Improvements they could make for Fan Fest 2015

[CalamityXI]

I just thought I'd make a thread where everyone could post constructive criticism about Fan Fest this year and what they can do to improve it for, hopefully, next year.

I know for me they need to handle the activity lines better because both days in a row my group and I got turned away from the speedrun activity. The first day we tried to do it like 90min to an hour before the activities were supposed to shut down. We had to wait till then due to being in the merch line for close to 5 hours and then having to get food cos we hadn't eaten due to said line. Then the second day we tried to do the speedruns 2 and a half hours before the activities closed and they turned us away once again and said the line was closed even though there were only like maybe 12 people in line.

One thing they could maybe do for the merchandise booth next year is have some way to order the stuff you want online and thus pay for it online and then you get to pick it up at a designated time.

[CalamityXI]

[PART 2]
But no matter what they do they for sure need to have more registers, and more merchandise would be nice too, I know I was bummed when they sold out of that soundtrack (was really looking forward to that bonus CD)

I also think they need to have the main stage in a separate room. While I did enjoy being able to see the panels etc while waiting in line for stuff it got rather difficult to communicate during activities. I know we got into the frontlines during the cosplay contest and it was coming over the mics so bad it essentially rendered the VOIP communication pointless. One thing they could do is put that feed above the autograph wall in with the activities so we could still see it and hear it, but it wouldn't be as bad.

Anyway, those are my ideas. Overall I had an enjoyable Fan Fest. Getting to meet Yoshida and shake his hand was an honor, and the fact that he took time to sign my CE was very kind of him.

[Edgedy]

Digital sign up makes more sense. Do it in advance and reserve a time slot. Group isn't there move on to the next one.

[CalamityXI]

Digital sign up makes more sense. Do it in advance and reserve a time slot. Group isn't there move on to the next one.

Oooooo, that's a good idea, I didn't even think of that!

[Ryuko]

I had a LOT of fun this weekend. My only 'serious' complaint is it ended way too soon! :P But, there are definitely areas they could improve upon. Here are my suggestions for next year:

1) Larger venue, with the possibility to have the fan fest 'area' open all night. I'm not sure if this was due to Rio's rules, but the active times ending at 10pm and opening at 9am meant that 11 hours of the day were lost. At many conventions I attend, there is stuff going on 24/7, or at least the 'gaming area' is open to use. It would be nice if the computers remained open... it would have fixed a lot of the issues regarding needing to stand in line for so long. Of course, more retainers (and supervisors) would be needed, but I think that would be manageable if next year's fanfest received more attention. The larger venue would also allow more people to attend... and I know a lot of people didn't get tickets just because they weren't lucky enough to get through the servers and have their page load for them.

2) Please, when you are lining up cosplayers for the finals... let us sit down! They asked us to meet around 4pm, then had us stand against a wall for an hour while we were waiting to go on stage. Then they had us stand on stage for an hour, too. That, on top of all the standing in line we've already been doing, was pretty hard to manage. Overall, I enjoyed the cosplay competition. I just hated standing so much. (You'll notice this is a recurring theme. I was standing so much in boots that my left big toe is now numb. I did my research and learned that this is temporary nerve damage, and it will come back... but still, I could avoid that! It's the weirdest feeling in the world.)

3) Better audio on the live stream. I personally didn't watch the live stream (I was there!) but I heard that a lot of people were very upset with the sound quality of the concert (especially the people who actually paid money for the stream). I thought the concert sounded awesome from my seat, so maybe more could be done to adjust the audio going out to the live stream in the future.

Those are my main things. But, as I said... awesome overall. This was my first FF fan fest experience and I really did enjoy myself. I'm still a little bummed it's over!!!

[Fiye]

Ryuko, the best thing you can do for Boots is to wear them a lot before you cosplay. The Navy issued boots I got took a bit of time to break in. Not to mention getting some Dr Scholl's pads or something of the sort really helps. At the very least, if you're buying boots that you won't modify much (And might wear in the future), I heavily recommend Red Wing's Boots. They're very comfortable and worth the price.

