Suggestions for Future Fan Fests

[CherryEggs]

Perfect!

Odin / Battle Roulette Queues - Absolutely fantastic. Queue times were just right, given the volume of people trying the Odin fight again and again (myself included, after clearing it on try four!), and there was ample space to try the Roulettes at your leisure. Didn't expect to ever fight Leviathan while only being allowed to walk, but it was fun. You guys got this totally right, and I was impressed.

Unexpected and Good Variety of Activities - the Ul'dah Alchemists Guild where I got to make my own perfume? Absolutely delightful. Really enjoyed that activity. But in general, the feel for the day just felt like one big FFXIV themed carnival! Between photo booths, Behemoth rides, green screen silliness, getting my hair done up like a Lalafell, making a (bad) necklace, and meeting so many lovely people when trying to down Odin (paper sign Party Finders anyone?) I loved how it still felt busy and lively, but still somewhat intimate and small. I had fun from the time the gates opened until my friends and I left. We missed the Closing Ceremony and the Cosplay Contest, and also never touched the Merchandise after seeing the infamous queue, but I was not disappointed by my enjoyment for the day.

Needs Improvement

Merchandise Distribution/Planning - Been said a number of times. Glad I didn't waste my day on that queue, personally, but was disappointed to not be able to buy anything at the Festival. Does need serious improvement for the future.

Seating for Opening Ceremonies - I'm part of the slightly older crowd playing XIV, and I was crying for a chair by the time the ceremonies kicked off due to back and knee problems - despite being fortunate enough to be close(ish) to the front! Please try to be mindful of that in the future, as I think we ALL wanted a seat after queuing all morning just to enter.

Knowledge/Helpfulness of Blue-Shirt Staff - The staff were usually very helpful, but they were a very mixed lot - particularly the staff helping on the smaller events who were wearing blue shirts. Although most of them were spectacular (the Ul'dah Alchemists in particular!) on the whole they seemed to have no inkling of what the Festival was about and it was quite obvious that most were hired temps and not necessarily 'fans', which I would've liked much better. Low points were the (lack of) staff instructing or helping in jewellery making, and the staff that photobombed some of our photos for their own amusement.

___

But seriously, overall I really enjoyed myself. Fantastic effort for a first year event, overall. Room to improve, but there always is. Well done!

[Hyzy]

Apologies for further rambling, I am really grateful for SE doing an event in the UK and you could see everyone had worked really hard.

Website - way too late on updating. I can imagine how hard that must've been for people trying to plan a trip to the UK just for the event. Art contest -would have loved to enter, however the info was put up too late.

Travelling across London, waiting in the queue then sent to a standing room only was not fun. I had to find a spot where i could see a screen. When i thought i had a good view, there was suddenly cheering, the screens weren't showing anything so had no idea what was going on. Eventually something appeared on the screen but not one i had a good view of.

[Hyzy]

I loved the venue, the setting was perfect and everything looked great. The guys doing the Manderville at the crossing was hilarious

The closing ceremony was great, much thanks to the band!

I am sad that i missed out on some things, it would be great if we were able to see the HD premium stream just to see what it would've been like!

[Hyzy]

We rushed out to find the merch stall, found the goody bags instead. Eventually found a queue and had to ask what it was for. There were rumours flying as to what was sold out, a note halfway down the queue might've helped.

At nearly 4pm we were out of the line and went to the cafe, half the food was sold out and the rest wasn't available til later. I am grateful for the stalls selling water bottles and other things.

Odin queue wasn't so bad, nice to see what was going on in the live feed while waiting. The staff were really helpful in setting up parties. The few minutes to set up the controller was the most stressful part!

I went to try out some of the activities, the jewellery making was in a bit of a mess by that time! There wasn't much left so just picked some beads that there was most of and came away with something. It did have a bit of a cheap carnival feel, but i can't say i didn't enjoy the activities.

[Wyrmlimion]

More perks for VIP attendee's, but meeting the Devs was awesome.

My Suggestion is have a market Hall for Merchandise at the VIP Party, as that line was insane!

[FJerome]

It's been said about a thousand times already but it needs to be said again, the Merch Shop Queue was ridiculous. We were some of the first ones there and it still took 75 minutes to buy our stuff. One of the staff at the till mentioned that they had this same set-up at Gamerscon and didn't have anywhere near this problem because everyone brought cash - if you're not really equipped to handle a lot of people bringing credit cards please just tell us not to bring credit cards?

Art contest showed the results of how badly the contest was managed, I laughed so hard when I saw an entry that had been openly submitted as a joke in protest had still made it as a semi-finalist.

Everything else was pretty fantastic, though, the venue atmosphere was perfect, all the activities felt like someone had put a lot of thought into them and I was amazed by some of the attention to detail like the Ul Dah motifs on the furniture in the Salon.

[Ilisidi]

One of the staff at the till mentioned that they had this same set-up at Gamerscon and didn't have anywhere near this problem because everyone brought cash - if you're not really equipped to handle a lot of people bringing credit cards please just tell us not to bring credit cards?

I for one only brought enough cash to cover food since they did accept credit credit card and I didn't want to exchange money and then to find out I had too little to buy what I wanted or too much left over.

[Miakyo]

Open the bar earlier than 6pm next time guys.

.... I realise the folly of my one complaint. After all the joys of drinking copious amounts of wine and beer on the Friday I was saddened to not be able to purchase beverages earlier the Saturday. The rest of the event was awesome! ;D

[FabledFox]

My boyfriend kinda made our group RUUUUNNNN to the merchandise store after the opening ceremony (after hearing from our FC friends about the horrible NA waiting lines) and I am so glad that he did. I was litterally the first customer (ONE DELIVERY MOOGLE AND ART BOOK PLEASE *excited jumping in front of the cashier*) but MAN, I feel so sorry for all the people in the queue. That was just WAAAAAAY too crazy, it's sad to hear that people missed stuff, hurt their backs and got bored beyond infinity while waiting. Hope it will go faster for your guys next time... When I got out of the store, the queue had already reached the Odin Battle room.

For me, except for the merch store in the name of other attendees, no complaints at all. Lovely venue, awesome staff, amazing activities,... A big "/pet" on your head, organisation team!

Edit: Also, I went to the SE Store at Gamescom in 2013. Let's be honest, not every single Gamescom visitor wants SE stuff. While there were some people checking out the items in the SE Gamescom store, there was not really a waiting line for actually BUYING stuff. But this? This is the frigging FFXIV Fan Fest! We all collect FF stuff, and we're talking about exclusive items. Comparing the Fan Fest to Gamescom is really a silly reason to only have 1 cashier. xD (He was a friendly one, however! :P)