Suggestions for Future Fan Fests

[MattyR]

the other major flaw was the cash machines ran out of money? how? did you not forsee that people would take cards instead?

I was also a little disappointed after seeing the amount of free stuff the LV attendees got compared to the London attendees got. they received pens and all that extra stuff, we got the phone charger, and the shirt. seemed a bit mean on SE's part and made me feel as though they thought the NA subscribers were worth more than the EU subscribers.

I enjoyed the event though, and can't wait for the next one.

[Kimikryo]

Most likely lol yes had the t-shirt with the Pheonix on the back and my character on the front. Someone did ask me if my real job was an architect which it is.

That Gilgamesh though, it was hillarious *I thinkIO just qoutet the wrong post of you .. looong day*


Some things I might add for improvement.
One day more would be golden for next time in Europe
More computers for Odin (or anything similar)


The only thing I disliked but I don't think that SE can do a lot for that. The security (not blue or red shirts) were sending us in awkward directions when it was over. I almost got lost :x

[MattyR]

the event was great, the merc line was too long, I wanted the Dragoon figurine but was not queuing for hours to get one.

one major thing for me was the food. or lack thereof in the bar, there seemed to be nothing that I would class as 'Con food' which as much as its called Fan Festival it was still in essence a final fantasy 14 con, burgers, chips, stuff like that would have been awesome. nothing insane, not asking for lobster but a cheeseburger would have been awesome. because of the food and the fact that the cash machines had run out of cash and with me and my other half not wanting to leave the event because her legs were in a bad way so walking to McD's was out of the question I was left with having a small cake for my lunch, which while it was really nice, it isn't lunch.

cont

[Mjollnir]

but a cheeseburger would have been awesome. because of the food and the fact that the cash machines had run out of cash

The Carline Canopy sold a range of hot food, including cheeseburgers and accepted payment by card.

[Crysten]

A bit of feedback from my perspective - apologies for the rambling nature of this:

1) As has been said to death - the merchandise queue was nothing short of ridiculous and one till (and one single card reader) for an event of 1000+ people was simply not good enough. It really did seem like there was no forward planning with this - never, ever underestimate the demand for stuff at these kind of events! I was able to complete most quests but this was the single reason why I wasn't able to do half of the events I wanted to. I'm sure many others feel the same.

2) While I was able to get all the stuff I wanted, items such as the art book and Delivery Moogle should always have been limited to one per person. Unless you have huge overstock of a particular item, you should not be letting people get more than one of something with queues that long. I cannot imagine the pain of being in the queue for as long as I was (four hours!) and being told that the stuff I was after was sold out after seeing people with doubles, or even triples!

3) I get the feeling the venue was picked due to aesthetics (and no complaints here on that part!). It was in a very nice location and the atmosphere alone (for example the stained glass in the Carline Canopy and the ships outside) was extremely fitting for the game. I would not be adverse to having the event at the Tabacco Dock again but making sure the venue is completely fit for purpose (bigger halls for things like Dev keynotes and merch) and making full use of space is the number one priority!

4) Seating would have been very much appreciated for the events in the Ishgard Theatre considering it was tough to see anything near the back. I appreciate the venue may not have allowed for this but this is definitely something to consider going forward. The concert I wouldn't have had any other way though!

5) More of a personal bit of feedback myself after seeing a previous post - a piece of my work made it into the finals of the fanart contest and after seeing it actually mounted on the wall I was actually hoping I could take it home. I didn't get the thought to ask! Is there any chance the finalists could at least get these, even if they weren't signed by the dev team?

6) The Roulette and Odin challenge booths were the perfect size for what was required and the queue times were extremely fair. The attendees idea of a Party Finder was really good (basically people in the queue would recruit by holding up signs or shouting) so it may be a good idea going forward to create 2-4 queues (one for solo players, one for parties or one for parties, one for healer/tank/DPS soloers).

