Feedback and Thanks!

[CrystalRanger]

First of all, I would like to thank everyone who worked hard to make the event happen. My FC and I had a lot of fun and we are looking forward to the next European Fan Festival.


The venue

Generally good. There was a reasonable amount of space, although some areas became very congested at times. I would have liked more seating around the stage, but the two balcony tiers meant that everyone could find a seat somewhere.

The balcony seating also provided an opportunity to temporarily escape the commotion below while still offering a view of the stage and the rest of the hall; definitely appreciated by those of us who enjoy personal space. Good screen placement allowed attendees to keep an eye on stage events even from the other end of the hall.

I didn't find the audio to be too bad during most of the stage events, but I couldn't hear a thing during the Primals concert from the balcony. Everything just came across as muffled noise.

I didn't attend the previous European Fan Festival in London, so I can't really compare Frankfurt and London as others have. I can understand the appeal of a smaller, more intimate and more highly themed event, but at the same time, larger venues mean fewer fans missing out after the event sells out. It sounds as though there are aspects of the London Fan Festival that the organisers could try to bring back for the next European Fan Festival though.


Stage events

I think the Fan Festivals could benefit enormously from more panels. The intervals between many of the stage events were excessively long. I'm sure the intention was for attendees to participate in some of the floor events during these periods, but some people weren't interested in the floor events and those in queues would still have been an engaged audience.

I would have liked to have heard more from the team behind the game; for example, Soken on the challenge of arranging a piece for a particular event. Or battle planners on the mechanics of a fight or the flow of a dungeon. Or developers on technical issues that they had to overcome. Or Koji Fox on lore and localisation. Or artists on turning Yoshi-P's vision into a design; Yusuke Mogi was an especially great addition to the guest line-up! That's precisely the sort of thing there should have been more of.


Mini-games

These were a nice idea, but some definitely worked better than others. Several were quite poorly explained; did the Titan mini-game even have rules? The stamp card worked well though and was one of the more effective real-world implementations of an in-game feature, both in terms of execution and in feeling like a little piece of Eorzea brought to life.


In-game events

More time to configure hotbars, etc. before entering a duty would be very welcome. A couple of minutes is barely long enough. When my FC settled down to take on Proto Ultima on the second day, technical issues meant that we ended up with a good 10 minutes to customise our interfaces. Everyone managed to get a setup they were happy with, familiarise themselves with the hardware, and the fight against Proto Ultima was much more enjoyable than the fight with the interface we had experienced the previous day. Obviously 10 minutes is excessive, but I would like to see a better balance between moving people through the events and giving them enough time to prepare. Perhaps it would be possible to find a way for players to pre-configure their interfaces elsewhere or copy the interface setup they are using at home?


Merchandise

Not much to say other than thank you for putting a pre-order system in place and helping everyone to avoid the nightmare of a queue reported at previous Fan Festivals.


Catering

The queues were long, the staff were grumpy and the food was mediocre at best. This wasn't too much of an issue as there were plenty of other options just outside the venue, but it could have been a problem in another location; something to bear in mind when choosing a venue for the next Fan Festival. I'm sure it would be prohibitively expensive and require too much work to recreate something like the Pasela Eorzea Cafe, but a greater variety of themed food would have been a nice touch.

Also, a little feedback for attendees rather than the organisers: I've been surprised by the number of people I have seen writing/vlogging trip reports over the past week or so who were shocked to discover that the Skyline Plaza was closed on Sunday and ended up going hungry, especially when the station a few minutes down the road had delis galore. My FC took the time to check out which supermarkets, sandwich shops, etc. would be open on Sunday before we went, so we had no trouble finding food. Plan before you go and you'll have a much more comfortable trip.


Other matters

"Security" was chaotic. We weren't allowed to bring any drinks in when queueing to enter Festhalle on the morning of the first day, so we ended up throwing away lots of unopened bottles that we had only just bought. Then for the rest of the first day and for the entire second day, bringing drinks in seemingly wasn't an issue. These rules weren't really explained or communicated ahead of time.

I think the event could benefit from an area dedicated to supporting fan-driven activities. I saw a couple of large free companies on recruitment drives and The Moogle Post had a large presence over in Moghome. It would be nice to see an area where individuals and groups seeking to engage with other fans could rent booths or tables and have a more official presence at the Fan Festival.