/feedback

[HeiligHangranate]

First of all, I loved it.  It was my best Fan Faire so far.  It's hard to beat Vegas for a venue, too.  That said, here are some comments, positive and negative:

• Being able to make travel plans months ahead of time was GREAT!  I had a conflict with the Fan Faire weekend, and the extra planning time helped me straighten things out.  Keep it up.
• However, Vegas in August is the pits.  I stayed about a block away from the Rio, and trekking through the heat and humidity was no fun at all.  (Yes, humidity.  It rained for two days before I got there, and the humidity was as bad as the heat.)  The last time we were in Vegas was in March, which was much better.  Plus, all those northerners are ready for some warmer weather in March.
• The Voodoo party was fantastic.  Unfortunately, I had to step out for a minute to retrieve some things from a friend's room, and I couldn't get back in.  They wouldn't let me in with the armband, and the wait in the public line was over an hour.  It would have been nice to know that before I left.  This was at 10pm, still pretty early.
• As some have already pointed out, the badges were unreadable, unless you wanted to make a fool of yourself sticking your head down on some woman's chest trying to read hers.  Now, that's not always a bad thing, but I'd like to be able to pick and choose who I do that to.
• The banquet food was good, but not the best.  However, that's probably why the registration fee was so much lower this year.  Personally, I'll take the hot dogs and hamburgers and pocket the savings to use on a fancy restaurant later.
• The schedule was too crowded.  I wasn't able to attend some of the panels that I wanted to because of all the things going on at the same time. 
• Where were the EQ babes?  I saw a few pictures of them after I got back, but they were nowhere to be seen during the FF.  At least I didn't see them.  The most important thing to bring back from a FF is a picture of me with the EQ babes.
• The Phat Lewt store is getting better.  There seemed to be more vendors this time.  More is better.
• The Rio was a great place to hold the FF.  The Strip would have been good, too.  This one is a tossup.  I'll bet the Rio was a better deal financially.
• I'll think of more after I sober up.  Probably by next weekend.

[Saroc_Luclin]

Yeah it would have been nice to see more of Firiona Vie and Antonyia Bayle during the Fan Faire. I only saw them at the banquet and once earlier that evening (at the Pool Party). I've commented and compared the badges elsewhere, but yeah lots more size needed on them. One thing the Phat Loot store needed was THE GAMES. You had Vanguard boxes available, but you should have also had MxO, Planetside, EQ, EQII, etc... maybe even the All Access pack as well, there for people. Especially if you are looking to mix and match games like that. Also, next year, look at each server and make sure you have at least enough pins to cover all the people of that server that show up. You ran out of Luclin pins on the first day, and Shaman pins pretty quick too. (it was a problem in 2005 too IIRC). For the most part, I found the schedule seemed pretty good. I would have rathered less overlap, but none of the EQ talks overlaped. The only beef I had was scheduling the Legends of Norrath talk during the EQLive event, meaning those EQers in the Live Quest couldn't see the demo.

[Havocide]

I saw the EQ girls, was pretty kool.

[Tharkis]

While the rio was nice, i actually prefered the vegas hilton.  The rio was an increadibly difficult hotell to meet and find people and just hang out.   The hilton however has quarks and the big wide open spaces for the convention area.  In addition the hilton is on the monorail, and while 'technically' not "on strip" it's ... on the strip and getting to and from the hilton is far far easier than Rio.  Hilton food prices were much better too for the budget minded people.  I found myself going next door to Gold Coast for meals instead of staying in the rio because it was so expensive there.

The names on the badges needed to be about 10x the size they were, they were entierly unreadable. 

[SG_01]

Hrmm, I didn't like the Rio as a Hotel or Casino, but as Fan Faire location I thought it was decent. I thought it was a tad too expensive to stay, even on the reduced cost, and the fact that the Internet wasn't in that price didn't help at all. (I did however get the internet free since there was some trouble with it, at the end )

There were some issues with the computers, that could've been done a tad better. Also I think getting more computers, and maybe an automated way to sign up for the Game Area would be nice (with this many people coming to Fan Faire at the very least).

Oh, and maybe adding an extra day so we have a little bit space between panels, and not two panels (of the same game) at the same time.

The wedding was awesome, can't wait for the video to hit

And they where there:

 

[Saroc_Luclin]

Hehe I too got my net free (all 5 days of it) because my room's TV kept randomly losing colour (loose connection/bad cable I guess). And it was a legitamate complaint that they tried to fix. Was a nice perk anyways, and something to keep in mind in the future. I didn't explore outside the Rio much, but it didn't seem to have much around it for cheaper alternatives; IIRC the Hilton at least has a convienance store/gas station outside to get cheaper drinks and such. Oh well, I had a good time.

