Suggestions for Future Fan Fests

[Mjollnir]

-Guild room/art display was pitiful. (Not the gallery, the fan art)

I really hope you're not being serious here as that is quite possibly the most idiotic thing i have ever seen written here.

I have to agree that the quantity and quality of the fan art submitted was weak. There were precisely two pictures which were brilliant that I would have been excited to have hanging on my wall at home. But hey, art is subjective right?

Which brings me to my suggestion - purchase of fan-artwork. Put crew with a tablet and the facility to accept payment in the room. Crew takes an order and payment for various size/print/digital download plus postage of the pieces people want. Orders are created post-event and sent out within the month.

As for the money raised, after deducting the cost of making the prints, the remainder of the funds can be donated to a charity by S-E.

Letting the artists know how much they had essentially raised for charity through this might even provide them with encouragement to create another piece for the next year. Letting the fans know through Lodestone would be cool too. A press release to that effect could paint S-E in a positive light whilst also spreading awareness for next year's event.

[Sarmander]

I have to agree that the quantity and quality of the fan art submitted was weak. There were precisely two pictures which were brilliant that I would have been excited to have hanging on my wall at home. But hey, art is subjective right?

I think that very few artists were even aware of the competition untill very close to the deadline. Same applies for cosplay competition. If announcements had been made sooner then maybe there would be more high quality entrants? (Not dissing any of the art that WAS entered at all, I just know that some artists were dissatisfied with their own work due to the hasty nature in which they had to be created!)

In fact, it would be great if information in general had been more forthcoming. I barely knew what to expect of the event before arriving. (Loved it, though!)

[Zirael_Foxfire]

I had fun.
Mini games and mini-events were good idea and made sure even if you brought in friends or GF/BF who don't play, they could enjoy themselves even not knowing anything about the game. Multi floored venue you actually have to -explore- to find things worked out very well. Making your way to the Quartermaster felt like a quest on itself (not sarcasm), and stumbling upon the Aetheryte was a nice wow! moment.

I enjoyed the 'quests' to get extra loot throughout the day. It's like catnip for MMORPG players! I doubt even Miqote dancers sporting coeurl tongas would've beaten that feel of enjoyment. Hmm, on second thought tho, let's have both next time!

Staff were nice and helpful and did their best to help us have fun.

Things you could improve:

- I don't think German or French community team was present? Well, not that I've looked too hard, but I noticed quite few DE/FR people and it would've been nice if they had someone from organisers speaking their language to talk to. If EU reps were around and I didn't notice you, my apologies. But maybe make yourselves more visible next time?

- Merchandise shop was a disaster...

- There was definitely not enough tickets, I'm sure there were many more people wanting to come for the event than actual tickets.

- VIP tickets were gone in like 10min when sales started three months ago. Those who had to be at work/school/holiday/hospital had no chance. I realise you don't really care who buys the ticket, you just want it sold, but I think a lottery in this case would've been more appropriate. If someone didn't get a VIP ticket, they'd get a guaranteed normal ticket, to avoid people having to double-book in case they don't win VIP ticket.

- would've been nice if you reserved like 100-200 tickets and put them on sale like 4 weeks before event for people who find themselves capable and wanting to come after all.

- No one told us there was free WiFi for event participants. Pleasant surprise.

- I haven't noticed much Dev/community team presence on the floors. I know you guys must be tired from all the travelling, interviews and event preparations and I wasn't present everywhere all the time, so maybe I missed you.

- There was no raffle, unlike in NA. I'm not asking for big things like $1000 graphics cards, but some people getting like 1-3 month game time cards for them or their friends, or few free copies of the game with Dev autographs as a giveaway wouldn't hurt. Or those metal-like pins with job logos NA people got.

- I know it depends what kind of sponsors you get, but mice weren't what a MMORPG player would expect. I'm sure they are fine for FPS games (they were actually quite comfortable), but next time Naga or G600 please, or let us bring our own gear.

[Mjollnir]

VIP tickets were gone in like 10min when sales started three months ago.

I clicked 'buy' on the hour, the page got back to me at eight seconds past the hour to say they were sold out of VIP. So sad :/

(afterwards, I heard tell of ppl getting some at the 15min mark when tix reserved on the hour timed out)

[KaiIsileth]

I have just been told my post is too long. So deleted most of it. Leaving:

The two suggestions I would have for the future are 1) perhaps a prize for completing the whole day, i.e Odin, Roulettes and Quests. 2) The Cosplay event being earlier in the day. Me and my parter entered and got through the first sift, but ended up missing the competition as we didn't realise the car park we had used shut at 6pm (silly for in London.) Still, it is a long time for costumes to stay in prime condition (especially if you wanted to ride the Behemoth.)

