Hey all, posting from the San Jose airport… almost home…

Well, the 2008 FFXI Fan Fest has come and gone. This was my first Fan Fest, and I had a blast! How can you top development panel interviews, previews of new content and Usagi’s jam session, all in just two days?

Anyway, there was a lot to absorb during Fan Fest, and I’d like to share some thoughts and impressions of this year’s event:

-Pikko is a celebrity. I lost track of how many times people asked me to photograph them with Pikko.

-Fan Fest was in Hollywood, so I guess that makes Pikko a Hollywood celebrity.

-No big shockers from the devs during the Q&A sessions; I was expecting something more.

-I greatly enjoyed our Friday night interview with the devs.

-Sage Sundi seems passionate about making life miserable for RMT.

-I was also slightly taken aback when the devs implied there wasn’t interest among the playerbase to fix ground kings.

-It’s not my imagination; there are many older FFXI players.

-The number of couples who came together surprised me.

-Many people I talked to said they enjoyed the format of Fan Fest with only one day of events and fewer attendees.

-Tummie and Darkdoom rock for using a fluff event to test the mythic weapons.

-I would have liked to see some video previews for the upcoming three expansions.

-When they showed the names of the new expansions during Saturday’s opening ceremony, the crowd went nuts when Shantotto’s title appeared on screen.

-I didn’t actually play The Swarm, but I looked over the shoulders of many people. It looked ridiculously fun and perfect for social linkshell events. I wonder if we’ll ever see something like this implemented permanently?

-Moblin Maze Mongers will satisfy casual players who want to fight bigger, stronger monsters.

-Red mage updates in the spring? God, please, yes.

-This treasure casket feature sounds fantastic; but will we see a widespread surge in black mage -aga farming?

-Nowhere else will you see a Soulflayer at a lunch buffet.

-Nowhere else will you see a Soulflayer.

-Kind of random, but a guy dressed as Elmo on the Walk of Stars told me I looked like Michael Phelps.

-I chatted with a girl who was wearing a summoner AF costume. She was entering the cosplay contest and was stoked just to be able to go on stage. She ended up winning second place. Afterward, she was photographed on stage with the other winners. I don’t think I saw a happier person at Fan Fest.

-The Most Gutsy Performance Award went to Usagi. Is that awesomeness on YouTube yet?

-In related news, I suck at Rock Band.

-Fun Fact: The last guy to register for Fan Fest was also the attendee who had most recently registered to play FFXI. He purchased his PlayOnline ID in October.

- The stunning concert performance by Kumi Tanioka -- a composer of the FFXI soundtrack -- was the perfect end to a great day.

To anyone else who attended Fan Fest, what did you guys think? And how did this year's festival compare to previous fan fests?
I saw the AK crew around noon on friday while I was waiting for my hotel room. Ya'll rock, but Pikko is legend. (/^_^)/

Honestly I preferred last year's fan fest. Carnival-type games, puzzles/riddles/scavenger hunt, the atomos leveling contest thing, the mithra picture booth, etc etc etc...there was more to do and more people to do it with. This one felt...small. Would have been great if I lived in the area, but this is a big trip for most of the attendees, would love to see it bigger and better each year.

The thing is, my favorite memory was the Live Quest because we got to spend like 3-4 hours meeting new people and doing quests and stuff. It was fun and involved lots of running amok, although I doubt the local hotels appreciated all the late-night mushroom hunters...

Also, next year they really need to make the Server Name on the name badge larger than the linkshell name.
Also I wish we could get a video of that STF WARS thing they did. For those not present, SE did a little clip like the intro of star wars but with STF Wars and instead of the storyline crawling into the background it was a list of all banned characters and servers and the list was so huge they had to speed it up.

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