Recent Yuji Naka Interview

[Getintothegame]

Source: GHZ

The latest issue of UK magazine Edge contains a brief interview with Yuji Naka, where he voices his frustrations over several factors that are inhibiting his creativity.

Firstly, it seems that Sega's recent restructuring has alleviated his CEO responsibilities, as he is not only still responsible for Sonic Team's finances, but has the additional task of calculating exactly what proportion of Sega's cash flow is available to Sonic Team. Secondly, Naka has become "sick of online" gaming due to the effort required in maintaining servers and out-smarting hackers, which diverts resources from the development process. Finally, Naka feels that number of platforms on the market also stretches resources. The recent gaming domination of Puyo Puyo Fever was actually part of an experiment to see exactly how many platforms Sonic Team could cope with. The process made Naka realise that it would only be possible to release simple games on such a scale.

Despite these problems, Naka is still planning on releasing Phantasy Star Universe later in the year, which signals Sonic Team's commitment to the online realm. Being re-integrated into Sega should also aid the development process of future titles as Sonic Team is now able to share the development tools of their sister departments.

Naka also brightens the interview with an anecdote relating to the development stages of Kimishine. The male members of the team were apparently reluctant to rub the silhouette girl. Their female counterparts, however, who amount to roughly half the team, had no such inhibitions and went straight for her boobies (Yes, Naka really did say ‘boobies’). As a result, Naka doesn’t feel that players will find the concept of touching a bikini wearing girl to be too risqué.

[AzureBlaze]

This makes me so mad!
Someone should plaster this thing all over the servers before anyone can sign into the game.

Why the hell are SO many people continuously and very activly trying to utterly DESTROY PSO?

I mean, gimme a break. Small time dupers don't mean too much. Even people with wacky codes like "Become that hood guy that ST never uses in a quest" are no real threat. All online games have to deal with people cheating to "get ahead" or "Show off".
...But WTH is up with the morons who are crashing ships, and FSOD'ing everyone to *Drive Away* customers on a daily basis, and ST knows the effects. Do other online games have to constantly battle to even SURVIVE the assult by customers trying to permenently offline them?

So now we finally have SOLID PROOF that the really destructive hackers are literally ruining the future of PSO.
1. Wasteing time on fixing servers=sucky or no upgrades
2. Trying to fix everything every day=no content for you
3. Continued assults on PSO=No more games EVER?

"Sonic Team is Lazy" is the oldest saying on this and any PSO site. Maybe it's not true...maybe they're just fighting a losing battle.

Right now, I am just so thankful that they have the determination to press on with this, even though it looks like everyone who plays the game just wants to destroy it. Ultimatly, what can we do to stop these idiots from FOREVER cancelling PSO?

...I don't know. But, we can hope that they made PSU the RIGHT way. That they really listened, and looked, and learned from the past. Perhaps then, they, AND we, will all have a better experience, and ST will take heart again, and our future of hunting will no longer be in jeopardy.

[Mixfortune]

Despite these problems, Naka is still planning on releasing Phantasy Star Universe later in the year, which signals Sonic Team's commitment to the online realm.

Was it assumed that PSU was online with this, or did Yuji Naka specify that/mention something about online?... hmm... judging by the wording, still seems like assumptions in that regard.


Secondly, Naka has become "sick of online" gaming due to the effort required in maintaining servers and out-smarting hackers, which diverts resources from the development process.

http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_frown.gif

[Dek]

Secondly, Naka has become "sick of online" gaming due to the effort required in maintaining servers and out-smarting hackers, which diverts resources from the development process.

He should be thankful that he has loyal PSO fans that are willing to spend money every month.

Besides, the Sonic games have been pure shit. They should be thankful that PSO is still doing very well.

[KodiaX987]

You speak as if we're doing Yuji a favor by playing his games, which clearly isn't the case. The most you can expect out of a game company when the game does sell is "Yay, our game sold well!" That's all, period, finito.

Yuji is sick with online play and I'm 500% behind him. Even after introducing pay-to-play requirements, you still have the fucking dumbshits asking for cash from their parents just to play online, and the problem hasn't even been solved one bit. I play a MMORPG right now where botting is a currency. I used to play a tank game where people used AUTO-AIM BOTS. THEY FUCKING USED AUTO-AIM BOTS ON A GAME WITH LESS THAN 10 PLAYERS ONLINE AT ANY GIVEN FUCKING TIME!!! JESUS!!!

