Post Fan Festival 2016 Experience, Thoughts and Suggestions

[Avenger]

I was just looking at my 2014 comments, so I thought I'd compare a bit:

2014: "First day [reg. day] was almost entirely wasted due to long and slow registration lines."
2016: Registration was fast and painless. No line at all. Probably partially due to no character-specific badges or T-shirts. However, there was no reception on registration day as there was in 2014.

2014: "Fix the merchandise booth - allow pre-orders/on-line orders of merch (limited to one item per person so you don't run out of goodies) so you can pick it up any time during the weekend; fix the stupid credit card machines... It was also a mad free-for-all as people cut into the front of the line."
2016: More working machines (but 3 still broken); but the merchandise line somehow got even worse; still a mad free-for-all with anti-social behavior; preorders not implemented, items still ran out... basically a disaster.

2014: "Fix the priority system for first-timers on each line; first-timers (at the very least) should be able to register for a time slot. The priority system was poorly organized and didn't really work well."
2016: Priority system not implemented at all as far as I could tell? I didn't get to do Trials roulette, sadly.

2014: "Fix the ticket system - web site melted down...."
2016: Ticket site worked OK, and tickets didn't sell out until later in the day.

2014: "Create a bigger area for server meetups with movable signs for each individual server....more organized approach...Pre-registering for per-server meetups..."
2016: Same comments apply.

2014: "Optimize communication - some things went out over e-mail, others were in the printed schedule, other things were on the web site, other things were announced over the PA, and still other things weren't announced at all!"
2016: Schedule didn't go up until late, but it did go up. Overall: OK but could be better.

2014: "I felt vaguely dirty about the VIP pay-to-win system"
2016: No VIP tickets, no great loss really; would have liked to see more official signing/dev interaction opportunities.

2014: "The raffle items weren't as awesome as they could have been"
2016: Raffle replaced by Jumbo Cactpot, which wasn't bad. Still no awesome mega-prizes though, and I missed the excitement of cheering people on as they won prizes in real time.

2014:"Can we get an Eorzea café at the fan festival like the one in Japan? That would be totally awesome!!"
2016: Food room adjacent to the show floor, but still no Eorzea Café sadly!!

2014: "One unfortunate guy (my paladin in in-game event) got his Moogle stolen while he was watching a presentation!!"
2016: Badge had FanFest code of conduct printed on it as well as enforcement. I didn't hear about any thefts, but line-cutting was rampant in the merch line.

2014: "It's sad but almost laughable that I got gilseller spam waiting for the Odin battle!!"
2016: No RMT spam in game instances! Right-click report may have actually helped?!?!?! At last?!?!!

2014: "Can we get access to the stream archives?? Please?"
2016: Worse - now $30 rather than $20, and no discount or credit for in-person attendees.

2014: "Huge props to everyone who helped to put this on - it was immensely fun and I just wish my whole FC had been there to enjoy it!! Thanks especially to the magnificent Yoshi-p, Mr. G(ondai?), Soken, and Koji Fox, as well as all of the members of the Primals!! Thanks also to the 3+ star crafting cosplayers and to the friendly and helpful fans who made the lines more tolerable and who were also terrific in the in-game events!! "
2016: Gondai was MIA sadly (though we got Nakagawa "Mr. Ozma" instead) - but it was still a great experience overall and... some people from my FC actually made it!!! And more people from my server!

[Ryuko]

@Ryuko: Great comments in general. I'd forgotten that you only needed to pay in 2014 for the HD stream and moogle attire (SD stream was free on Twitch though it didn't include the opening and closing ceremonies?) and that it was $20 rather than $30.

Ah, thanks for clarifying. I wasn't sure of the costs/rewards for 2014's stream because I never bothered with the stream. Anything I wanted to rewatch was available at standard quality anyway.

[ShirKirakira]

I'm someone who has attended both Vegas fanfests.

Alot of stuff this year was an improvement over the previous fanfest: faster badge pick up, two concerts instead of one, location on the strip vs off (not that the Rio is a bad place, its just a bad location for tourists unfamiliar with the area--Paris you can just exit the casino and you are on the strip, Rio you have to cross busy roadways and walk a bit to get there).

What really irritated me was the merchandise situation. After the first fanfest, I expected to stand in line a bit, but what happened this fanfest was disaster. Let's be honest: the first half of day 1 the line had become a safety hazard, people standing anywhere not knowing if they even were in line, crowded areas, I couldn't even find the end of the line and entry and exits to the convention room were blocked by people. I didn't even attempt to stand in line because at that point I was afraid for my physical safety. The fire marshall rightfully flipped out. Then the line ticket distribution situation for day 2 was awful, convention employees told me to come back at 10am on Day 2 to get a ticket for a line reservation time, and then come to find out on Saturday morning that staff had given away all the tickets at 7:30 am instead.

