Interview of the FFXI Beta Test

Here is an insightful interview into the currently ongoing process of the FFXI beta test.

The alpha test has begun and would it be accurate to say that the whole world is watching? At this stage of testing there is only a limited amount of players, but the development team has taken their first big step. We'd like to talk about how you feel the test is progressing, and what you hope to accomplish as you go forward.

Tanaka: The current situation for the alpha test is that we have testing time split up into 4 hour blocks for each region — Japan, North America and Europe. Admittedly, we have not stabilized the server, and the game is not fully playable yet. We have been causing some headaches for our test players who were lucky enough to get chosen for the alpha, but with each update we are improving the game sell Final Fantasy XI Gil.

What are your impressions of the feedback you have received?

Komoto: They are certainly much different then what we hear from the development side. They notice a lot of little things that we don't. In addition, there are some interesting differences between the opinions of the different regions. Personally, it has been a big change for us, as we had been away from the action for so long working on FFXI. Now that people are logging in and the alpha test is in motion, we're finding ourselves back interacting with the developers and with management, it feels like we're home again.