FFXIV FanFest 2018 Feedback - Thoughts, Appreciations, Criticisms

[Kalinas]

I was able to attend all 3 FanFests and I have to say this one was the best yet! There are a few things though that I wish had been different.

Ticket Purchasing:
I think everyone felt the stress of the ticket sales savage. I mean aside from more tickets and a reliable code input for buying (people being able to skip queue with the URL was not the best feeling). The other thing is…please don’t put hotel reservation up before the actual tickets are sold. The rooms were all taken and I had to find another place to stay.

Registration:
It went fairly smoothly this year. Though I wish there had been a 24hr pick up somewhere to help reduce the number of people in the morning. I loved that the badges were a nice hard plastic again. Getting the loot bags while fun and really great stuff inside was also stressful as I felt a little rushed as I checked to make sure I had each item before moving on.

I agree with others that I really missed having Character Names/Worlds on the badges. It made it easier to interact with others as we could see the names we were familiar with from online. I’ve take sharpies to my last two badges and added my game info, but it didn’t look as nice.

I really like this idea:

One thing I miss from the very first FanFest was the personalized badge with my choice of World and Character Name. Perhaps we could do something like pre-printing badges and mailing them to the buyer[s]? Then, on each badge, stick the QR code on the back so that it can be referenced in-system for goodie bag pickup. This could also assist in helping find or replace lost badges, as each badge would be tied to the person who purchased it. (Add requiring ID, and one could easily reduce the worry of scalpers by making their lives harder.)

I was talking to friends and we all missed having a pre-fanfest reception/party like the one they had at the first fanfest or even like the second which was more of a meet on the strip and party type of thing which was also fun.

When it came to the Bonus Item codes one thing I kept hearing was that people wished they had been held a year before going straight to mogstation. I get that, I mean we don’t even have Yuna, Lulu, Rikku or any of other outfits from 2016 active on it yet. I dunno…I can see it both ways, them doing this to avoid people selling the codes for high prices online for the year.

Pre-order Merchandise:
This was probably one of the biggest areas of improvement. I didn’t have to worry about not getting items I wanted. There were a ton of things to pre-order as well which was very nice.

Regular Merchandise:
Then when it came to the actual FanFest merch on site, I was disappointed for a couple of reasons. The first being that items like Emerald Carbuncle and the Spriggan Hat weren’t available for purchase. I had been on the fence about them when I was settling my pre-orders and decided that I wanted to see them at FanFest before buying one. I know I can get them online in a few months, but it’s one of those things that are just more fun to wear with other FFXIVers. Later when I saw that not all the items from the pre-order site were available…I was gutted.

The second thing that was actually kind of annoying was that new items would appear randomly for sale and you had to keep checking in to see if for example a Spriggan hat would pop up. It never did, but I did get a Fat Chocobo Blanket. I do wish there had been more of each item available as I had friends who decided on Saturday that they wanted something only for it to be sold out already. The capping of the line with real time card windows was excellent. The staff at the store was all very friendly as well and I was really happy with the services.

Venue Selection and Staff:
Over all my interactions with the Rio staff and venue were pretty good. I loved the way that FanFest activities were divided up so that it wasn’t as compact and crowded. The lines were handled fairly smoothly. Bag checks went well aside from the fact that everyone having the same bag led to a few swapped belongings on two occasions (it was sorted out quickly though and returned to my friends). I will say having another entry way that avoided the smoke filled casino would have been a welcome addition for my contacts.

Challenges and Games:
I really wish there had been some other option to get a stamp for the activities. This is a place where I admit to losing patience. If you’re trying to attend panels or in line for autographs for example, then it gets really hard to get everything done. I was able to complete a lot, but the lines for some activities like Kugane Tower were just too much…especially when you have to beat the content for the stamp like Challenge Roulette or Yojimbo. I felt the like a duty timer was ticking down the whole fanfest.

I’ve done the tower jump in-game three times already and didn’t want to stand in line for 60+ minutes just to do it again, so I chose not to get that stamp in the end. I also had a friend who has a fear of heights and all she wanted was the postcard as that was the last stamp she needed. On the last day towards the end of Fanfest, she asked if she could just get a stamp since it was only a participation thing (unlike Yojimbo wear you have to win), but they wanted her to wait in the line just to sit down and fall off basically. When she tried to explain her issue with it, the staff member was actually pretty rude about it. Then they closed the line. Just glad we have the community that we do…someone in line traded her cards and said they were going to try the tower again anyway.

I loved the Gold Saucer area and the Kugane sitting area (even if it was always full lol). More themed zones like that would have been amazing. I loved attuning to the Aetheryte and getting a pic. In general, more photo op areas would be perfect…even better if you had places for cosplayers to pose. Speaking of pics, the 3D photo was super fun as well!

Screens and Audio/Streams:
I was going to sit and type out all the following, but someone else has already said it basically:

In the main panel room, these were a great help and could easily be heard. In the Merchandise line, these were mostly easy to see, but hard to hear some of the time. In the gaming room, we could see the display, but there was far too much noise between people and PCs to really make out any of the speaking. If possible, could some basic captions be implemented? We don't necessarily need the exact words or perfect spelling, but some quick text to summarize what was said or being talked about would have been really useful in the louder spaces, or while trying to catch up on a stream.

I do want to tack on though that captions should have been there. No reason not to have them. It helps everyone. I have Deaf friends and there weren’t even interpreters on stage for the big panels. This isn’t just for the people at the actual event (Lord knows I saw enough people struggling to get assistance for their own accessibility challenges), but for all the people on stream too.

Signings:
I’ll be honest…I gave up on trying to get autographs. It was just too stressful to see lines form and people getting turned away. Maybe one year I will get Koji and Yoshida’s autographs on my FFXIV game case, but it wasn’t this year. I wish there was a dedicated place for people to get signings or even a lottery for people to enter for a chance to meet and greet the team.

Concerts:
These were amazing! There were some sound quality issues, but overall it was so fun. The addition of the standing area for Primals was good, but people weren’t told and so had to leave seats which caused confusion. Also people who actually had seats but were standing was also a thing…kinda blocked the view of other sitters. As always more songs would be good. I really wanted Susan to sing Sophia’s Equilibrium (esp after that Lakshmi's Theme she did). Still waiting for that Primals/Susan Remix of Answers (hint, hint).