How will Square Enix explain... THIS?

[logicallysynced]

They had these same names for the Extreme Primal Challenge during the 40-Hour Livestream - so I do think this is fan-festival related.

[ZReport]

It is Fan Fest related. With every event like Fan Fest (E3, Gamescom, FATE in Tokyo, etc) with a large enough venue, they create and gear these specific characters for special battle content so players can either try out the game or play 15 min challenges to try and win some Real Life swag (T-shirts that say "I beat <Insert Primal or Fight Here>", stuffed toys, artbooks etc). They are on live servers so they can be interacted with, but use specifically made queue systems if needed.

Every time they are created they typically have the highest level armor available so that it aids in streamlining the fights and gives everyone even ground.

[ArcticFang]

Oddly enough one of them spoke too. We said something about it being a bot convention and joked that one of the bots had to have cleared t9 to get the high allagan ring, and one of the "Event" characters (a miqo bard) said "indeed". He never spoke again. Was odd. But yeah, has to be fanfaire characters. Was on Goblin server too.

[Amiantos]

I went to TGS and we used characters just like those but we were locked to i90 myth gear for the Ramuh fight. So like others said probably characters for fan fest event.

[DoctaruRavenbe]

As everyone is pretty much confirming: These are Fanfest characters for use by people at the Vegas Fanfest for the trial challenges etc.

[Adrian74]

I'm sorry but I don't know anything about that weird fan festival...

Could someone explain a little or basically confirm if this was an event? I'd appreciate an answer of the community managers since I'm not the only one that was confused by this strange and not announced weird event that happened in Zodiark, Western Thanalan - Horizon's aetherite, people was puzzled.

I have to say it has more logic to think it was some kind of event than a super hacking, indeed, but still, many people confused and without a clear answer of the team about it there.

(If I'd be the GM realizying such an event I'd use the special channel in-game for advising about it [Not everyone watches forum and lodestone] Or I'd give some kind of Square Enix identification to the event names, for example creating names people wouldn't be able to register, using brakcets or symbols... "[Event]PlayerC Three" or "*E*PlayerA Four" for example.

[Hysterior]

I don't want to be rude but... they all have "event" in their name... so...

[Adrian74]

I think I could create right now any character with such a name as "Eventc Four", that's why the confussion in the server.

[Miitan]

I'm sorry but I don't know anything about that weird fan festival...

Have you been living under a rock for the last 6 months?

[Noshpan]

Just something to point out: the little green sprout symbol next to a person's name is a bit misleading. All people can gather is that the character is "new". However, when they implemented this feature, it ended up marking the majority of my characters as "new" even though I have had made them nearly a year ago.