I did, however, still end up getting a line reservation ticket because my husband and I took turns checking with staff now properly monitoring the merchandise line, and later in the day they were able to give us a 6pm ticket once things got more under control. At 5:30 pm we were allowed to line up against a wall for our reservation time, and things went smoothly after that. Staff were only allowing one person per ticket to go in the merchandise line, and I'm thankful that staff provided a merchandise list before hand so I could mark off the things I wanted (like clothing sizes) and was able to send my husband in line to buy our stuff. Good news: I was able to get the con exclusive shirts I wanted, bad news: my husband couldn't buy ANYTHING because they had nothing in his size left, and of course lore books were long sold out. We finished paying by 6:30 and were able to pick up our merchandise in just enough time before the line was closed for the day. The staff at merchandise pick up was a mixed bag: some staff members would carefully go over the merchandise with you to make sure everything was in there, correct size, etc, (we got one of these wonderful people) some staff just handed you your stuff without verifying contents and I saw a few con attendees going back to try and exchange shirts because they were given the wrong size!

So my suggestion for next fanfest--give out line reservation times when people go to pick up their con bags to avoid this mess.

Also, give us the option of at least ordering a con exclusive shirt when we buy our fanfest ticket, and let up pick up with either our goodie bag or at the merch booth later, or maybe even pay to have shipped to our homes ahead of the con. Part of the reason the line was so bad this year was there was no way for someone to get a con exclusive shirt without standing in the merchandise line, unlike the previous fanfest where you got a shirt with your registration goodie bag, and could win a free one from the battle trials.

I imagine SE lost alot of money from fanfest merchandise sales because of these problems. I met many people who were unable to even stand in line and buy anything, or if they had stood inline everything that they wanted was sold out, people who had hundreds, some even thousands, of dollars saved up to go shopping with.

Positive stuff: I met many nice people at the con! The first day of the con I was attending by myself (husband had to leave and take care of a local business emergency) and people were super friendly. Triple Triad card trading was a big ice breaker while standing inline for the live mini-games, and when I went to lunch by myself a bunch of con goers invited me to sit at their table and hang out with them, rather than leave me sitting by myself in the food court, and "you play a healer and you're by yourself? we need an extra person for our battle challenge! join us!" People that had gotten Lore books let me look at their books while we were standing in line or sitting next to each other at the various panels (One dude had managed to get his signed by Koji and it had "THALS BALLS" written all over it LOL). Later my husband and I were invited to various after hour parties and drinking places by other con attendees. I even chatted with some of the con staff when I was by myself, and when I mentioned I was local (I actually live in Las Vegas) and some of them really opened up. A good deal of the staff had been just thrown into the Fanfest with little instruction, and some didn't even know what FFXIV was, and asked me about some of the characters they were seeing around the con, which I was happy to explain to them. Some of the staff working also got to witness the live concerts and were unexpectedly impressed by the music, and also really liked the game videos that were playing between panels and were interesting in trying out the game for themselves (later I saw some of these people sneaking off to the merchandise booths to buy physical copies of the games to take home to play for themselves and friends, haha).

[rainichan]

I know the merch line was a huge thing for me - myself and my friend got into the line, or what we thought was the line, right after the keynote at about 12:10pm. I didn't finish with my transaction until 6:45pm. 6.5 hours was wasted in that line, which meant no food, no bathroom breaks, and missing out on pretty much EVERYTHING that the fanfest had to offer (the second day wasn't really enough to squeeze in everything I wanted to do the first day between the panels and then concert at the end.)



I can say that the staff I did get to interact with, in the merch line and at the registers were helpful and really nice - I had an issue with my card and when I ran back to the con room to finish up nearly burst into tears when I heard the merch line was closing, but they still held my stuff for me and let me finish up.

The biggest thing with the merch line is that 95% of the attendees had the same thought: I'll get my merchandise and have the rest of the day to do what I want, hang with friends, and rock out at the concerts. Getting what should have been maybe a 2 hour deal out of the way is always going to be what people will want to do first to give them time to do everything else that is offered. Having either a) another room set up for merch so there's no fire hazards with blocking doors (which is what was getting people super salty: others would walk in, see the line, and get into it, despite there being a huge block of people lined up behind them not blocking doors) or 2) having there be two stations with the same amount of staff (10 registers each) for merch in two opposite ends of the conroom. Other suggestions of being able to preorder the merch online and have it ready for pick up has been suggested and is an excellent suggestion, or any other way to handle a huge 3000-person line. There's always going to be some sort of wait, but whittling some of it down will make a smoother process and keep a lot of people happy.

