The final Fan Fest has concluded. The news has been digested and now the big wait begins. Maybe 6 months, maybe longer. Do you feel the 3 con system brings hype? Or burns the audience too far in advance?
0:00 – It’s Over!
7:26 – Fan Fest Overall
18:03 – Negatives
21:30 – Do 3 Trailers Hype?
30:33 – Now We Wait
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I think the 3 fests and extended teasing works. I enjoy it. That said, I'd be OK with if there was only one, as well, since I am never going to go to one in person and find the producer live letters nearly as satisfying. Honestly, neither viper nor picto really landed with me, but I'm not disgruntled about it. Can't win 'em all. I'm here primarily for the story and the socializing. So far, I'm not hyped about DT, but I'm also not down on it. It's new chapter for the game, and I'm willing to wait for the story to have a new, slow burn. I believe this team can deliver another extended story, dotted with juicy sub-plot plums, and I'm here for it!
As far as we know, he's always been that way. My favorite was when he wore the Spirder Man T-shirt to tease Samurai. Because Sam Raimi directed that movie, and Sam Raimi, said with Japanese phonetic intonation, sounds like Samu Raimi, which is really damn close to Samurai.
And the mad lads who made that connection? They weren't just right; they were fucking right.
My only concern with the 3 cons is the strain it puts on Yoshi-P and the Dev's. Soken just recovered from cancer a few years ago and I'd like if we could keep the guy around a little longer if not eternally. But aside from that, I'm all on board.
While it does seem costly to have that many important people of the dev team step away to attend the Fan Fests, it’s also a really important opportunity for them to interact with, listen to, and appreciate the fan base. You can see the joy of it in Yoshi-P’s face at every single Fan Fest, even if it is obviously also exhausting him. He’s a treasure to be cherished, and we’re not to take him for granted.
I think what I love about the Fan Fest system as opposed to something like Blizzcon is that Yoshi's team engages with the community. The triple Fan Fest isn't just about adding on new details, but to give ideas and show us how the new expansion is coming along. It's like rough draft -> revised edition -> nearly finished product. I like that.
With Blizzcon, Blizzard just throws up a polished trailer, a bunch of screenshots, talks a big game, and then leaves it at that. They let datamining do all the hype for them – and that's often very dangerous, as it's so easy to take things out of context since Blizzard gives absolutely none. And Blizzard also has a terrible time maintaining their course, as what they show and talk about in a Blizzcon for a WoW expansion is very likely to be cut by the time the expansion launches, or changed during the course of the expansion. So the Blizzcon talk-ups wind up being a bunch of lies and half-truths spun to get people to buy into an expansion that ends up being not what they were sold on. I hate that disingenuousness.
They way they ran their convention was much better than things like Blizzcon because it was more intimate. The developers interacted with their players in a manner that they cannot in these huge events. I also loved the way they teased the next xpac. It kept the hype going. I went to one and I watched the other two, and enjoyed them. As for the grumbles, I thought it was quite funny that people actually thought we were going to have a we are going on a vacation xpac.
…But what ARE nutkin? And how much do they *weigh*…?
Loving the new three-camera setup and editing, looks very clean!
I've played FFXIV since the 1.0 Beta. I have never been interested in any Fan Fest. Even the FFXI Fan Fests when I played that. I mean, after the release I might watch clips or something, but until I play it myself, I'm not interested in knowing anything about what's coming if I know I'm going to play it already. If it were a new IP, sure I'll watch a trailer to form my own opinions, but if I'm definitely going to play it already, not interested in more information. And having debilitating social anxiety, just the thought of being at a convention gives me heart palpitations. So my thoughts on any amount of Fan Fests in general are mostly in avoidance.
However, I watch Grinding Gear for the banter despite actively trying to avoid information about the new expansion. The algorithm makes it nearly impossible to avoid information anyway. Blasting me in the face with content creators who need to share every bit of new information. Not to disparage content creators, I'd just personally rather play the game for that. Especially for an expansion like Dawntrail that's supposed to be about adventure and discovery. I don't want to know there are deserts and tropical forests and a hidden advanced city. I mean, great now I can go look at more of what I've already seen, I guess. An art deco city at the bottom of the sea you say? I'm glad I knew it was there before it was revealed to me in game.