To comment on the venue. I loved the single room style. Being able to see the on stage festivities while in line was very welcoming and it didn't feel too crowded (Unless you were someplace where Yoshi-P happened to be. Or one of the people swarming the cosplayers)

[Ryuko]

Oh, when I said larger venue... I didn't necessarily mean separate rooms. I agree, I liked the single room setup. As a person with hearing issues, I was very happy with the volume of the audio (you could realistically hear what was going on even from far away).

I'm sure there are better things I could do regarding the boots, but I don't think it would have been too hard to put some chairs against the wall. It's a super minor complaint, but an improvement I think could be easily implemented. They were heavily modified, and weren't bothering me the first day... but I did a lot more standing on the second.

[Totorro]

Yeah, I agree that the setup of and communication during activities needs to be improved.
I was a retainer for the Speed Run area during the morning and I noticed that the information all of the retainers had received somehow wasn't the same.
I was told to tell people not to change their keybinds and hotbars until everyone in the area sat down, then everyone was supposed to be given the same amount of time to do so.
But I guess the retainers on the other side of the rows were telling people that it was fine so a lot of times people were either angry and/or confused as to whether or not they could start adjusting things.

The area itself wasn't setup well either.
None of the rows had walking room so there was no way to easily get in there to help people if they had questions or any issues with their gamepad, UI, etc.

Then during the second day of the event, it was decided to let the team that technically lost continue to try to finish if they were already fighting Diabolos or at least close enough to him.
The thought was so that those teams could still get their winner stamp.
But doing that made it so that everyone in line, who were either doing it for the first time or trying again from not winning earlier, have less of a chance of actually getting in to try >_>;
It was just a huge mess.

[Ryuko]

The area itself wasn't setup well either.
None of the rows had walking room so there was no way to easily get in there to help people if they had questions or any issues with their gamepad, UI, etc.

Yes, this! Squeezing through the rows to get to the right seat after people were already seated was really hard, especially for eight-person events like Odin. I once sat down at a seat and then my team realized our healer showed up (the role I was going to fill) so I had to move all the way back down the row for dps. Everyone was already sitting, and the team behind us was already fighting -- so I couldn't ask them to move in; that wouldn't be right, and might distract them. My team had to squeeze in so much just to let me by, and I'm a very small girl. I can only imagine what it would have been like for someone who is a normal size, or larger.

I had no idea there was a rule that everyone had to sit down before you started messing with keybinds. I always did it right away and wasn't told otherwise. We did have a 'time limit' though... and that seemed to fluctuate. They gave you a soft warning, "You really need to be done by now," then a stricter one, "You need to enter now or leave." The only time I found the time limit wasn't 'enough' is when I had to switch a MNK to SMN and there was literally no gearset for it (had to equip manually), and most of the abilities/spells were missing from the bar to start with. The UIs also fluctuated a lot... sidenote: I thought it was interesting to see all the ways people preferred to set their UIs and keybinds, even if I prefer not to play that way and set it back to default.

[Tinks]

As others have mentioned, I think the biggest improvement that needs to happen next year is how the event lines are handled. I'm sure most of us spent the majority of our fanfest time in line. That's ridiculous, and not at all how the XI Fanfests were, so I expected better. (Not that there weren't lines of course, but there weren't 4-5 events with 2+ hour lines.)

The obvious solution is to make it so that more people can do each event at once. More computers, more archery room etc. Another, building off of the time slot thing, is to have a kiosk setup for getting in line. Basically you go up to the kiosk, enter your cell number or take a physical ticket number. Put monitors near each event showing what numbers are up next. Text those who entered cell numbers when they're less than 30 min away from entry. Yes, there will be a line for the kiosk in the mornings first thing, but after that it will dissipate. Hell you could even set it up so that a party leader registers however many people in a party for it so less people have to go to the kiosk. Call it a duty finder kiosk. If my DMV can figure it out (and DMVs aren't known for their technical savvy) than I'm sure SE can. This would allow people to move around, meet people, and see other stuff while "waiting in line."

The next improvement I would like to see is a bigger venue with a) more tables and b) server marked tables. They had this at the XI fanfests and it helped tremendously in finding people from your server. You don't need enough tables for every single person to sit at, but there weren't nearly enough tables at the venue.

And lastly, as stated before, we need a bigger merchandise selection and more registers. Like, a LOT more...especially if you release brand new items at the event.