Final Fantasy XI’s Naoki Yoshida talks about the importance of developer passion and communication

Any veteran player of Final Fantasy XI is probably used to the idea of seeing the game’s developers as your enemies in playing the game. Heaven knows even this particular reporter has made analogies and comparisons to that effect on more than one occasion. And the latest interview with FFXI division boss and Final Fantasy XIV producer and director Naoki Yoshida has Yoshida speaking directly to that concern, noting that he understands why players get that mindset and how important it is for developers to communicate honestly and repeatedly with players while having that communication work both ways:

I’d always believed that there needed to be more communication between players and MMORPG development teams. As a long-time MMORPG player, that was my conclusion after noticing how many players saw the developers as their enemies. Because I was both a player and a game developer, I could see why developers made certain implementations and understood the difficult decisions they were forced to make, but their intentions weren’t reaching the player communities at large.

Yoshida also notes that one of the other big components for development is passion, that if a team no longer wants to develop the game the quality will naturally suffer, which means that the game’s staff needs to have opportunities to do different things as well as providing more incentive for hearing positive feedback from players. It’s a good interview, and you should check it out. You should also check out FFXI‘s upcoming event in which the various Jailers can drop Aern Weapons if you like the looks of them, while you’re at it.

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