Thanks for everything.

[Sasunaich]

Hello everyone,

Thanks for all your feedback. We really appreciate it and are reading all your posts carefully.

I had fun.


- I don't think German or French community team was present? Well, not that I've looked too hard, but I noticed quite few DE/FR people and it would've been nice if they had someone from organisers speaking their language to talk to. If EU reps were around and I didn't notice you, my apologies. But maybe make yourselves more visible next time?

[...]

- I haven't noticed much Dev/community team presence on the floors. I know you guys must be tired from all the travelling, interviews and event preparations and I wasn't present everywhere all the time, so maybe I missed you.

Bayohne, Elmoria and I were around all day. We were wearing red "Crew" t-shirts. Maybe next year we can wear Fat Chocobo or Moogle crowns like in the video to stand out more

In regards to French and German speaking staff, most people in red "Crew" tees that were stationed in the gaming rooms spoke at least two languages. I do apologize if it wasn't obvious and players felt lost. We will certainly keep that in mind for the next time (flag stickers, anyone ? =D)

[Gamina]

Merch shop has been mentioned above so I'm not going to go on about it. I pretty much second all that has been said about it. Luckily, we got in straight after the opening ceremony and were out in around an hour.

Queues for everything else were perfect although I do wonder how much that was down to the fact that 50% of attendees were in the merch queue... Enjoyed the mini games. Dev panels were cool. Staff were all wonderful although I did find some of the reactions of the inhouse Tobacco Docks Staff funny.

Didn't mind the food £6.50 for a meal at lunch we had pie, mash, gravy, a drink for under a tenner. MCM hit me for £8.00 for a single hot dog the day before... and at Earls Court last year I parted with £50 for hot dogs and luke warm coke for three people...

The one thing I have seen lots of people complaining about is the venue. In my opinion it was perfect for the size and scale of the event, for the ambiance and the feel of Eorzea. People have cited Earl's Court (which is being demolished anyway), Olympia and Excel... I see MCM being cited as the reason for the 14 FanFest not being in a bigger venue yet lets be realistic 75,000 people attended MCM at the weekend... even if people attended only one day of MCM thats still ten times as many on a given day than were at FanFest. Earls Court One holds 20,000 people, lets not kid anyone here the FFXIV fanfest would never pull those numbers. The tickets for the event didn't even sell out till two weeks before the event!

[Ilisidi]

The one thing I have seen lots of people complaining about is the venue. In my opinion it was perfect for the size and scale of the event, for the ambiance and the feel of Eorzea. People have cited Earl's Court (which is being demolished anyway), Olympia and Excel... I see MCM being cited as the reason for the 14 FanFest not being in a bigger venue yet lets be realistic 75,000 people attended MCM at the weekend... even if people attended only one day of MCM thats still ten times as many on a given day than were at FanFest.

The Worldcon was at the Excel, there were about 7000 attendees total across five days. It used a really small fraction of the Excel. The FanFest would have fitted into one hall.
Tobacco Dock was great and there were several unused rooms, so it could be expanded if need be.

[MarVell]

I really enjoyed the event and my only suggestions for next time would be:

1) Give the choice of keyboard/mouse or gamepad at EVERY monitor. As a PS4 player, I found it very frustrating that 2 out of the 3 challenge rooms were keyboard/mouse only and the third one only had gamepads at half of the monitors. And of course the challenge room with the gamepads had by far the longest queues...

2) I felt very sorry for the people that queued for hours for the merchandise. I was one of the first 10 people there and got out in 5 mins but the queues throughout the day were unacceptable.

Other than that, great day and I felt like I got good value for my £65 - not only a great day out but lots of quality freebies: Odin t-shirt, event t-shirt, that brilliant USB charger thing, cool event bag etc.

I thought the venue was great and I hope the Fan Fest returns next year :-)

[Antonius2004]

*Sees suggestions for future Fan Fests*...

COME TO AUSTRALIA DAMMIT!!! WE HAVE VEGEMITE, a +16 booster for Vitality (Max 32 points).