoping for some more leniency and power to the different SE branches around the world when dealing with problems like this for 14.

[Yugl]

Hey look, Neo makes articles now.

[TybudX]

This is just feel-good whitewash. There's a huge difference between actual open communication and telling us that we have actual open communication.

Saying =/= doing, SE. Quit with the bullshit, we are not impressed.

[chiyio]

yea, like a widespread banning of the top 3% of the player community, just for taking advantage of a mistake on the programmers fault.

TAKING ADVANTAGE

Its been said over and over again that SE can ban for no reason whatsoever if they see fit, those who abused the system over and over and over got axed. And most of these people were hardly "the top of the player community", sorry to say it. They're more like the Barry Bonds', Sammy Sosa's, Mark McGuire's of the player community.

[Greyman]

EQ2 is a really good game.................................now.

It simply suffered from a terrible launch and then everyone left for WoW. EQ1 is that nostalga game just like xi will be. People will continue to play it as long as new stuff keeps coming and the servers still have power.

So yeah, I guess FFXIV could suffer from the same problems, but if SE continues to build on it, it will eventually be better than xi for most people.

Like most MMO's FFXIV will likely face a shortage of content on release, that's not to say there will be nothing but...the hardcore crowd will likely breeze through and jump between FFXI and FFXIV until a patch or two arrives but I agree if SE continues to build on it, it will eventually become better than FFXI for most.

At the same time however the EQ1 and EQ2 comparison is a good one to make, it proves that if SE actually gives FFXI support, and no I dont mean more mini expansions, something big content wise or even another full expansion (Far East anyone?) that the game can last for years along side FFXIV but...we'll have to see, perhaps something at Vanafest/Fan Fest 09? If they're still happening that is.

[Yabby]

I am not judging your criticism, but can we just please get over the "if they don't fix the problems that I think are most important they will lose a lot of players" thing?

Really, 99% of the FFXI players don't care about our main concerns. They don't care about PW, they don't care about a lack of community communication, they don't care about Aion or ninja updates or a million other things that we think are important.

We (me included) need to get over our inflated sense of importance. FFXI is a good game with some flaws, FFXIV will probably be the same, those small flaws might cause some people to quit, but the vast majority don't give a shit.

You are right, i'm sure a lot of people don't see these things as important as i do. I know i'm not important to this game, or to SE. I am that 12 dollars to them no matter what. That said, FFXI has not had the success of others. The main reason is because of the communication that lacks between the playerbase and the dev team. If you can't keep your end game players happy, they will leave. While other MMO's grow FF has been getting lower and lower even before they said anything about FFXIV.

Like i said i know i'm nothing as one person, but what i hate in this game, a lot of people hate. Some do not say shit and just leave. I'm sure the same amount that leave don't care, but its about trying to keep that extra % that keeps an MMO at high levels.