NA Fanfest was a bit sad compared to EU and JP Fanfests

[Hanayumi]

Pretty bad venue at a pretty bad time of the year. NA SE HQ where our organizers and mangers would likely be situated at are based near LAX, so the closer the better. Now LA has tons of massive venues but transportation is crapola and hotels are pretty pricey. Id say next time SE should shoot for San Diego which was their choice before the covid storm and cancelations, fair weather most of the year, not too expensive, and SD convention center deals with comic con they can certainly handle a Fanfest...

[Tsumdere]

Just now seeing on Twitter that JP attendees got rewards for completing the Asura trial while we got none.

[OdinelStarrei]

Just now seeing on Twitter that JP attendees got rewards for completing the Asura trial while we got none.

actual clown reality, there's no way that's true

please we were in that line for hours

[Tsumdere]

actual clown reality, there's no way that's true

please we were in that line for hours

It's true! Check out @aitaikimochi on Twitter. She's a huge Final Fantasy fan (whole series) and covers a lot of stuff including Fanfest.

You can see through her posts how absolutely shafted we got.

[NekoMataMata]

It's true! Check out @aitaikimochi on Twitter. She's a huge Final Fantasy fan (whole series) and covers a lot of stuff including Fanfest.

You can see through her posts how absolutely shafted we got.

Looked it up out of curiosity. All I could find was this:

https://twitter.com/aitaikimochi/sta...7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Like I don't doubt that NA got unfair treatment in comparison to JP, but you're not using a sticker as the basis of one of your main complaints are you?

[Reap00]

Now, let me preface by stating I am super thankful I was able to go to Fanfest - plenty of people wanted to go, but there weren't enough tickets out there (although I think the argument that they sold way too many tickets for the setup they had could be made).
For one, security, maneuverability and seating were major issues at the Vegas Fanfest. There weren't enough chairs in any capacity to seat over a quarter to a third of participants for panels or concerts (although ironically Tokyo Dome is ALL THE CHAIRS). Two, I don't need to rehash the ADA debacle. Three, getting food and water and getting to the bathroom was a nightmare in Vegas just from the general setup. I'm not even going to mention the issue that was the merch line.
Yet what really gets me is the Asura challenge. I'm a midcore non-Savage raider who was so proud to down Asura with my friends first pull (at least I got to participate, which was an issue for a ton if people). At the end, there was really no reward. No card, or shirt, or anything that has been present for other challenge fights.
Yet the JP Fanfest got cards for winning.

I just can't help but feel like the NA Fanfest was definitely the one cared least about when it came to logistics.

I think they should just pull the NA fan fest to avoid any complications folks like you may have in the future.

[grinkdaboy]

That's exactly the feeling we got from being there. Like they sold three times more tickets as they did before, but still planned out the whole event the same way as before. Not enough chairs, telling us we couldn't bring filled water bottles through security ("just fill up your water bottle at the ONE filling station on the other side!"), basically having one member of our party standing in line for food at all times so that we wouldn't have to be in line hungry for an hour when we wanted food. It being 115 degrees outside didn't help, since it meant we basically couldn't go elsewhere for food. The constant reminders to stay hydrated and get plenty to eat felt a bit tone-deaf.

the water at the convention center was the most disgusting water i've ever had in my life, as bad or worse than LAX water

[Tsumdere]

Looked it up out of curiosity. All I could find was this:

https://twitter.com/aitaikimochi/sta...7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Like I don't doubt that NA got unfair treatment in comparison to JP, but you're not using a sticker as the basis of one of your main complaints are you?

Yup! We paid the same price and less rewards overall from multiple places, no voice actor meet ups, no water, non-existent security, no seating, fewer attractions, the SE staff gave up halfway with the questing system, and impossible gift queues.

So, yes! I will absolutely nitpick about every little thing we got less because they add up.

[Taross]

Absolutely...
While I was able to combine the fanfest with a vacation to Las Vegas in general with a bunch of friends I hadn't all seen together in over two years, the fanfest itself was very lackluster and underwhelming. It's gotten to the conclusion where I just scratch 'go to a fanfest' off of my bucketlist altogether togeher with Vegas and not even add a 'go to a fanfest again'.

It really started with the ticketsales. To be able to get any form of affordable flight and hotel arranged, we had to reserve and purchase that all at least two or so months before the tickets even went on sale. And then pray to the gods above we actually got one because after the debacle that was the pre-sale raffle the actual sale was even more dumb.
I get the load balancing queue, but to put people in a random order to get into that queue to maybe get a ticket that can get cancelled out the moment you try to pay for it because it sold out is not good practice. Added to that that the name on your tickets could still be changed up to a few weeks before the event itself was really no good defense against the whole 'we did it to prevent scalping' arguement.

But then.
Putting people in a giant line in the baking sun waiting to be able to enter the building.
Having the foodcourt inside closed apart from one tiny vendor but put food trucks outside for people to stand in line for in the scorching desert sun so that even the Fire Marshall had to show up and tell them not to?
Subcontracting three or so places (like papa john) to provide food in the main hall that took three hours to get?
The fact you had to leave the main hall to even find a toilet that didn't have a thirty minute line? (As a Crohns sufferer that was quite an issue)
The seating was mentioned, yep... but how about the part where you could see whole rows of chairs 'reserved' for people that ended up being left empty because it was just the folks already sitting there not wanting to have people besides them?
The merchandise line was not the only problem; even less fun was watching someone exit the merchandise hall with eight Alpha&Omegas, fifteen Elpis Flowers and another bag stuffed with shirts that went up on Ebay that very evening at a 500% markup.

And yeah... one of the bigger letdowns was getting into the battle challenge which was only accessible to sign up for through the app and you had to pray that all of your group actually managed to get in the same timeslot together and not even getting anything to show for it unlike every other challenge fight ever.

Eventually we all got home with the extra souvenir nobody asked for like so many.

Even the London Fanfest felt like it was 100% better than NA got.

[Elkanah]

yikes, how about you don't just come out swinging with slurs, huh? be like everyone else in pointing out how bad the fanfest was without sinking to that sort of thing.

Doesnt really matter to me honestly. As someone who's also Japanese American, we already know how incredibly xenophobic their people can be. No point in sugar coating it. Im not into woke hobgoblin nonsense and soft culture coddling.