Suggestions for Future Fan Fests

[Crysten]

A bit of feedback from my perspective - apologies for the rambling nature of this:

1) As has been said to death - the merchandise queue was nothing short of ridiculous and one till (and one single card reader) for an event of 1000+ people was simply not good enough. It really did seem like there was no forward planning with this - never, ever underestimate the demand for stuff at these kind of events! I was able to complete most quests but this was the single reason why I wasn't able to do half of the events I wanted to. I'm sure many others feel the same.

2) While I was able to get all the stuff I wanted, items such as the art book and Delivery Moogle should always have been limited to one per person. Unless you have huge overstock of a particular item, you should not be letting people get more than one of something with queues that long. I cannot imagine the pain of being in the queue for as long as I was (four hours!) and being told that the stuff I was after was sold out after seeing people with doubles, or even triples!

3) I get the feeling the venue was picked due to aesthetics (and no complaints here on that part!). It was in a very nice location and the atmosphere alone (for example the stained glass in the Carline Canopy and the ships outside) was extremely fitting for the game. I would not be adverse to having the event at the Tabacco Dock again but making sure the venue is completely fit for purpose (bigger halls for things like Dev keynotes and merch) and making full use of space is the number one priority!

4) Seating would have been very much appreciated for the events in the Ishgard Theatre considering it was tough to see anything near the back. I appreciate the venue may not have allowed for this but this is definitely something to consider going forward. The concert I wouldn't have had any other way though!

5) More of a personal bit of feedback myself after seeing a previous post - a piece of my work made it into the finals of the fanart contest and after seeing it actually mounted on the wall I was actually hoping I could take it home. I didn't get the thought to ask! Is there any chance the finalists could at least get these, even if they weren't signed by the dev team?

6) The Roulette and Odin challenge booths were the perfect size for what was required and the queue times were extremely fair. The attendees idea of a Party Finder was really good (basically people in the queue would recruit by holding up signs or shouting) so it may be a good idea going forward to create 2-4 queues (one for solo players, one for parties or one for parties, one for healer/tank/DPS soloers).

[FabledFox]

5) More of a personal bit of feedback myself after seeing a previous post - a piece of my work made it into the finals of the fanart contest and after seeing it actually mounted on the wall I was actually hoping I could take it home. I didn't get the thought to ask! Is there any chance the finalists could at least get these, even if they weren't signed by the dev team?

Hi there! I was one of the finalists as well, and I had the exact same question. I managed to talk to a staff member when everyone was leaving the building. I was lucky enough to talk to the guy who actually hosted the competition. He chose the drawings and knew all the titles by heart. Very friendly guy!

So, apparently, SE will keep the drawings (they don't get thrown away!) and they will expand their little collection of fan art so they can display them again later!

Knowing there's apparently a big chance that our drawings will be displayed elsewhere in the future, I was really happy that SE didn't want us to take them home. ^^

[Geesus]

Hi there! I was one of the finalists as well, and I had the exact same question. I managed to talk to a staff member when everyone was leaving the building. I was lucky enough to talk to the guy who actually hosted the competition. He chose the drawings and knew all the titles by heart. Very friendly guy! So, apparently, SE will keep the drawings (they don't get thrown away!) and they will expand their little collection of fan art so they can display them again later!

Knowing there's apparently a big chance that our drawings will be displayed elsewhere in the future, I was really happy that SE didn't want us to take them home. ^^

5) More of a personal bit of feedback myself after seeing a previous post - a piece of my work made it into the finals of the fanart contest and after seeing it actually mounted on the wall I was actually hoping I could take it home. I didn't get the thought to ask! Is there any chance the finalists could at least get these, even if they weren't signed by the dev team?

Yes. If I remember correctly, anything turned into SE for contests such as this become "property" of SE. It's in the rules somewhere.

Congrats though on having a piece displayed!