FFXIV Fanfest 2023 North America safety/security/disability support issues discussion

[Jeeqbit]

I just think you need a reality dose and stop believing the marketing brochures that say everything will be perfect.

It's fair to remind people that such an event is going to have a lot of downsides (concerning needing earplugs, queues, lots of people breathing all in one place, high security and other inconveniences), and that you are there to make the most of it and focus on the positives (meeting devs, watching a concert, being with other players in real, meeting content creators, the experience and feeling of being there).

But the amount of complaints is actually really high about this, as they would be if things had gone wrong beyond just what I said above. And it is important to try and avoid situations where crushing or stampedes could occur because these have happened at sports events sometimes and been fatal. There's nothing wrong with Square Enix looking at these complaints and thinking about what they can do to make it safer and learn from what happened.

If people direct a lot of tweets to the FFXIV twitter accounts maybe they will see some of this in their feeds. Similar effect most likely if people sent in a number of support desk inquiries about it, although that is mostly intended for game or account issues.

There is a support section for fan fest actually at https://support.na.square-enix.com/m...?la=1&id=19210

1. Select the "Contact" option, then "Get Support."
2. Select the "Products & Services" contact category and the "Promotion" subcategory.
3. In the summary field, enter “FFXIV Fan Festival” and then click Next.
4. Click Next again to bypass the list of predetermined FAQ articles.
5. Select the email contact method and follow the additional prompts to submit your contact.

[Teeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeej]

It looks like I'm gonna get 30 minutes with my representative on Monday, so for folks who experienced something that did not meet their needs last weekend please let me know (on this thread if possible) and I will try to present--to the best of my meager ability--an executive summary of the issue that needs to be looked at from the perspective of the Las Vegas area government officials.

I can't promise I'll be able to elevate all the voices... I'm only one person, but I'll do what I can as a Vegas local and a fan of this game and the effort YoshiP & co put into it and into fanfest.

[Teeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeej]

There is a support section for fan fest actually at https://support.na.square-enix.com/m...?la=1&id=19210

1. Select the "Contact" option, then "Get Support."
2. Select the "Products & Services" contact category and the "Promotion" subcategory.
3. In the summary field, enter “FFXIV Fan Festival” and then click Next.
4. Click Next again to bypass the list of predetermined FAQ articles.
5. Select the email contact method and follow the additional prompts to submit your contact.

Thank you for this.

[Koros]

I enjoy spelling out the truth, and if it helps anyone become more responsible and aware for their own safety instead of stewing in negativity all the better. I say let your elected representative know, surely we can trust the politicians to fix this one. But hey, it can't hurt so why would I be opposed to that?

On the touchy aspect I do feel your projecting on here, because I'm casually laying out my experience with packed events, they are always like this. You're the one here trying to contact a politician to get all this changed and passively aggressively trying to get me to leave and silence me. It does feel like you take this personally and deeply so I would say you do fit the criteria of being "touchy".

But I'll say what I want, and enjoy doing so.

without complaining and REEEEing, as much as it is annoying, nothing will get changed

[OdinelStarrei]

I enjoy spelling out the truth, and if it helps anyone become more responsible and aware for their own safety instead of stewing in negativity all the better. I say let your elected representative know, surely we can trust the politicians to fix this one. But hey, it can't hurt so why would I be opposed to that?

On the touchy aspect I do feel your projecting on here, because I'm casually laying out my experience with packed events, they are always like this. You're the one here trying to contact a politician to get all this changed and passively aggressively trying to get me to leave and silence me. It does feel like you take this personally and deeply so I would say you do fit the criteria of being "touchy".

But I'll say what I want, and enjoy doing so.