[FabledFox]

5) More of a personal bit of feedback myself after seeing a previous post - a piece of my work made it into the finals of the fanart contest and after seeing it actually mounted on the wall I was actually hoping I could take it home. I didn't get the thought to ask! Is there any chance the finalists could at least get these, even if they weren't signed by the dev team?

Hi there! I was one of the finalists as well, and I had the exact same question. I managed to talk to a staff member when everyone was leaving the building. I was lucky enough to talk to the guy who actually hosted the competition. He chose the drawings and knew all the titles by heart. Very friendly guy!

So, apparently, SE will keep the drawings (they don't get thrown away!) and they will expand their little collection of fan art so they can display them again later!

Knowing there's apparently a big chance that our drawings will be displayed elsewhere in the future, I was really happy that SE didn't want us to take them home. ^^

[Geesus]

Hi there! I was one of the finalists as well, and I had the exact same question. I managed to talk to a staff member when everyone was leaving the building. I was lucky enough to talk to the guy who actually hosted the competition. He chose the drawings and knew all the titles by heart. Very friendly guy! So, apparently, SE will keep the drawings (they don't get thrown away!) and they will expand their little collection of fan art so they can display them again later!

Knowing there's apparently a big chance that our drawings will be displayed elsewhere in the future, I was really happy that SE didn't want us to take them home. ^^

5) More of a personal bit of feedback myself after seeing a previous post - a piece of my work made it into the finals of the fanart contest and after seeing it actually mounted on the wall I was actually hoping I could take it home. I didn't get the thought to ask! Is there any chance the finalists could at least get these, even if they weren't signed by the dev team?

Yes. If I remember correctly, anything turned into SE for contests such as this become "property" of SE. It's in the rules somewhere.

Congrats though on having a piece displayed!

[Barboron]

I actually have several suggestions for this, while some are not so much suggestions but just rather thoughts/opinions/criticism on some of the organisation:

- Merchandise shop:
Needless to say, the merchandise shop was nothing less of appalling. This seemed totalled unprepared and the shop was run like a mini-Argos (yes, it means people aren't grabbing all the merchandise). For this, it would have been better NOT to have the queue the way it was inside the shop, it was far too congested (surely that would have violated health and safety regulations), getting in, out, and following the queue was quite irritating, having this congestion outside of the shop (queue leading up to the shop) wouldn't have been as much of an issue considering it was a straight line. The congestion inside also caused the queue to somewhat collapse as it came to the counter. Having only one person to whom we could pay cash while three could take card left some people stalled as people with cash had been queued up to pay for cards due to the ratio of customers:staff inside the shop. By having fewer numbers inside of the shop, and have them outside, this would have made it much more manageable. Although, communicating with the queue about stock would prove difficult but sometimes you got to make the compromise. There was a considerable amount of unused floor space down stairs at the opposite end to the Behemoth rodeo.

[P.S. I like how 200 art books and 60 plushies magically turned up near the end.]

[P.S.S. The staff though was very friendly and helpful, the woman at the door to the merchandise shop was quite sociable so it helped although she worked at the venue rather, it seems.]

- Roulette stations:
I queued up with 7 other players in the limsa queue, it was naturally shorter because the queue was hidden behind the merchandise queue so people avoided it. However, the room wasn't specified as being mouse and keyboard only so we had to move to Gridania which only had 4 controllers and 4 M&KB per set of stations.

- Other queues:
My previous two points go into this a bit, the Limsa queue was hidden behind the merchandise queue.
Again, if the merchandise shop was moved to an area away from events, perhaps it wouldn't have been an issue. Perhaps when laying out the events, take the queues into consideration (although this may have been done, the queues must have been under estimated). I am not familiar with London or venues within the UK but perhaps having something ready for a larger festival next year might be good. Tickets sold out quick, which is a sign people want to go, and there was definitely a shortage on space, so space is in demand!