If Nutkins turn out to be really important, we should learn their language now, to save time.
Squeak squeaker squeak squeakity. (*My acorn is missing.)
Squeaker squeak squeak squeaken? (*Did you eat the acorn?)
Squeak squeaker squeak squeaker. (*You owe me a new acorn.)
The t-shirt thing is so weird, but that's why I kind of love it?
i hate fanfest. i love the keynote idea, i hate the "hey upend your life for a few days and go ACROSS THE FUCKING COUNTRY TO SEE THIS DISAPPOINTING KEYNOTE BECAUSE YOU LIVE IN THE US AND NOTHING INTERESTING IS EVER REVEALED FOR THEM" only for people to gloat about the loot bags. i would fucking buy one of those squishy grapes in a heartbeat BUT NOPE FANFEST ONLY
Love the talk on how deep theory crafting can go when trailers slowly get released! I don't normally get deep into "cooking" when it comes to visuals in the trailers as they release, but the music… I really recommend you guys look back at Shb trailer (and EW once you're done) and listen to the music and how they edit certain important motifs/lyrics with certain characters cause it really gives a lot more foreshadowing in hindsight and it's made me spiral hard with Dawn Trail XD.
4:30 The way I've always described this game is to say that the community is gracious about working around the limitations put in place by the developer and finding out how to have fun anyway. Whether that's finding ways to have fun at a Fan Fest that was poorly organized to the point of being moderately disappointing, or trying to do new ideas with a half-baked housing system. However because of that the community had a reputation for burning anyone at the stake for offering criticism, and that is definitely over. The old "leave CB3 alone they're trying their best" is gone, because even those fans have felt that XIV was short-staffed for XVI.
Kyle has some truly interesting thoughts.
For my part, I don't think the nutkin has some hidden meaning. I think it might show up as a recurring gag for Thancred to deal with. I'm fairly certain the trailers are handled the way they are in part because they just aren't finished by the first fan fest, but moreso to get the brain juices flowing and excitement pumping.
I like the setup!
The deep Nutkin lore is… kind of NOT that far out there. What we've seen of Solution 9 there's some signs that say something like "Soul Supply", and the area is rich in Ceruleum, which you could arguably make a parallel to FF7's Mako. And ENDWALKER SPOILERS AHEAD
… we spend a good amount of time in the Aetherial Sea, both in MSQ and for the raid series. There certainly could be more delving into the life stream for Dawntrail. Perhaps being the key to traveling between the reflections.
As someone that has been playing since 1.0 Beta, tis good view you guys have. FF is what it needs to be and I've been concerned for XIV's longetivity. I haven't been to any of the Fanfests but you bring great point that its not just isolated to 1 place. Recent interviews and these good points remind me that even long time players like myself this dev team is firing on all cylinders. The jobs I allow myself to accept them as is and grin when I know the source, like pictomancer cause I know the history. People throwing their theroies around is fun and I never take negative posts worth remembering. I don't feed trolls, it makes internet life sweeter. The venue issues I blame the on site staff and not FFXIV team. I wish they didn't have the Fanfest in Vegas though. The Heat in summer, costs and casino vibe just don't seem like a good match for this kind of event
the crazy Kyle Nutkin theory would be 100% crazy… but "Zenos eats the moon"
Im really upset by kyle getting the nutkin thing wrong so I'm never watching another GG video again.
As a ff14 player since beta 1.0…there's always been a cloud of critics that follor ff14 and complain loudly when anything new is announced but are almost all made up primarily of people who never really enjoyed the game to begin with and want it to be something it isn't and was never trying to be.
I agree with Garrett, i also was super into the graphical update stuff at all 3 fests. Its one of the things I'm most excited about for the expac drop.