As for everything else, I don't have a whole lot of feedback beyond the sound for panels. Since Linecon Savage mode was going on, I got to SEE the panels, but unless I was anywhere vaguely near the seats set up, I couldn't hear anything that was being said, which is kind of disappointing. Communication with staff so staff can communicate things clearly with attendees is also a big thing. Further down the line when there was word of a capped line we were asking where it was capped but no one seemed to know due to no communication.

I do know that people had suggested shorter times between things so there wasn't just empty space of "I've done the trials/challenges and there's still 2 hours until the next panel" from the 2014 FF, but I think closing the doors at 8pm was a bit too early. 10pm might have been too late, but 9pm might be just right? That way it gives some time to do things, meet up with friends, see the panels, get merch, etc. and not have too much time between where it's "what do???"

That said, despite being in Yokai Fate Hell for Whisper-A-Go-GoLinecon for the entire first day and not getting to do much on the second, I did make some awesome friends in the merch line, the reaction to "what server are you on?" was always hilarious (the reaction was always "...oh..." when Balmung was said) and the pins I got from a Linecon attendee was worth it, as was getting to meet Ferne #1 (not the potted Ferne #2!) and seeing one of my favourite musical pieces being played by Soken on the first night.

No complaints about the location, next NA FF please please PLEASE keep it in a hotel that connects to another much like Paris/Bally's did! I stayed in Bally's and it wasn't too far of a hike to get to the conroom (literally a 5 minute walk if there were a ton of people milling around, 2 minutes if not) - it means no driving or walking for long periods of time to get to the con location, which meant trekking back to my room with a couple of large bags of merch or being exhausted wasn't too daunting. I'll be returning next time for the next one!

[Sorrel]

So I sent an email directly to square Enix support about the merchandise issue, and the only thing I got from it was "thank you for your comment, we have forwarded it to our superiors" ...

Not sure if that's a more direct way of getting our message across or not, compared to the forums... Not sure how many comments they need before they decide to do anything.

From what I can tell, they never did anything post fanfest last time about the issues they had?

[Ryuko]

From what I can tell, they never did anything post fanfest last time about the issues they had?

I do think they listen to our feedback (I am assuming community reps are perusing this thread), but whether or not they do something about it is a different story. For example, they did fix a lot of issues that were big problems in 2014, like the registration line. But the merchandise problem was even worse this time around... I think that had more to do with the fact that they added fan fest EXCLUSIVE shirts to the store, not realizing that for a lot of people, fan fest shirts are really, really, really important. So while they did attempt to fix the actual purchasing issues that were happening in 2014, the demand for merchandise was increased in 2016 due to the whole shirt thing. And maybe the lore book too. But I think the shirts were a bigger deal for more people. So basically... I think they will listen to our feedback and try to incorporate it into their planning for next time. But, I don't know if we'll see anything done for the people who missed the merchandise. I would be pleasantly surprised if they gave fan fest attendees a chance to buy merchandise online, but it would have to be JUST for us. If they release it to the general public, those shirts are going to sell out really fast to people who didn't even go to the fan fest.

[Sorrel]

Yea I ment like right after, not for the next fanfest. I have noticed that they did improvements to many things from what everyone is saying, which is great.

But I agree that the Tshirts probably screwed everything up. Personally thats the thing that I am the most upset about since I never got the chance to get it...

[Endgame19]

We all know the common gripes so here are my Suggestions

1. Make the Merch Booth a separate room with independent hours from the festival. This would fix so many issues.
2. Playable Triple Triad cards. I would have loved to have received an actual TT set of cards. I would have also loved to have a full-scale TT tournament that we could have played using our decks.
3. A better system for submitting questions to the panels and better care given to sorting through the "unanswerable" or repeat questions
4. A Lore panel that actually discusses Lore not just advertises the Lore Book.
5. Seating during the Keynote and Concerts. You know how many people are attending long before the event so adjust seating accordingly for events like the Keynote and Concerts. You have time to prepare, use it wisely.
6. Please bring back the opening ceremony "cocktail party" from the 2014 FanFest, I actually enjoyed that experience.

[Endgame19]

All that being said, I still loved the event and I'm already looking forward to the next FanFest.