- Odin:
This went quite well. If there was more space I would have divided people in several queues, not really something as important, a tank, dps, and healer queue. This is just to make it easier for when a group goes in missing X of Y role and having to shout across the entire queue. Again, this would be a low priority QoL but food for though for future events.

- Content:
No frontlines, no speedruns but yet we had 3 rooms for the trial roulette. Again, this would be a reflection of space and time given to us (by time, meaning a 1 day event compared to that of the Las Vegas 2 day event).
No live quest journal either. I know there was mention of all the answers being posted to reddit from the Las Vegas event but after all the effort put into that book, it would have been nice to have one for myself.

Over all, while I very much enjoyed the FanFest, a considerable amount of money was paid, especially in comparison to the Las Vegas event. Although this would be in large due to the costs of running an event in London's inner city. All the same, a lot of the time was spent recapping over previous announcements. Which made it seem like I was paying for a lot more than I was receiving.
I have been to one other convention in Birmingham's NEC and that place was so much bigger, far more accessible from the airport, and cheaper. Perhaps a good spot for next year's FanFest?

I would like to end with saying that I do very much appreciate the efforts gone in to the FanFest. From the Eorzean styled signs, the themed activities, even that Behemoth mount, to the fan contribution from art, CosPlay, Retainers, and the welcoming attitude with how freely people would communicate and assist complete strangers (especially when making PUGs). Any changes would really involve financial costs, but perhaps the area could have been utilized better.

[Mjollnir]

Ok, aside from the crushing despair-by-proxy which was the Merch Queue - which I didn't stand in for a second - loved it!

I was kept entertained from open til close; well worth the £65 - got two ltd t-shirts, a Hildibrand fridge magnet, a jute bag, a phone recharger, a mini-poster, a notebook (from 2104!), a minion neckstrap, and a well-designed map/quest booklet plus of course all of the entertainment and displays, lollies whenever you did the mini-events all in a nice venue with amazing people! I wish I'd been fast enough for VIP, and I'd book right now for next year even if the price goes up.

Ran through Odin four times in total, with ppl we picked up along the way to help out get their t-shirts. There was space for fifteen parties to play the challenge, which was adequate imo.

The battle rooms were insta-queues, easy stuff - silly fun!

I got to do about half the mini-events - queueing for the Behemoth Rodeo and the Elezen Archery both took far too long, but we entertained ourselves in the queues (my friend monologued the entirity of Coil 2 at me at Behe).

Hunting for the Crayolas was cool. We tried to find them all, even though you only needed five, but we were missing one by the end - either the "shiver me timbers" or the "light the way for seamen" (we got the one outside on the lamppost by the ship. Does anyone know where that last one was???

The drinks prices were refreshing - £1 for a coke or water was thoroughly reasonable, and happy to pay 50p for a banana (great idea to have fresh fruit!). The food at the Carline Canopy was nicely advertised with its Eorzean twist - shame the food itself was so bland (cheeseburger wow)! Happy for the alcohol to be so expensive - meant we weren't tempted to drink too much and instead had a bottle each at the closing ceremony.

I hope Soken has learnt to cover Battle on the Big Bridge Reborn for the next Primals show, and maybe gets his pal Nobuo on for a song!



But seriously, merch. I came home with £100 unspent in my pocket (when we did go to queue around 7pm we were turned away) .

[Ilisidi]

Overall I loved the event, especially all the 'side'-quests, although I only got to do some of them due to merch queue and Odin. I also missed out on all Dev panels and the Cosplay contest due to merch and Odin. Otherwise, the venue looked the part, it was really great, all the staff were friendly.

There already have been many ideas to alleviate the merchandising queuing problem, I'd like to add another, that won't help solve the problem, but anyway. Please put the merchandising display stand at the entry of the room or thereabouts. They were rather hidden and difficult to reach if you wanted to take a look beforehand. I think at the very beginning one of the staff tried to have separate queue for buyers and one for display lookers, something that was abandoned very fast.