[Havocide]

Saroc_Luclin wrote:

Oh well, I had a good time.

AND theres the main point!!! QFMFT!!!!

[Jyve]

Bigger name badges, definitely. Gold Coast cheapo hotel next door worked a treat, and the booze in the bowling alley bar was uber cheap. Did miss a couple of panels, didn't know there was that little passageway leading to more rooms until the Lore panel. Food was good, thought I missed the breakfast brunch that had been done at Atlanta at the time, but in retrospect, I'd of had trouble getting up for it with all the partying going on. Devs were great and spent tons of time chatting, was a pleasure. Was great to hear the announcements and I thought the style worked well to see the other games going on too. Next time, I'd definitely try and work out an unofficial place to meet up instead of roaming aimlessly for a bit. Vegas is a great venue.  I had tons of fun at Atlanta, but Vegas REALLY had so much todo (I got there early especially and stayed a bit later just to explore more). Need to invent a time machine to slow time down to make it last longer next time.  Really was so much fun and it felt over so quickly.  But, SOOO much fun. Thank you everyone at SoE for organising this.

[QforQ-MxO]

Yeah I'd like:

• Bigger font on Badges
• Have the Fan Faire next year in Vegas at the Hilton, not the Rio.  The Rio was far from things and the hotel didnt have much to offer Fan Faire attendees after hours
• Uberguilds Radio at Fan Faire 2008

I had an awesome time!  Can't wait for next year!

[Igie]

I loved the events, and it being here in Las Vegas. However, venue left [Removed for Content] to be desired. Some things to make it better:

• When in Vegas, hold it at a different location. FWIW the Hilton said they'd be happy to have Fan Faire back there. The management at Quark's said they'd take real good care of us. The Hilton was also curious if Fan Faire would be returning to Vegas next year....
• Hold the event at a property more friendly to people under 21. I heard this complaint A LOT! People under 21 could not even get a room at the Rio due to their rules.
• Make sure the venue allows MAKE-UP. Seriously, I could not wear my costume because of the restrictions. It was actually the most stupid thing I have ever seen.
• Make sure to have "nice" security staff from the venue. I'm sorry, but carding a 50+ year old person to verify they are 21 was the second most stupid thing I saw.
• Pick a place that makes it easier to get around town. Being off strip really sucked for a lot of people. Some people were really upset because they took the bus, then the tram to get somewhere only to find out they missed getting in because it took them so long.
• Add either an extra day, or space the events out further apart. Back to back and having to run across the convention area sucked. Also the overlapping caused problems because some people play more then one game.
• Have some things for people under 21 to do, or better yet make it so they can go to the 21+ events. Different colored wristbands would have solved some of that problem. Bartenders can check armbands, just tell everyone they have to wear them.

There were some other things I am sure. All in all it was not too bad. I still think Vegas is the best and most fun venue there is. There is a lot to do here outside of the Fan Faire events.

[Calthine]

Igie wrote:

• Have some things for people under 21 to do, or better yet make it so they can go to the 21+ events. Different colored wristbands would have solved some of that problem. Bartenders can check armbands, just tell everyone they have to wear them.

FYI, in many states (mine for example, I don't know about Nevada) it's illegal for a person under 21 to be in a non-restaurant venue that serves alcohol unless accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.  And up here most bars have very strict rules about it - only before 8pm, they may not sit at the bar, etc.

[Igie]

Private parties are exempt in Nevada as long as it is not a gaming (bar that has slot machines) or strip club. Main reason is weddings because most are held at casino convention or banquet areas. My wife and I had an open bar at our wedding, the casino said as long as the bartenders could check ID, it was ok....

[Ron]

As an EQ participant, 75% of the panel discussions were primarily the same.  People addressing issues in game, either in context of the panel or not.  For the first day, we had many good and interesting topics but on day 2, we had a lot of repeated discussions that were on day 1 but those people missed the panel.  We do understand the need to have catch all panels on the second day but it would have been nice to have more open discussions, started by the dev team on specific issues on the game, IE tradeskilling, raiding issues, etc.

EQ panel on artwork/zone makeup.  A walk through on what is done when making up a zone.  What issues does the design team get into on previous zones and future zones.

