In 2008, Final Fantasy XI Podcast Pet Food Alpha interviewed Matt Hilton for their two year anniversary.
The original audio interview can still be found today via Gamer Escape. The following written Q&A was found among my own records.
How did you start working for SE?
I started here as a temporary tester on FINAL FANTASY X, back in August of 2001.
I was able to work my way up through the ranks on various other projects, like Kingdom Hearts, FINAL FANTASY X-2, and so on.
I was hired full-time to be a lead tester and led other projects including Crystal Chronicles, and FINAL FANTASY XI.
After my time on XI was wrapping up, an opportunity arose to join the Community Relations team and I leapt at the chance, because during my time as lead of the project, I spent a lot of time reading community reactions and getting to know what players were thinking.
What your favorite parts about working on the community relations team for FFXI?
My favorite part about being on the team is actually being able to see the excitement when new content is announced for upcoming patches or expansions. Working and planning our live events, like Fan Festival, are really exciting because it’s fun to see and get a chance to meet with our players in person.
I can’t count how many times I’ve been approached and had long discussions with players when I’m not on stage doing announcements, or even trying to just grab a bite to eat before the next event!
How do you collect feedback from the community? Are their any specific examples of things implemented in the game that originated from an idea in the community besides the cheese sandwich?
The community teams around the world collect feedback by reading through various message boards throughout the day, player’s blogs, fan websites, feedback e-mails and so on.
There are many different voices out there, but you always have to look at everything subjectively.
There could be a vocal minority which doesn’t enjoy XYZ activity, and going to another forum, you’ll see a large portion that really enjoys it.
So it’s never about just cutting and pasting into a form and passing it along.
There are a few examples I can cite where we’ve listened to feedback received from the player base: the windowed modes introduction is of course a huge change, changing the Dragoon’s “Call Wyvern” ability. Feedback from Paladin’s has lead to many changes over the course of the game as well, Shield Mastery and the shield damage update, for example. We have a new spell coming in related to that as well…
The upcoming June update will see some changes that have indeed been a long time coming: Nomad Moogles added to Selbina and Mhaura, the ability to restrict HQ synthesis, and retaining OP teleports when returning to previous nations. There are many more things, but it’s kind of hard to make a definitive list and say “this is definitely changed because of the community” because many of the things that we implement into the game are influenced by players.
Do you play Final Fantasy XI? If so what are your favorite jobs and features in the game? What are your least favorite?
I do indeed play FFXI, and have been since the Japanese PS2 beta! I prefer tanking jobs and damage dealing jobs, personally. I usually focus my free time to leveling those or tweaking my current jobs. I’m kinda bummed because I’m quickly running out of my remaining low level jobs to take higher.
I really loved the 2-hand weapon update last year, even though it forced me to re-do a lot of my character’s merits. And I was actually so busy with Fan Festival that I didn’t even get to take “advantage” of it before it was re-adjusted to what it is now.
Well, no, that’s not true; I did skill up a few of my less-used weapons for a bit before hand.
As far as favorite features, I really love doing ENMs with friends – great experience points and a chance at pricey rewards.
Besides that, another big favorite of mine is Limbus. I really like running through that twice a week with my Linkshell. I don’t really even need the rewards from it anymore, it’s just something I have a lot of fun doing. I like working with low number parties and focusing on the strategy aspect. And since a good portion of us have a handful of 75 jobs, its fun to try out various combinations.
As far as least favorite… I’d probably say it’s trying to find space in merit party areas. No matter what time it is, at least for me, it always seems to be crowded and depending on the day, or time of day, it can be almost impossible. But I am guilty of course to sticking to the “popular” and “tried and true” camps, so I’m sure I am passing up a few areas because of wanting only the “best” exp per hour. I’ve actually found myself sticking to Campaign battles a lot lately during free time because of this. It’s a lot less stressful than competing for chains with other players and I’m still making decent advances toward merit goals.
What happened to the Vana’diel Tribune?
Well, while the true “Vana’diel Tribune” isn’t around anymore, a lot of the content that was collected in its pages is actually being posted more often between updates on the Topics section. For example, the “Myriad Arms of Balrahn” is precisely the type of article that would be featured in the Tribune, but now appears on the Topics page. So while the Tribune may be gone in its collected form, its style and content continue to live on the official website.
Clarify what can be done if your account is compromised due to a virus stealing your account information
First thing that a player should do if they feel their account has been compromised is to call the Information Center, or contact a GM in-game if it’s during off business hours. If the player is unable to log-in to their account, they can have a family member or friend contact a GM on their behalf.
The GM will confirm their ownership of the account in question via a few questions that only an account owner would know the answers to, and then proceed to lock the account until further investigation can be done.
Next a player should perform a virus scan and check their computer for any malicious software and remove it immediately. Once the player has contacted the Information Center, they’ll be directed on the steps necessary to regain control of their account. The most important thing for a player that has lost access to their account to do is to get the account frozen to help minimize the damage done.
Those two methods should help ensure that that happens quickly.
We’ve received a lot of positive feedback so far from players since the implementation of our new policies and tools. With these new policies in place, we are able to quickly turn around and help faster than we have ever been before.
Thank you for having me on! Honestly, I’ve been a bit nervous about appearing on the show ever since you invited me on. For some reason speaking in front of 2,000 people wasn’t as nerve-wracking as this was for me!
From everyone on the FINAL FANTASY XI team, we would like to congratulate you all on your 2 year anniversary! Here’s to many more!
FFMMO Archive 