What Happened at FFXIV Vegas Fanfest?



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ZepLIVE interview with 2 Fanfest attendees in the ADA section https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF9Nu78_l2U

A current thread on the FFXIV forums about safety, security and disability support issues https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/487004-FFXIV-Fanfest-2023-North-America-safety-security-disability-support-issues-discussion

Square Enix Support Center https://support.na.square-enix.com/main.php?la=1&id=19210

The general ADA complaint link https://www.ada.gov/file-a-complaint/

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47 thoughts on “What Happened at FFXIV Vegas Fanfest?”

  1. As for someone who attended and it being my first fan fest, it was a shit show and I’ll probably never go again. First off ticket’s literally meant nothing. You could walk in and nobody would care. Only needed a proof of ticket to get the swag bag lol. Secondly, I really feel like they sold tickets and didn’t care. There were thousands of us stuck standing and watching the show from the many screens. (That was super nice considering, having all the extra screens). Thirdly, they were NOT prepared for the activities being so overrun. Even the turn in line for the badges was so backed up it was gross. Although it was like being in a DPS queue the entire time, I enjoyed the experience and being there to enjoy a new expac announcement. Do agree that I’ll never do this again. I’ll stay home an not get covid -.- .

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  2. I will keep it ULTRA SIMPLE for that god damn t-shirt
    Teenage Mutant NINJA turtles
    Multiple Ninjas
    Ninja has its own scouting gear category
    The new melee is the new competition for ninja gear

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  3. I'm still a Blitzballer Believer. Maybe not Phys Ranged, but a Caster that imbues an orb with magic like Wakka and strike with it, and the spell casting would setting up the shot. I know I'm down bad coping, but there is always s 0.1% chance. In realness I'm a Pictostan as Geomancy and Green Mage elements are seen with Astro and White Mage. The theory behind the names of the turtles hinting at the names is straight Yoshi-P cryptic hint like with Samurai when he wore the spiderman shirt and said he liked the "Sam Raimi" movies which came off as "Samu Raimi". The Melee DPS I want is Corsair or Mystic Knight/Spellblade. Corsiar for its Utility and Support like from FF11 to round out the NIN high damage as well

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  4. You mentioned security being such a problem and that is truly the most shocking part considering just years ago, we had one of the most horrific shootings in American History IN THAT SAME CITY.

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  5. Omg please dual sword mystic knight or spell knight. We already have a gun user and even a gunsword user. We do not need a gun/sword user imo. But as long as its dual sword, i almost dont care what it is lol.

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  6. These issues were present but not as overblown as everyone makes it out to be. I'd say most people had a great time, the only complaint I actually heard was the lines being shit. Also no shit people got covid. You're going to a public gathering. Covid is just a part of life now

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  7. I wanted to thank you for talking about the issues for the ADA attendees. I actually was one of those attendees and it was an absolute mess. There was nothing clear about lines or the seating for the ADA (except for like the first day on entering for the keynote where there was clear seating) and I literally had to have my husband find out for me with things like the merch line or the battle challenge. The seating for the primals concert was terrible. I myself had a service dog with me and ended up going to the 2nd row to keep my service dog away from the pit but there was a girl in front of me that also had her service dog and i was very concerned about the safety of that dog. And don't get me started on the staff trying to talk, touch, and take pictures of my dog. It was extremely frustrating, as I am still a newer handler and because of that I said nothing out of fear really, but you'd think that the staff would be trained on how to deal with service dogs. It was just very unprofessional.

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  8. looks like an over reaction to me abt this whole ADA thing. let's not blow it out of proportion using wild hand gestures and over emphasizing words. you make some good points abt crowd management, however, it's isnt squares fault entirely. people have been locked up for 3 years and that does affect them. they have forgotten how to be respectful to one another and inaffiotion to this the whole woke bs going thst makes everyone feel entitled to do what they want. I see this behavior everywhere I go. I'm not ada but I do work with them and advocate for them. Yes the event organizers can improve many areas but also keep in mind people are gonna do what they want and you can't control that. there is a very small group of people left in the world that do strive to do things right but they get out number by the stupids. so Zeph, thanks for the update and game on.

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  9. personally I’m not sure how else they could’ve done the primals seating, the ADA seats were originally in the pit and people had been camping for over 2 hours so they couldn’t even rearrange the seats for the concert properly to allow general people to have a turn up front for the primals concert. the only other place for ada would’ve been is to the sides at the front but there was already too many people sitting on the floor of the sides to even move the chairs. I just don’t know what else anyone could’ve done. I personally had an amazing and memorable time and met so many amazing people and can’t wait for the next one! I loved the quests and everything they set up! Even sitting on the floor for the letters and concerts was totally fine and I could see everything on the many huge screens so I was happy! Also the air conditioning was amazing inside the convention so you never realised it was even 115° outside the hotels

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  10. I think the link with the TMNT shirt is that it will use Scouting armour like ninja, and that it'll be like "Corsair" or something. Which would be pretty cool imo

    As for the caster, anything goes 😂 all I know is imma play em!

