Name: FINAL FANTASY XIV紀錄片第一部分--"一點O" (FINAL FANTASY XIV Documentary Part #1 - "One Point O")
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T07:39:12.000Z
Duration: 50 min 43 s
Description: 【看影片學英語】數萬部 YouTube 影片，搭配英漢字典即點即查，輕鬆掌握單字發音與用法，長久累積看電影不必再看字幕。

I handled network and server related matters.

At the time, PlayStation 2 was implementing online connectivity for the first time

Of course, online connectivity was available through the Dreamcast but for the PlayStation platform it was the first time they were implementing the online element to it.

So I was in charge of writing programs for network related things for the PlayStation 2, such as TCP/IP drivers

Back then we were still on modems for communication transmissions, so PPP transmissions. ADSL was starting to get implemented, too

I wrote programming for PPPoE for the authentication of ADSL. Really the lowest part of the network

that no one would write programming for anymore, was what I was working on.

So with Final Fantasy 11 it was the first time for Square to do an MMO to that scale in Japan. And there were many many different things...

Am I allowed to say more? *looks at PR and laughs*

But for MMO titles overseas like there was Ultima Online and other, different predecessors in the overseas market.

But most of the games, if not all of them, were basically on PCs only. And so coming up with the idea of having an MMO

on a console was treated as something that was almost impossible.

As well this was in the PS2 era with the hard-disk, and there were so many different arguments that were going on around that.

Their perspective was that it was impossible to do. So it was quite a challenge.

What I believe are some of the problems in looking at that first version of Final Fantasy 14 was…

that the initial concept was for the game designers to write the scripts to create the game.

Of course there is an advantage of utilizing scripts in that the game designer can write the script and then it's executed quickly.

You don't have to consult with an engineer to talk about how the game is structured or you don't have to debate on the

different parameters that have to be set if a script is used.

So the majority of the game elements were built upon the usage of scripts that kind of automate the process.

The user interface was affected by this as well. When those scripts are running

it uses a lot of CPU resources. The usage is extremely high to just run these different scripts.

So as we try to execute something in game it led to the servers being slowed down because it's trying to execute these different scripts.

And so whatever we tried to do would lead to the slowdown of the servers and then the load that was on those servers was just too heavy

and we could not do anything robust or rich in terms on in-game depiction.

and we could not do anything robust or rich in terms of in-game depiction.
And interface-wise a lot of it was being executed via scripts, so those were some of the problems that we were facing.

So the tasks just discussed were done during January 2010 to the actual release of August.

When we took notice of the game not being good, was ultimately when the beta started around August, through September, October timing

And then we went into the beta phase. And then more people were starting to notice that they were having a problem here

In actuality, the team's feeling was that, before the release, before the beta started,

people were questioning whether or not we should even release this game. Whether it is at a quality to release it to the world.

Of course not officially, but amongst developers they were taking notice of it and deliberating about it.

So at the time I was CFO but I did notice the biggest difference between all the issues that happened around Final Fantasy 11

versus the original 1.0 Final Fantasy 14, was that despite all the issues that were happening with Final Fantasy 11, the game was still fairly received well.

But of course there were some operational issues surrounding Final Fantasy 11 and it was kind of expected for those problems to happen.

But the game content itself was going well received and people were accepting and they thought that it was okay.

But with Final Fantasy 14 - the 1.0 version of it.

What I felt was problematic was that the game itself was not regarded very well it was actually received very poorly at and after launch. I really felt that sort of reaction.

And so you are not too far from the launch of the old Final Fantasy 14.

They was worry and concern within the company about can we continue doing this.

As mentioned earlier the developers were already sort of sceptical even at the beta even pre-beta phase.

There were feelings that this game is very premature, it shouldnt have been released to the world at this state.

But before the launch there was this sort of broad feeling that maybe it will resolve itself.

Maybe once it's launched maybe. Sort of like a glimpse of hope. We had nothing to back up this feeling

but we were hoping that it would all work out well once we launched the title.

But the magic didn't happen. Once released, our fears did come true.

It was not ready to be released to the world and I think everybody already had that worry in their minds somewhere in the back of their head.

