FFXI Fan Festival Edition
I think the Fan Festival is FFXI interaction at its highest -- more familiar and bringing people closer together than any other conventions or gatherings for FFXI players. There are many attractions to look forward to about new game content, costume and art contests, and obtaining cool new exclusive goodies, which this year is the coveted Moogle Shield! Nobody knows what its ability will be yet. My conjecture is, if you Shield Bash a monster with it, it will cause the monster to de-spawn. I'm just kidding! You can also be the first to hear directly from the Developers about what's going to come out next. But above all these attractions and events, what I believe is the centerpiece of the Fest is that players from all over the country can come to this event and meet their in-game friends in Real Life for the first time because, what keeps us in the game most of the time, is our allies in our server and linkshell. I would greatly enjoy seeing some friends from my server and having some {Drinks} together.
To be honest, even though I'm a Southern-California native myself, I've never been to a Fan Fest. But since this year, 2008, was productive in FFXI for me, I wanted to go this time. I expressed my interest to attend to my husband (who is also an avid player), and we both decided we should go this year. That morning when the tickets were available, I went to my boss to get her consent to use my vacation days for the entire week of the Festival. But when the afternoon came, I was shocked to find out that the tickets had already been sold out! I was so bummed out as I went back to my boss to cancel my week vacation and received one hell of a "That's not funny" glare from her. All that in one day! The rest of the week, or rather the rest of the month, I was with hundreds and maybe thousands of other people who were all interested in the Fan Festival, reading on Allakhazam's FFXI forums for rants and discussions about it. It seemed as though the venue this year is a smaller place with a lower number of tickets available, causing it to be even more of an exclusive event than it already is. Also on the forums, there was a lot of discontent about the actual location of the Festival as well as some good suggestions for possible solutions or even possibly collaborating with existing conventions to recognize FFXI fan-dom. There was also speculation pointing toward RMT-like exploitation on tickets. Let's put that aside now and talk about the Fan Fest in terms of real people.
Fan Festival is definitely the place to be if you're a Final Fantasy XI junkie. The excitement, the events, and especially all the cheering people who will be excited along side you. However, due to the limiting factor of the location selection, the dream of attending a Fan Fest will never turn into a reality for the thousands of fans because they live too far away from Southern California. Only a handful of people could even consider the option of buying plane tickets to California, or taking a road-trip because either means of transportation to the location will cost a lot of money. They also have to consider taking days off from work and that can cause them to lose a paycheck. Or if they're students, they have to think about their classes and midterms too because they'll be right around the corner. If they're married, they will have to figure out if it will turn into a 'vacation' or consider whether or not their other-half will let them go. If they have kids, they will need to consider what kind of care to provide their children in their absence. And, what about lodgings, transportation, and meals? It's all going to be money to shell out. Yet in spite of all these negativities regarding time and conflicts, I believe that the burden of paying for all those things will depend on a person's actual desire to go. Because, they can put more weight on the significance of meeting their best friends and taking that chance for an adventure and not just watching their character on a monitor.
As much as I disapprove of the Fan Festival being in the same area every year, I can understand how having it in one location can also attract the larger community. That way more players can come interact and the excitement can be heightened because of the greater participation. Although a lot of planning may be involved, I am positive that the experience is a once in a lifetime special occasion because FFXI is a die-hard adventure that we all share and love.