The group of us who were involved in the EQ quest discussion enjoyed this discussion tremendously.  I think that our group was able to go through all the stages of a simple quest and were able to create a fun quest (which we hope gets implemented at some date).  It opened up the player population all the aspects that are involved in the mechanics of doing a quest.  If this would be slated for next year, I would think we could come up with more novel ideas.  Personally, I think this was the best panel discussion we had for EQ.

However, since this was the only event where the SoF dice were handed out, many people didn't get the dice since they were involved in other panels.  As I know, they were disappointed.  (these are real dice, not the in game reward).

Having so many T-shirt distributions was very nice.  This will probably cloth many people for the next year   Only shirt I missed out on getting was the LoN shirt.

A vendor to make large name tags for the small print name tag would have been nice.  If I knew the lettering was going to be so small, I would have brought alphabet lettering  

I do think having 3+ days of a more open schedule would be nice.  I do understand there were issues with the hotel in limiting our space and double booking other conventions there.  Hopefully, this won't be a problem next Fan Faire.  As you know, many guilds use the Fan Faire as a Guild Gathering to foster the cohesiveness of the guild and create camaraderie between players (as some know by the after parties).  Even though many people take extended vacations there, making Fan Faire into 3+ days of events will help keep people around.

I am assuming that Fan Faires will be moving to a once a year schedule since most game expansions will be set to that and it will give a good time to introduce these game expansions at the fan faire.  Even though this is good for some, a plain old weekend gathering to just hang out would be nice in between without so many discussions.

 In all, it was a great time, just wish we had some light going events on sunday to keep people around since most people casted /evac right after the saturday night dinner and left town.

[Clix]

This was my first FF and I had the time of my life. Everyone was very friendly, devs and players. I loved the Rio hotel, I had some issues with housekeeping (lack thereof) and the tv sucked. How can you book a hotel for gamers that doesn't have SciFi in the lineup? I thought the font was a bit small on the badge. I tried to get to all of the EQ panels, but just couldn't do it with the other stuff happening. From the few panels I did attend, I heard what sounded like a lot of whining with some very good questions and concerns thrown in. Overall it was a great experience for me and I look forward to the next one. Clix

[Saroc_Luclin]

About the EQ Discussions, I agree some more variety would have been nice. I know in the 2005 fan faire there was a discussion specifically on pathing alone, and we got to see some of the guts of EQ and the underlying systems used in Pathing. (EQ uses 2 depending on the age of the zone). More talks like that, or maybe going in on zone creation a bit (the tools they use to make zones, place NPC's etc...) would be nice in the future.

[Meni]

Before I start complaining let me first say that I had an absolute BLAST at FF and I would recommend the Experience to anyone! 1. Do not hold a raffle for prizes during panels. I understand that you have to squeeze them in sometime but both raffles were held during EQ2 panels (which is the game that most of your players at FF played) The raffles should have been held at the banquet where all players who attended FF could have taken part in the drawings and they could have filled the time much better there than watching people put on pink T-shirts. 2. Do not make your FF survey available to attendees until after FF is over with. How can I fill out a survey about what I thought about FF on the first day when I just got there and haven't experienced anything other than the Voodoo Lounge party? Make your FF survey available on your website AFTER the FF and make people fill it out to get a code for their in game item. I waited in line for 1.5hrs the 1st day to do the survey because I wanted to preview PotBS and the Agency and the only way you could get tickets to those previews was to do the survey. i did end up getting tickets to both previews but both of the tickets were misprinted. Both the times and which preview they were actually for were both wrong so I only ended up being able to preview the Agency. 3. Panels: I had a blast in the panels however you guys need to look at your player base a little better when planning which panel goes in which room. You had a Smed giving a speech to SWG players (all 10 of them) in a HUGE room then you scheduled a 2 hour EQ2 "Into the Future" panel in Miranda 3 a tiny room. I ended up attending a marketing panel that I really wasn't interested in (it was a good panel and I am glad I got the chance to give feedback about EQ2 marketing) because I knew that Miranda 3 was going to be overflowing with people for the EQ2 panel. In fact all of the EQ2 panels were standing room only, even the Kunark one that was held in one of your bigger rooms.

[Sandain666]

You guys did a great job with the Fan Faire. The sheer variety of events was great. I don't think I ever went to a Fan FAire where there was so much to do. Some people say the schedule is too crowded but I think it was just fine. 

The only real complaint I had was the size of the rooms for some of the panels was way too small.

If you do plan a Voodoo Lounge type event next year please let us know how long the armbands will be good for entry. (i.e. from 7- 9PM) . If this info was posted somewhere I did not see it

I think the  Rio was quite a nice hotel for the FF. The small disadvatage was that it is off the strip but the free shuttles helped a bit