And so it wasn't difficult for everybody to realize that there is some kind of fundamental issue that we need to resolve.

So it wasn't difficult to convince the other team members that we were running into an issue here.

The first game I have played was on the on the Japanese system it's called Family Computer.

the American system I believe it's called Nintendo Entertainment System.

But the original Mario Brothers was the first I played.

Up until now as a child I always thought a TV is something that you look at.

But when I first got a chance to play with Mario Brothers and got to hold that controller in my hand I wish I was

actually playing this at my friend's house but being able to move something that's on the TV screen using a controller - it was just shocking to me.

And of course another very impactful video game was the Dragon Quest. It is one of the titles that spread the whole RPG gaming in Japan.

It's not about action or the back and forth of numbers but it was very story driven that was very impactful for me as well.

And so that kind of prompted me to focus in on the RPG genre as well. And of course the Final Fantasy game

that came out the following year after Dragon Quest took a more cinematic movie like approach to depicting these pictures.

So those two games Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy are definitely very memorable games for me.

And then the following year one of my seniors had recommended to me Ultima Online and I joined in their beta.

And so that would have been my first MMO game. And those like the third time I received such a huge shock.

This time it's 3000 people concurrently playing on the same game. That was a big impact to me as well.

Ultima Online, especially in the earlier days, I felt like the level of freedom was very big. Some players would have the title of "Lord" and be very gentleman-like...

a sort of community leader-type, plus I created a separate, completely evil character that would kill other players. I played a lot as both.

And so through Ultima Online I was able to sort of study what kind of like engineering is required for an MMO type game.

So yeah around then I think I was playing games on PC just as much as I was on a console.

And so I also looked into some FPS games and then also 3D MMOs

Everquest was one of them. I just I got to tell you it was very difficult to obtain a package of Everquest in Japan.

I would travel to Tokyo on a business trip and I would go to Akihabara and I would search like a zombie trying to find it.

Moving from store to store asking "Do you have Everquest? Do you have Everquest?"

This may be at risk of being cut by corporate PR but

a middleware by the name of Crystal Tools was in the process of being developed company wide.

And a lot of the really talented programmers were pulled from all different projects and different lines so many different projects

were missing our lead programmers, our main programmers.

So. I feel that that is one of the reasons that led to the failure of 1.0 as well.

And then two large points that were involved in that sort of problem.

One of the problems was that because Square-Enix in the PlayStation 2 generation

had produced games that were revolutionary. With very high graphic quality and quality gaming experiences also.

That it was regarded as perhaps on top of the line of the world that the corporation itself became very, arrogant so to speak.

We had that extraneous sort of confidence that -  oh we have the world's number one graphics and only we are able to accomplish that kind of quality.

And I feel that that extremely large success had become a sort of shackle

and I think we had become very arrogant very prideful.

Back then, we had swordsmiths, artisans that make katanas

We compared them to swordsmiths creating katanas one by one, by hand. And they would create world-class quality, but

meanwhile the world is developing technologies so that they can cover that sort of tedious manual labor through technology.

And so going back to the gaming industry once PlayStation 3 came out.

Technology finally had caught up and you are able to cover those tedious task through technology

but Square-Enix did not change our old methods of creating assets. And then we didn't have the resources to catch up

on the technology to cover for that as well. And then the programmers we knew that we had an issue that we needed to catch up

technology-wise were wrapped up in creating middleware. And of course the artists are in that sort of artisan mindset thinking

that "oh I make the worlds best graphics" and so it was a very laborious and time consuming way of creating our assets.

And I believe that that is one of the large problems that we had in terms of the original 1.0.

So the second problem relates to - of course pride is very important but with great success.

they started thinking that because they are great they dont need to look at other games.

So say for example with an MMORPG. If you ask anybody who knows MMORPGs what is

the most well known MMORPG that you know. If you asked 100 people I'm sure 100 people will say World of Warcraft.

But did the staff members play it for Warcraft? No. None of the people were familiar with that game.

So I gave that example of World of Warcraft not because I wanted to talk about whether or not

the developers knew World of Warcraft or not. But I just wanted to point out that we need to look at what would be our rival