Oh, no, I'm pretty sure they're being pretty directly aggressive, since you're contributing less than nothing with your earth shattering truthbombs, such as "things will suck because everything sucks all the time, stop providing feedback now". Truly revolutionary stuff. I personally and my group, had a pretty wonderful time, because I do have experience with conventions in deserts, I knew what the worst case situation could be at LVCC, and I shared my knowledge with my group, and whoever looked like they were having difficulties surviving out here. I got there early, and I left early, brought my own vehicle for storage and emergency supplies, had plenty of water/sunscreen and a map of the convention center that pointed out the water stations (spoilers: there are water stations on the 2nd floor that literally no one, not even staff knew about that would've alleviated many of the lines from the merchandise entrance), took advantage of walls and the few areas of low transit population for rest to keep myself from standing for too long, even if I'm relatively healthy. That just the logical thing to do when you're exposed to any kind of long term exposure in these locations. But the app had push notifications. If there was information that needed to get pushed to attendees, it was more than possible to do so, but the only thing that was pushed was remembering to eat and stay hydrated, both of which were made unnecessarily difficult due to a lack of communication, coordination and a failure to actually utilize the space efficiently. Like I would believe a single thing SE says to me even OUTSIDE of a convention setting, I knew this was a potential disaster from the lottery drawing.

The staff that I did talk to out of concern for them, knew things had become far, far too stretched in a short amount of time. It was very difficult. The people who I talked to (SE blue jackets or CC yellow shirts) were not putting in "minimum effort" and it's insulting to them that you would imply that people who are working in that service capacity couldn't care or not what happened, and not that they were simply overwhelmed from subpar organization. No one WANTS to see people collapse from heat exhaustion intentionally. People just started taking shortcuts because they were exhausted and confused, which only exacerbated the situation on both sides.

I'm a notorious pessimist, and even I have to applaud OP for being in a position where even a modicum of feedback can put forth about this, because Fanfest isn't the only large scale convention, and having a paper trail of any kind during a potentially dangerous situation, is better than shrugging shoulders and saying "your fault for expecting to be treated humanely in an event you paid for, lmao". The monorail breaking down and no one knowing about it for an hour in the middle of the day is a big deal and an issue. Crush events are a big deal, and an issue. Lack of seating when the amount of people was known in advance is an issue. Unclear line caps, and line management in general is an issue. Two food trucks outside for thousands of people is a bad idea. Only ONE real medical emergency room with no clear sign posting is an issue. No merchandise pre-orders, when that was something that was possible at the last fanfest, is an issue. Lack of security on the main floor and entrance, ESPECIALLY considering the shooting/bomb threat in Limsa a few months back, is an issue. I knew exactly what the pain points were as a former safety auditor, and this feedback should be valuable for future events, and my conscious is clear. I loved my time there IN SPITE of the event, not because of it, and I'm sure many would say the same, based on the conversations I had during FFXIV: Linewalker.

Get a grip, you aren't being silenced. You don't have to defend LVCC or Square Enix on this, they aren't paying you, and your enlightenment is about as useful as the vending machines. As in they DIDN'T WORK.

[Ath192]

Oh, no, I'm pretty sure they're being pretty directly aggressive

This is too large a wall of text to read, but I'm glad you also emphasized people get directly aggressive when others don't agree with their takes.

Thats why things become echo chambers and people don't really discuss things.

[Avenger]

Is there a general NA Fanfest 2023 feedback thread? I think for previous events there was, like FFXIV FanFest 2018 Feedback - Thoughts, Appreciations, Criticisms.

Maybe we should start one if there isn't? I think it would be helpful to collect feedback about things that went well as well as things that could be improved and possible ideas.

[Teeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeej]

There's this https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...3-in-Las-Vegas but it doesn't seem to be open to the public. At the very least there's no message for feedback collection, and I can't seem to make a thread in that subforum.

[Gortys]

As someone there the Primals part was a mess. I honestly didn't believe they would try to pick up an entire section of chairs with all those people around- ADA or not. And many people wouldn't move too far away because they wanted to be in the front so there were several announcements asking people to move.
I think I saw one person capping the standing area. This one employee was trying to police an entire side which is not reasonable. I don't think people were trying to sneak into the area so much as that employee couldn't be everywhere at once. They should have barricaded that section off and they should have removed the chairs before opening for the day.

