Some interesting questions proposed of the Japanese player base...

I can't say I'm friends with the JP Button crew -- and if I knew of their little April Fools' stunt, I'd have done something really stupid, like translate my entire first page to Japanese or something...

(For those who don't know, the JP Button crew, which basically now has allied with Fusionx of Pet Food Cheater, decided to mock my site (and my vitriol) with an April Fools prank of me "taking over" JP Button...)

But that is neither here nor there for this post.

I did find something interesting there, though, as they posted the 12 questions which American players (culled from several of the popular FFXI forums) wanted to ask their Japanese counterparts. Several are pertinent to basically anyone, and I'll answer (just for the record) for myself, even though I'm not Japanese.

(Questions are taken directly from the JP Button site.)

1) Does Square Enix communicate regularly with the Japanese-speaking community? Do you wish the Final Fantasy XI Development Team would communicate more openly with the players?

I sense they communicate a bit more with the Japanese (see Creator's Voice Z), but not to the extent that I think any part of the player base would like.

I think a significant part of that is a matter that the player base has earned a quite healthy dis-trust from the people who made and run FFXI. I think that has a lot to do with the amount of true communication that you see between the sides.

I think that the Dev Team would communicate more openly if they trusted the information not to be abused -- left, right, and up the center.

2) If you bought A Crystalline Prophecy, did you buy it for the story-line or the body piece? Either way, were you satisfied with your purchase?

I bought it as new content. Since we are, more than likely, finished forever with the large-scale expansions of the game, it's going to be situations like this which are going to provide new content for FFXI.

The problem is simple: I was dissatisfied with the purchase because the purchase was not the amount of new content which would be commensurate with a new (mini-)expansion costing a third of what a large-scale expansion would cost.

What I really fear, given other things I've seen in the game, is that you are essentially paying $9.99 for a daily grab at the goodie box in Lower Jeuno. As I said before, to get the better-augmented loot, it's like you have to pay Square-Enix for the privilege.

There is some decent stuff in there (the 30-level one for the first Seedspalls actually has an Utsusemi: Ni in the list), but that shouldn't be almost the equivalent of reverse-RMT, which is what Square-Enix is falling into.

The storyline was essentially non-existant, the battles far unbalanced point-to-point.

It turned the regular beastmen in several zones into bot-camping situations.

Sloppy planning, sloppy execution.

3) What do you think about the Tidal Talisman, Mog Satchel and other in-game items that come with merchandise? Would you like to see more, or do you feel they should be put directly into the game?

I think you're already, as I just said, bordering on reverse-RMT on the part of Square-Enix with regards to the likes of the Mog Satchel/Security Token and the Tidal Talisman/RL Jewelry motif.

I think, frankly, that if they're going to do this, they need to be honest about it and basically say "Yeah, we're going to make people pay to actually have better opportunities in the game...", which would probably degrade FFXI a step or two further toward those "free MMO's" which basically have people pay for the better gear therein.

I can't say I'm crazy with it either way. I think it's another example of the "$2 whore" which Square-Enix now believes FFXI is.

4) Which battle systems do you enjoy the most? Do you like to steadily earn points towards an item like Einherjar and Campaign, or do you like taking a chance at drops like Salvage and Dynamis? Does getting zero drops after 50 Salvage runs frustrate you, or is that grinding a necessary part of the game?

Dynamis gets frustrating, yes -- Dynamis has been getting a bit more of a grind lately (I think the fact that I have 4/5 DRG and there are several other BST in the linkshell might have something to do with it.

I think the real frustration, though, lies in the fact that the relic weapons are just too damned impossible without some form of hijacking the process so you can get all the Big Money which goes toward it.

As for one over the other? I kinda like Campaign, because you can get into a team concept and earn points toward stuff. Dynamis has its moments, but can get a bit of a grind after a period of time.

5) What do you think of scheduling Dynamis on a website or calendar? Many high-level shells on various servers have their own ways on scheduling Dynamis together so as to avoid conflict. If there were a site available in English and Japanese, would you utilize it?

I think there does need to be a standardized method of scheduling Dynamis, before you start getting groups effectively "ninjar-ing" runs to block other groups from getting in.

What we do is we find out what's available when we go in -- but, sometimes, that results in being handed the last available zone. If there's some rotation, you can get some idea of what you want to do thereon before, say, 45 minutes before you're scheduled to go in.