I swear to God, if the Internet dies overnight, I know a lot of people who'll jack off to this in celebration to the end of an all-time hellhole.

[hollowtip]

On 2005-02-10 16:42, KodiaX987 wrote:

Yuji is sick with online play and I'm 500% behind him. Even after introducing pay-to-play requirements, you still have the fucking dumbshits asking for cash from their parents just to play online, and the problem hasn't even been solved one bit. I play a MMORPG right now where botting is a currency. I used to play a tank game where people used AUTO-AIM BOTS. THEY FUCKING USED AUTO-AIM BOTS ON A GAME WITH LESS THAN 10 PLAYERS ONLINE AT ANY GIVEN FUCKING TIME!!! JESUS!!!



The problem isn't the online games themselves, it's the communities that ruin the games. I remember when PSO launched for the dreamcast. It was three months of pure gaming bliss. No hacking, no assholes, and people actually played the game properly.

Now the game has been raped to no end, all the exploits exploited.

What's really sad is that the PSO community is actually decent compared to a game like, let's say, Gunbound. People stack teams in almost EVERY game, hack avatars, aimbot, null time delays ect.

It's a joke the game actually has anti-cheating software.

I can't believe there hasn't been a large anti-hacking company to come about to really try and regulate with the more popular games. I think there could be some money made if there were constant updates.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: hollowtip on 2005-02-10 17:20 ]</font>

[Para]

Don't forget the shitty RO community where the majority of players are actually bots http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif

[KodiaX987]

On 2005-02-10 17:18, hollowtip wrote:

I can't believe there hasn't been a large anti-hacking company to come about to really try and regulate with the more popular games. I think there could be some money made if there were constant updates.



The thing is that the computer will do exactly what it's told without any questions. Say I make a small program that manages employee data, and I then make a bot that inputs data at a quicker rate than the program can take. Bam, crash, and without having broken any rules whatsoever pertaining to the program.

Now port this over to online games. If one can spoof data from the game, then anything is possible. The mechanics behind it is that the program itself doesn't always know what it'll have to process.

I'll make an example from my algo class. Say I define an object called "Shape". Then I define derived objects from shape, called "Square", "Triangle" and "Circle". Now I run the program. It will expect a shape, but has no idea of the existence of the Triangle, Square and Circle. What happens is that I give it a particular shape, and that shape comes with instructions on how it must be handled, based on the general specifications of the Shape I had made. Technically, I could hack my own program to make it process a "Pentagon". The program won't know or care because it only knows it has to handle shapes.

Therefore, Gunbound. It knows it has to process strength and angle data from the player, but no one told it where that input has to come from aside from the computer associated with the player. It knows it has to process money, it knows it comes from winning games, but it stops there. All I'd need to do would be to repeatedly tell the server "I won!", rack up tons of money and spiffy up my avatar to my fancy.

If we had to completely fool-proof our programs, the source code would be hundreds of miles long, in order to handle every possible exception. Why would I need that? Because the program doesn't know all of itself and I'd have to tell it what is okay and not okay to do. That procedure alone would destroy the purpose of "object-oriented programming" where the goal is to easily upgrade a program due to the fact that it's only given basic, vague instructions at the beginning.

Here, if you wanna have fun, open up your Visual C++ program, and compile the following code:



#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

struct type_memo
{
int TheMemo;
type_memo *PtrNext;
};

type_memo *MemoryMemo;

void main(void)
{
int i = 1;
int* pointMem;
while (i < 2)
{
MemoryMemo = new type_memo;
}
}


I can assure you the following program will crash your computer and force you to restart. Why? Here's why:

Basically, this code reserves a spot in the computer's memory, spot which should be filled with data. Regardless of what's in it, that memory is reserved and no one else can use it until said program frees that memory.

Now, we enter a loop, with a flaw in it. As long as i is smaller than 2, reserve more space. Only, i never changes and stays at 1. Result: You run out of RAM and must reboot.