As for other complaints? Not getting merch? The tram? Water?
- There was pre-order for merch so not sure why someone would say there wasn't. We were warned that there were a limited amount of items for merch. I asked a few people who complained why they didn't pre-order and it was always because they didn't want to pay shipping. Shipping was high, but understand you are risking getting nothing in this case.

- The tram? Vegas locals in every Discord I am in were really pointing attendees to the tram before FanFest and I felt that was a big mistake. I would try to remind people that there are alternate transportation, but many locals and frequent visitors would insist the tram was very reliable, cheap, and the best thing to take. I don't live there, but the few times I have been to Vegas there has always been some issue with the tram. Plus, >10k people trying to board the same mode of transport at the exact same time every night is going to cause issues. This is common sense. That said, I'm not sure why there were few to no cabs when we got out. The cab companies know we are there, trust me. Maybe this is an issue for LV tourism board or something.

- Water? There was plenty of water that I could see. There were 3 places to get water. The food was the big issue. You can get hydrated through eating certain foods, but only if there is food available. There were multiple food shops in the LVCC and most were closed. Supposedly the CC wasn't allowing food in because they said there were plenty of places to eat inside. There were not.

So while I feel LVCC and SE did some things poorly, I also feel some attendees were inexperienced with this type of event (or travel) coupled with locals and frequent visitors giving advice that wasn't good for large events.

[Elfystone]

Throwing my 2 cents into this page, from the viewpoint of a regular attendee at Fanfest. I had a direct view of ADA on the floor, sitting just 3 rows behind their section.

ADA
I was honestly disgusted with how poorly handled this was. Signage, if any was small and barely visible. Staff and contracted employees were not on the same page or clueless about assisting folks in need. I watched attendees without ADA bands sit in ADA marked seats with no disregard or care in the world, even when confronted about it by other players. No staff was there to help re-enforce anything but the pit going closer than maybe 16 inches away from the moved ADA section during the primal concert. I watched multiple fellow WoLs, leave in fear of their safety during the primal concert because there were no plans to barricade the pit off from those sitting right behind them. I literaly remember about 10 faces with complete sadness/hopelessness in their eyes because they are missing the most anticipated event of the festival because they felt in harm's way. No one could actually see the band in ADA or within 15 seats of the pit, everyone was standing since the pit was blocking their view. Out of the entire staff, I only saw one SE guy trying to get folks to stop joining the pit, and maybe one LLVC employee in each row trying to stop people from joining the pit since it was already within a foot of the ADA section. After the primal concert, the ADA section was less than half full.

Security
It felt like we didnt have security, but door greeters. I maybe saw one or two folks every couple of minutes get their bagged checked, but plenty ignored the line for security and walked down the building and under the barricade rope. There is even a guy saying he was able to bring a concealed weapon into the festival just to prove he did! Anyone could have gotten hurt if that was the case. The rule about what you could bring into the center meant nothing at this point.

Organization
You had no idea what you were in line for. Seating was a huge issue. My wife and I refused to get up from our seats at the same time on day 2 in fear of not having one for the primal concert (which in the end didn't even matter, the seats we were in couldn't even see the band, barely could see the screen). The crowd rush on the first day after the live letter was insane and a huge security risk. Imagine not being able to move more than 1 foot every minute as the entire exit was filled with people trying to get in line for... something. They had only one employee, a short female trying her best to direct people, but folks just kept ignoring her making the situation worse.

FFXIV is too big to be consider a fanfest anymore, it needs the attention of a full convention. Proper planning and organization, and a staff that cares more than a contracted one and done team. My heart goes out to those ADA players who had a horrible experience as it surely put a huge damper on mine.