So, what was missing? (FanFest 2021)

[Kolsykol]

As a MNK player, I wanted to hear about Job changes...

[LaylaTsarra]

I'm an early riser. I'm usually up at 4AM and am happy I didn't lose anymore sleep staying up for the question answer. Disappointed to learn nothing of substance was discussed.

[Alleo]

I really had hoped that we would learn much more about the island sancturary. Its after all the content I look forward to the most.

Maybe its just a feeling and not correct, but seeing how we only get this one fanfest instead of three and how we do have to wait a bit longer for the release I felt, that we barely got much information. I guess it also might be because we got information on sage before that?

[MilkieTea]

As a MNK player, I wanted to hear about Job changes...

They'll talk about job changes later on in the year, probably a month before the expac drops.

[silentwindfr]

The Keynote seemed pretty packed while it was going on, and even threw in a surprise or two, but looking back it really does feel a few things were missing that I was expecting to hear more about (or hear about at all).

Some of these were addressed as "info coming later" but some just felt completely absent.

A few things that stood out to me:
- Island Sanctuary
- Small scale PvP Mode
- New Gold Saucer game/content that was mentioned before as being something major
- New customization options, inventory management options, glamour options, etc.

It doesn't really feel like any of this will fit into anything left on the fanfest docket outside of maybe a super brief mention during the Q&A.

Anything you wanted to see or expected to see that wasn't there?

the expansion don't come before end of november, honestly it's more of 6 month away, far more time for announce more content, than announce stuff they haven't finish yet...

[SpiralMask]

the QA section appeared to be missing any questions of substance.

[Raikai]

the QA section appeared to be missing any questions of substance.

I felt that too, but to be honest, I never expect Q&A's to have questions that would stir a lot, and more like curiosities...

Said that, I could notice someone with a "Where are the Highlander eyebrows?" written on their background. Assuming that was related to the question that person might've asked, and that they chose that question to possibly be answered, I wonder if they actually have something for extra customization options coming along the way.

[Stanelis]

there was literally ZERO chance of anything controversial being asked. not sure what everyone was expecting.

Well nobody is saying controversial questions should have been asked, but they could have talked more about actual gameplay.

[Starshower]

I felt that too, but to be honest, I never expect Q&A's to have questions that would stir a lot, and more like curiosities...

Said that, I could notice someone with a "Where are the Highlander eyebrows?" written on their background. Assuming that was related to the question that person might've asked, and that they chose that question to possibly be answered, I wonder if they actually have something for extra customization options coming along the way.

Oh I'd really like to see the answer to that... every highlander face should have an option eyebrow in the face details! I can use the facepaint one, but it's not the same as a real eyebrow!

[StriderShinryu]

Well nobody is saying controversial questions should have been asked, but they could have talked more about actual gameplay.

For me, as indicated in the OP, it wasn't even just about gameplay related questions. It's more that there are, first, some pretty major new modes or new content that had already been announced but that we got basically no information on and, second, some obvious outstanding questions that were not addressed at all.

I'm not even someone who is that fussed over the whole Viera/Hroth hair/hats situation but it's clearly something that should have at least been acknowledged. I also think that there should have at least been some sort of commentary on the growing discontent many players have with class homogenization and removal of skills. While those topics certainly could have been broached in a "controversial" way, they aren't inherently controversial topics and the dev team could have brought them up themselves or, in the Q&A, selected question askers who asked those questions in non-controversial ways. Maybe they even did select some of those questions to be asked but because the Q&A was so short relative to the length of YoshiP's answers they just didn't get around to them.

In any case, while there was a lot of good stuff in this years FanFest, it does definitely feel retrospectively lacking regarding actual information and fanbase engagement.