Now, what if I wanna protect my computer against such a thing? Tough luck, I have no idea. I'd have to make a program to monitor the memory allocation of program #1. That new program would have openings like that, and would require monitoring by another program #3, until I end up making dozens of program that only amount to making sure program #1 doesn't screw up my RAM.

And this is the story on why it's hard to protect a game against hax0rz. http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: KodiaX987 on 2005-02-10 21:29 ]</font>

[hollowtip]

I understand the problematic rules of processing overload and foreign input by circumventing hacking protection, but for the loopholes that trickle down to the end users of online games, the idea I have put forth can help police the online atmosphere, so it doesn't get to the point of total frustration.

Although I do agree that ending online hacking exploits completely is an impossible task, regulating and controling it by overseeing the constant evolution of hacking tactics will definitely bolster security and make the online experience immensely more enjoyable.

I would like to use the example of Starforce3 copy protection, even though this is not related to online gaming itself or C++, it still applies to the laws of circumvention, just on a different scale.

Starforce3 has been the first real copy protection that has thwarted piraters for a significant amount of time, (3 or 4 months to crack the first couple of games, and 3 or 4 weeks on average for every other game released there after) and still, the games didn't always play properly on many computers because of timing issues, bugs ect. Also, just recently, the developers just released an update that is supposedly just as effective at stumping dedicated crackers as it's first incarnation was.

The only real problem I see for this level of security being implemented in an online atmosphere is the time, effort, and money would be in excess whereas the benefits would actually deter profitability.

Somewhere down the line when complex online gaming becomes a more viable market, I do believe this aspect of security may come into play.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: hollowtip on 2005-02-12 01:13 ]</font>

[haruna]

Every single MMO out there has players that will try and destroy the game, do things to annoy others etc.

The main schools of game design don't believe in punishing players too badly but instead opt not to reward "bad" behavior.

This still doesn't stop people.

In Worlds of Warcraft, you have people running around raiding villages. You don't get anything from attacking an enemy town and killing all the NPC's (Faction NPCs give neither experience or loot), but people do it anyway, either for the challenge of it, or to annoy players on the other faction.

Hacking isn't nearly as nasty of a problem on other games as it is PSO. In stating that resources are "wasted" trying to outsmart hackers, he's effectively tried to justify his being a lazy bum with PSO. With the amount of content that PSO players get every month(or should I say relative lack thereof?) it's amazing they haven't solved the hacker issue.

[Zarode]

So...that is why they did BB on the PC, from what Kodia said. They could keep updating the program to prevent these problems...

Odd. But I actually understanded that. >_>;

[KodiaX987]

Prolly not. They wouldn't do a PC game if they weren't sure they'd make a profit from it.

[Sharkyland]

Murphy's law ppl (one I really hate sometimes)...
- "It can take a group of people to build a project, but it only takes one person to take it down."

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Sharkyland on 2005-02-14 21:50 ]</font>

[hollowtip]

On 2005-02-14 12:00, haruna wrote:
Every single MMO out there has players that will try and destroy the game, do things to annoy others etc.

The main schools of game design don't believe in punishing players too badly but instead opt not to reward "bad" behavior.



The problem is that there is no long term benefits from doing so at the moment. It's too expensive to maintain a stable online environment, and the rewards developers reap from it is miniscule to say the least. For a game like PSO, without a persistant world, the populous of the online community will always diminsih within a couple of months due to the lack of variables and variety within the game. People have seen most everything they are going to see in that timeframe, and the mainstream gamer (the majority of the online population) is not going to stick around for shallow quest updates and small bug fixes for 10+ bucks a month.

There is so many aspects that PSO does right, but on the flip side, it fails in so many others.

I can understand Yuji Naka's frustration, but it's not like this is something that has become apparent with just the recent releases (Cube, Xbox, PSO PC, PSO:BB). It's been happening ever since the mid year of 2001 (when dreamcast PSO was first realized with hardcore hacking), and bringing this to the public's attention now gives me a thought of, "well yeah, didn't you know this 3 years ago?"

This time around he actually is dealing with a persistant world, and gamers (veterans or new additions) will be willing to stay on board for a lengthier amount of time due to more independant variables. So ridding the online atmosphere of detrimental loopholes is more crucial to the game's success, where a steady of stream of users will always be joining the community.