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  11. I don't think you'll think that the painter job is as outragous as you think it is if you look at some of the other teased jobs and the explanation behind the teases.

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  12. I was there and the event was understaffed and inadequate for the amount of attendees. The line for the keynote lasted about 4 hours to maybe get a seat. They set up a digital queue system for the battle challenge but quickly staff threw out the queue system in favor of a first come first serve if you have a ticket system. They also had a singles' fill in line that didn't require a queue ticket and they looked miserable waiting all by themselves.

    The merch line made people wait for a chance to wait more.

    All accommodations were filled to the brim. All seats taken. Water station overflowing with people. Food carts and such overwhelmed. Bathrooms were absolutely gross. ADA was an after thought. All festival games were overloaded.

    Watching the panels live was awesome and seeing the concerts made it worth it but the experience itself was terrible.

    Going outdoors was a true test of body and mind. The heat makes people sweat and well fill in the blanks.

    My tips for next time would be to order merch online. Skip the battle challenge. Skip the live letter. Sit down early for a panel if you really want to see it. For less important panels consider watching the stream.

    I hope someone notices the mistakes this year and hopefully accounts for the miscalculation this year so that no one has to compromise their experiences.

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  13. But look at the pictomancers outfit and tell me it doesn’t look straight of tulgal 😅 also there’s an image of a character with a bow staff in one of the artist pictures so maybe a bowstaff???

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  14. This is THE care bear MMO/Community. You can’t do this, this isn’t Blizzard. Someone, likely quite a few, needs to be fired over this, sued if it’s a 3rd party. Beyond the pale. Shame on Final Fantasy !

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  15. It seemed fine to me. I expected people to be way more upset but no. I figured it’s because our community is friendlier than most. I would have liked a little more organization. But yeah I think this is pretty normal unfortunately.

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  16. Zepla: That doesnt look like a caster to me, he definitely have a sword!
    Red Mage: Am I a joke to you?
    Blue Mage from XI: well excuse me! princess!
    every spellsword in any other RPG: hello~ is this thing on?
    🤣

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  17. I went to Fan Fest with my wife..She was in a wheelchair due to a broken foot. The ADA was a complete mess. The primals concert especially was a HUGE safety issue and it really ruined the experience. Also the security was a complete joke. The only thing that separated the secured area (behind security) from the other side of security was a partition. I cannot say how many times I Saw people just walk 100 ft away from security and they would just duck beneath the partition and enter the convention with no wristband or bag checks at all. It was laughably easy for someone to do. When we were smashed behind the pit in the ADA seating it was all so tight that we couldn’t leave if we wanted to. With it not being too long since the last mass shooting in Vegas it had our minds racing at how easy it would’ve been for someone. Someone could’ve snuck in a duffel bag of weapons by just ducking a partition. Over all I feel square and the convention center got really lucky. It could have become a tragedy very easy if anybody had wanted to target the con. The security wouldn’t have stopped anything. Myself as well as 2 of my buddies that went to the con also got COVID. So there’s that. Essentially even if I somehow got a Free ticket to the EU fan fest I would not go unless some of these glaring issues are fixed.

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  18. The thing is, people are saying they couldn't handle all the 15k people here, yet this is one of the top 5 largest convention centers in the country. FanFest occupied the entire North Hall, so how could they possibly handle a smaller venue?

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  19. I spent over 50% of my time in the quite room at fanfest. It was anything but quite because people just used it as just another hangout space. Im autistic with audio sensitivity so while it was better than most areas it wasnt quite enough for actual comfort.

    I had spoken to staff who said it is supposed to be an ada area for those who are autistic/ada but no one was ever checking in to help control the noise of the quite room.

    As a result I only ever did 2 activities and left half way through day 2.

    Fanfest was fun for what I got to experience but certainly the most chaotic and noisy con iv ever attended.

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  20. This was my first ever fanfest, I can easily say that I will NEVER go to another one. Ive been to conventions of this size before and have never seen anything like what we experienced. The lines were insane and unmanaged. There were "fake" merchandise lines that people stood in for hours. (I never did get any merch) I have SO many questions… Why was the food court not open? Why were there not clear markings for lines? Why did I need to find a seat an hour in advance to make sure I had a chair for each segment? Where was the security?? If we wanted food or drinks, the lines were so long you would miss some of the segments, may I remind you, the whole reason you are there. We opted for taking the monorail ALL THE WAY down to MGM for lunch because it was faster than the food lines ( we later heard that the people who did stand in those lines did not always even get food because the little vendors were running out ). I cannot believe how much money was spent going to this convention with it being as horrible as it was. The security was AWFUL. Something seriously bad could have happened. They werent checking bags but apparently carrying a water bottle was too much. We left before the piano concert on day one and didnt even come back for day 2. TLDR: I felt UNSAFE, disappointed, and flat out upset at the unorganization of the whole thing. We should have left after the 7.0 announcement.

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  21. When my partner saw the TMNT shirt he thought more that it would be because there was a whole pirates vs ninja things with it and it would be some type of pirate theme job, but we stopped guessing there a bit. Melee would probably be a scouting job as that doesn't share anything yet.

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