Covid-19 and FFXIV Fan Festival

[technole]

Los Angeles mayor yesterday said likely no large gatherings until 2021. You know if LA goes, Governor Gavin Newsom will follow statewide.

As the days go by another shoe drops, it's just a matter of time until this entire year is canceled anyway.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Los Angeles mayor yesterday said likely no large gatherings until 2021. You know if LA goes, Governor Gavin Newsom will follow statewide.

As the days go by another shoe drops, it's just a matter of time until this entire year is canceled anyway.

Are they going to send the population of LA out into the country? Lol...

[Nedkel]

Los Angeles mayor yesterday said likely no large gatherings until 2021. You know if LA goes, Governor Gavin Newsom will follow statewide.

As the days go by another shoe drops, it's just a matter of time until this entire year is canceled anyway.

What is los angeles? Somekind of food?

[Brill_]

San Diego convention center is currently being used as a homeless shelter. I expect fanfest to be canceled unless the development cycle is delayed enough that they just move everything back 6-12 months.

[technole]

What is los angeles? Somekind of food?

The home of Square-Enix NA. San Diego is two hours south of Los Angeles.

San Diego convention center is currently being used as a homeless shelter. I expect fanfest to be canceled unless the development cycle is delayed enough that they just move everything back 6-12 months.

Yep, and you need a lot of prep time, combine with the fact that the London Fanfest venue Excel Center is currently a 4000-bed temporary hospital and morgue. A lot of progress needs to happen to even consider early 2021 for that matter.

I think people in this thread forgot when YoshiP and his team cancelled their appearances at PAX East Boston in February, they were not taking any chances.

[SaitoHikari]

What is los angeles? Somekind of food?

California can more or less be split into four major cities/counties for the sake of this kind of discussion. The capital Sacramento and San Francisco up in the north, and Los Angeles and San Diego down south. Speaking as a pharmacy tech living in the Los Angeles region, people here are taking the social distancing measures very seriously, though I noticed over the past week that more and more people have been going out again (though with masks and gloves). That and our requests for medication deliveries shot up by like 10x right when the measures started. Enough that my boss bumped me up to full time and I had to quit raiding in this game as a result.

If one region goes into lockdown mode, everyone else follows. People recognize that we're populous enough that if even one region falters against this kind of threat that works on a 2-3 week timeframe, the efforts of all the other regions will be for naught. It won't matter if SE for whatever reason doesn't want to shut down or reschedule the fanfest in San Diego. The state will stop it from happening in the first place.

[Vahlnir]

A month ago I might have said "yeah, we should have this under control in a few months, so Fanfest should be fine!"

Now? Yeah, not so much. The more we learn about the virus, and with how many places are either postponing or cancelling their events altogether...I'd have to say NOW that Fanfest is likely screwed. I'm still expecting a "social distancing" version of it though, aka live streaming from SE's HQ in Japan.

[Halivel]

I can see them cancelling the 1st Fan Fest because it's a lot of work/pressure and for presentating the new expansion, it's always the last Fan Fest which matter the most (in Japan).
I will not even be suprised to see the 2nd cancelled too.
They can do Live Letter as they always do, it will not change too much from "normal" live letter.

Last fanfest wasn't scheduled to be in Japan this time, though. It should be in Europe, London.

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On topic, there's still 7 months before first fanfest, so it's hard to say right now how it will go. Even so, there's a good chance that all three fanfests will be delayed for a later time or cancelled, unless they will decide to hold them in a liveletter format. Consideting the situation, livestream probably would be the best option.

[QT_Melon]

Just for the record its California State Governor that said no large scale gatherings till 2021
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/ca...rds-2020-04-14

The biggest fan convention San Diego Comic Con already

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...se-of-covid-19

I am expecting Anime Expo next and since the governor said till next year this should be a dealbreaker for Fan Fest, and considering the current economic situation it would probably be in best interest to postpone till next year.

[Raiya]

Well they might always defer the San Diego FF into 2021 if they have to, not sure what the situation with Japan might be at that stage but the EU FF is in February so it might be OK at that point theres a possibility of a vaccine being available by the autumn as well so heres hoping.