So some sort of resource, which would probably have to be multi-lingual, should be implemented across all the servers of the game, if plausible.

6) When searching for a camping spot, how can we politely ask Japanese players which camp they are at? Using the Auto-Translate Function (e.g. {Camp} {location} {where?} ) often times fails to elicit a response.

I think a lot of that, bluntly, is distrust between the Japanese and American player communities (something I am surprised was not asked about!). I think that if either felt the other would not infringe, you'd see a lot more communication.

If one side or the other feels they are about to get pinched off or squeezed out, they're not going to say anything -- so, at least IMODO, it's a trust issue, not a mechanics issue.

7) Many foreign players feel that Game Masters lack a basic knowledge of the game, which leaves them unable to punish obvious cheaters or even answer simple game-related questions. How do you feel about the overall effectiveness of Game Masters? Do your experiences with Game Masters make you feel happy, or are you left frustrated and dissatisfied?

Largely frustrated, sadly. I think many of the rulings made by the GM's are made to take the easy way out and not actually have to deal with the situation at hand, be it RMT, cheating, or God knows what else.

Take the Salvage bans, for example. GM's were being notified -- and I think it's partially a matter that the GM's don't know about the game (at least what they are being asked about), and partly that I think they, in the name of getting the $12.95/month from each player, trust the players too much.

I do not believe in the concept of "Innocent until proven guilty". I think that if there's something which could go out of the ordinary, someone is going to exploit it (because such exploits are required to essentially become "elite" in FFXI), and it needs to be put down.

I think the GM's are too trusting of the players and don't take into account that many of the players involved in a lot of the stuff being called on are violating the Terms of Service.

Hence, I think they just take the easy way out, whenever possible.

8) What do you think Square Enix will “ninja fix” next? Feel free to speculate wildly.

That's a hard question to answer, though I do think that they might take a look into nerfing SAM a bit, probably downplaying some mage stuff, much to the chagrin of the Tarutaru, and probably make life a bit harder on all the players (perhaps, now that the pressure has died down a bit, nerfing the Seedspall drop rate, etc.)

Something I'd really like to see them ninja fix? Allow the Beastmen to take the cities in Campaign.

9) What songs or albums do you listen to while playing the game? What are your favorite snacks and drinks for adventuring in Vana’diel?

I might have my iTunes on, which has everything from Deborah Gibson to anime music.

I also have some music and AMV's from YouTube.

I also will watch soccer matches from ESPN360.com.

Snacks? Little Debbie snack cakes. Bologna sandwiches. And water/Powerade.

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner of champions. :)

10) How do you feel about online friends? Do you treat them the same as real people with feelings and emotions, or do you view them as strangers behind the screen? Also, do you ever meet in person and become friends outside of the game?

I think anyone who can put up with me enough to call me a friend would be more than someone as a stranger behind a screen. I met my roommate online in 1998. I had a friend who suggested I move to California after my release whom I met online at least in 1993...

But the fact is, I have an earned and violent distrust in people. It's not pretty. So I don't have many friends, because I have a few too many stab-marks in my back over the years.

And that applies as much to FFXI as it does to RL.

11) This is a question for long-term Japanese players:The majority of foreign players have had the Rise of Zilart expansion from the beginning and have never known a Vana’diel without the Zilart areas. What was the game like before Zilart was added? Where did people level, and how were parties set up?

You might want to listen to the latest Limit Break Radio, the first "informal episode" about "The Way Things Were". As for me, I got into the game after Zilart had come out.

12) In one of the threads created for foreign players to post questions, there was a lot of debate about the play style of Japanese Corsairs. People felt they played the job too similarly to Bard, and the topic erupted into the merits of support CORs vs. damage dealing CORs. That said, are there any jobs in particular you feel that foreign players just can’t seem to play right in a party?

I'll expand the question beyond "foreign players".

I think the big problem is that we've gotten to the point that the number of meaningful jobs in the game isn't many more than about a half a dozen. And if you aren't THE certain job for a given situation, you won't see the final fight in ACP (RNG and SMN and the like) or CoP 4.2 (BLM and PLD), etc. and so forth.

The game has become too centralized on just a few jobs. (Don't even think of doing most endgame without being /NIN and with Ni -- that's one of the worst examples...)

So, that's the list and my answers thereto. Take it or leave it.