FanFest 2023 - waste of money

[Ranaku]

Something about FanFest needs to be addressed. The organization for this event is SO BAD. Get in line before 6:30 am then wait near the front of the line until 9 am when doors open. And then they let us in the main room with NOT a single staff member knowing what is going on. Merch lines formed with staff saying they were the line. Then an official line formed without anyone telling the lines that were already formed. Merch line closed at 9:30... for an event that goes all day. TLDR: wait in line for 4 hours for merch to be done half hour into the event.
Final Fantasy XIV owes us apology for how horribly this has been staffed an ran.

Idk why you feel a game owes you an apology but i don't think the game will give you an apology anywhere soon. Maybe, just maybe...you want an apology from SE and in your gamer rage you forgot all logic?

[Xulcan]

Idk why you feel a game owes you an apology but i don't think the game will give you an apology anywhere soon. Maybe, just maybe...you want an apology from SE and in your gamer rage you forgot all logic?

True it would be rather silly for a game to apologize to me. I was hoping for the organizers to acknowledge some of the issues that were in place so that future events can be more enjoyable and less dangerous.

[Bassets]

As someone who spent a couple of decades working on and managing very large conventions, this is not typical of large conventions. It appears that the company did not really know what they were getting into with a convention this large. Hopefully they will look into hiring a convention logistics coordinator or better yet, outsource it to one of many companies that do this sort of thing. Had they worked with an event coordinating company, many of the issues would have been minimized, if not eliminated.

If funds are the issue, perhaps create a vendor area and rent out booth space to vendors. This not only helps fund events like this, but give the participants more things to do while at the event (spreads the people out more). Of course this will not matter if the event doesn't have enough seating to fit everyone attending. Because people had to save their seats, most just stayed put vs trying to enjoy the activities SE had put together.

Note to the FFXIV team (if anyone reads this). People spent a lot of money to attend this event, most had to travel from long distances, rent hotel rooms, and many wasted their money on the stupid monorail passes. They then spent 13+ hours standing around, sitting on concrete floors, and waiting in countless lines only to be disappointed.

In the very least, you should hold another NA online merch sale. So many people who were excited to get merch to commemorate their trip to fanfest and left so disappointed. While this would not wholly make up for the negative parts of the experience, it would be a kind gesture that demonstrates you understand their disappointment.

[Brightamethyst]

As someone who spent a couple of decades working on and managing very large conventions, this is not typical of large conventions. It appears that the company did not really know what they were getting into with a convention this large.

That's my take on it too. They were clearly unprepared for the sheer number of people. The thought process was probably something like "we had 8k attendees last time and 15k this time so we just need a venue twice the size", without also taking into account everything else that goes along with it. Seating, food, number of easily reachable bathrooms, staff working the merch and redemption booths, etc.

To their credit though they did learn and try to fix what they could on the fly (indoor entrance line on Saturday, etc) and I imagine they'll probably be much more prepared for the next one.

[Zachia]

i feel like any big event is a waste of money. With how inflation is and how hard it is to just survive why spend hundreds of dollars to be in a crowded and uncomfortable place, and all the cool goodie stuff you can get even costs more money. On top of that if you live far away the amount of money it would take to travel there and back while having a place to stay for the event. Feels like a form of self sabotage to me. But honestly as long as people enjoy it and happy, i'm glad they feel like it was money worth spending, but in a logical sense or at least in my honest opinion any and all big events no matter how structured or organized are a "waste of money" with how big costs are in the end.

[Brightamethyst]

i feel like any big event is a waste of money. With how inflation is and how hard it is to just survive why spend hundreds of dollars to be in a crowded and uncomfortable place, and all the cool goodie stuff you can get even costs more money. On top of that if you live far away the amount of money it would take to travel there and back while having a place to stay for the event. Feels like a form of self sabotage to me. But honestly as long as people enjoy it and happy, i'm glad they feel like it was money worth spending, but in a logical sense or at least in my honest opinion any and all big events no matter how structured or organized are a "waste of money" with how big costs are in the end.

"Waste of money" is incredibly subjective, and just because you wouldn't spend your own money that way doesn't mean it's inherently wasteful. I'm sure there are tons of people out there who think the $15/month you're paying for your FFXIV sub is a waste of money, but if it's worth it to you, then it's not a waste, now is it?

[Avenger]

Yeah idk this sadly just sounds like the typical large convention zoo

Both pax east and west and equally terrible. They don’t train the staff well enoguh and always don’t hire enough.

I thought PAX enforcers were pretty good, and they certainly have an army of them. App with lengths of each panel line was useful. PAX expo hall floor can be rough queueing for the (few remaining) popular exhibitors, but their entry queue management was good.

Also PAX at its height got some 30K people into the show in 15 minutes.

SDCC seemed to do fine with 130K attendees.

[Avenger]

Hasn't the merch line thing happened literally every single Fanfest?

2018 did merch preorders with pickup at the event. which seemed to work well.

This time they shipped merch preorders in advance, which was fine, but on-site was a throwback to merch line savage, with a lot of disappointed people who got locked out.