WE DISCUSS VANA'DIEL
#13 Koji Aoyama Part 4

What were your thoughts on the merger between Square and Enix in 2003, the year after POL and FFXI were launched?

I was seriously surprised. FF and DQ were already the two Japanese RPG giants back then, so it was hard to believe that the companies behind them were merging together. This may be strange coming from a Square employee, but at the time, I thought it’d have nothing to do with my work. In actuality, that wasn’t the case at all. (laughs) Since Enix was a publisher without an in-house development division, I never imagined I’d be collaborating with them on the same development team.

The merger was truly startling. I can only assume there was a gag order to keep it under wraps. The merger was announced on April 1st, and I would’ve thought it was an April Fools’ joke if it wasn’t for the briefing from Mr. Narita*.

At the time, I was the Director of POL, and we received an email informing us of the merger an hour before the press release. I was too busy to look through my emails, so I heard the news when some other staff members were chitchatting about how our company was merging with Enix. I thought, “This is no time for jokes!” but it turned out to be real. (laughs)

Before the merger, we were always tiptoeing our way around DQ’s releases when working on FF, so it was nice that we didn’t have to worry about that anymore. (laughs)

After the merger was finalized, I quipped to our CEO about making an online game in the DQ series. But I had no intention of making it myself at the time, and my suggestion wasn’t what initiated DQX Online either.

Then how did you end up working on DQX Online?

When Mr. Saito* was gathering staff members for the project, there was this assembly where programmers were assigned to various projects, which he apparently attended and asked for “a programmer who could be the core of DQX Online.” I happened to be absent for that assembly, but either way, I was still the Director of POL so there was no way I could leave for another project. However, I’d brought up the possibility of a DQ online game to our CEO, and my colleagues had also heard me mention wanting to be a programmer for such a project. That may have been why Mr. Yoshida*, an acquaintance from my previous job, invited me to get drinks with Mr. Saito and Mr. Fujisawa*.

Oh wow, I didn’t know that.

That was what cemented my desire to work on DQX Online as a programmer; that said, it was still difficult for me to step away from POL. Fortunately, everyone on the POL team was encouraging and reassured me they’d take care of the rest. The transfer process took several months, but I was eventually able to move over to the DQX Online team.

Ah, so everyone sent you off warmly.

They did.

Incidentally, I first met Mr. Saito at a POL meeting before that, back when he had long hair and seemed full of himself. Being quite hard-headed myself, I thought, “Who the heck is this?” and I’m sure he thought I was a stubborn person too, so I imagine we were both looking at each other thinking, “I never want to work with this guy.” (laughs) But apparently Mr. Yoshida mediated things between us and recommended me to Mr. Saito. That’s how we ended up getting drinks and decided to work on DQX Online together.

In our previous interview with Mr. Saito, he mentioned, “My first impression of [Mr. Aoyama] was ‘I don’t think I can be friends with this guy.’ Over a long period of time, I gradually got him to loosen up…”

That’s pretty much how I was at first. (laughs) But now, having observed his work ever since the merger, I believe Mr. Saito is truly a talented producer.

As the producer of DQX Online, what are some of the things you keep in mind when addressing your players, as well as your team?

I’ve only been in the producer position for DQX Online, but when addressing our players, I believe they also have a hand in the MMORPG production process, so I try to have both sides discuss their opinions as openly as possible. Rather than have one side dominate the discussion, I’d like to closely listen to players’ opinions while explaining our own in detail.

That’s definitely important.

On the other hand, motivation is the most important thing for the development team. I believe a person’s motivation level can have a profound difference on their abilities. That’s why I try to keep our team highly motivated, while also clarifying the benefits and reasons behind our goals as much as possible. I also try not to look too serious during our meetings. I still slip up with that one though. (laughs)

In my case, I inherited the guidelines Mr. Tanaka* had established for what a producer should do. When I address our players, I focus on looking after the community. We’ve been open about how the current FFXI development team doesn’t have much manpower, but we’ve also continued to say, “We’ll do what we can under the circumstances, so please share your feedback with us.”

In terms of addressing our team, I wholeheartedly agree with what you’ve said, that motivation is really important. On a personal level, I also pay attention to how I might grow as a person when undertaking a particular project.

Motivation sure is critical, isn't it?

FFXI currently has version updates once a month, but with game development requiring longer periods of time these days, I believe we’re unmatched in how often we communicate with our players. That’s why even if our development team is made up of veterans, I feel that we should let players take the lead and have them nurture us. Our current members are all planning staff, but they’re far more capable writing code than I am, which allows us to keep expanding upon FFXI in various ways.

Mr. Aoyama went from being a technical director to a producer, and Mr. Matsui went from being a battle planner to a producer. How did your changes in position affect how you approach your work?

Frankly, when I was the technical director, I was already in charge of the overall rules for the team, like our staff members’ weekly reports. So that part didn’t really change even after I became the producer. I was already familiar with looking through everyone’s weekly reports, and I was the one who chose the tools our team used. Although my new position meant more people under my direct supervision, there weren’t all that many changes overall.

After becoming producer, however, I’ve had far more exposure to other games and media content. Since I have the final say in some decisions as the producer, like whether to use one illustration over the other, it’d be problematic if what I chose didn’t match what the general public would’ve chosen. It’s not much of an issue with decisions that can be resolved logically, but I’m faced with plenty of decisions that I have to make based on perception, so that’s something I’ve been studying consciously.

In my case, I’d say that when I took over as producer, I gave up on pursuing my own happiness as a developer as I’d done before. So I’ll continue to properly fulfill my role for FFXI, but if I were ever to work on another game, in some ways I’d like to go back to being a game developer rather than a producer.

I understand that feeling. I’ve been programming for a large part of my life, so sometimes I wish I could go back to a role where I do programming only. There was this one time when we needed a simple tool for development where I was like, “Aw shucks, guess I’ll have to take care of that,” and put it together myself. (laughs)

I also did something similar, where I made spreadsheets to aggregate survey data for FFXI. I was like, “Oh, this is so much fun!” while I was working on it. (laughs)

From another perspective, we can’t have our game programmers squander their time with creating small, miscellaneous tools. So then it comes down to, “Well I could do it, so I’ll just write it myself!”

Mr. Aoyama, what are your thoughts on FFXI? Likewise, Mr. Matsui, what are your thoughts on DQX Online?

I believe FFXI was a turning point that made MMORPGs accessible to a broader audience, especially Japanese players. There’s also the fact that FFXI was created with the intention of making an MMORPG that maintained the high quality of previous titles in the series. The FFXI team was aiming quite high with their goals, and in a sense, I felt that they were trying to make FFXI the cornerstone of MMORPGs. Some aspects of the game may seem dated now after 20 years, but I really do think that the core of the game is really solid.

I was only able to play DQX Online in its early days, but I still feel that their progress since then has been amazing. The game is available not only on game consoles and PCs, but handheld consoles and smartphones too, and there’s even an offline version. I think it’s wonderful how DQX Online continually strives for a wider audience.

Last but not least, do you have any words for FFXI and our adventurers regarding the 20th anniversary, Mr. Aoyama?

Congratulations on the 20th anniversary of FFXI. I considered thanking everyone for playing these past 20 years, but perhaps “thank you” isn’t quite the right word. Both the players and development team had a hand in creating FFXI, so I’d like to say “congratulations” to the players as well. The FFXI development team wouldn’t have made it this far without their players’ encouraging support. I hope you’ll continue to enjoy FFXI for years to come, and once again, congratulations on the 20th anniversary of FFXI!