Last weekend's Final Fantasy 14 Fan Fest in Berlin was always going to be a different experience for me than my previous Fan Fests in London. Last time, my Free Company was fully present (shout out to Team Bread) and we banded together like a raid squad, moving from one activity to another and attacking everyone. It was a truly fantastic weekend.
But this time it was like a trip to a different data center. Everything was familiar, but there were few familiar faces around me to help me experience it all. And that was just the beginning of the realization that Pan Fest was a strangely perfect reflection of how we behave as Warriors of Light in Eorzea, and I couldn't be happier with that realization.
quest log
Another journalist and I set ourselves the task of completing a grand mystery game on the app. The game had you solving a variety of questions and puzzles and entering answers to secure the coveted FF14 sticker prize.
When new content is released within the game, you may see a lot of players around a certain point, and you may know that there is a point or NPC waiting there to ask questions about. That's exactly what it was like, but in real life. You will now be told that you can buy houses just like in Final Fantasy 14!
After carefully solving the Sudoku puzzle at The Last Stand Cafe (read: we didn't have pens in our hands so we sent my husband to solve it), we were searching for the cat in Solution Nine to find out what color its collar was. The clever thing was that several of the areas looked identical to Solution Nine, so we went into each area and searched for the elusive cat.
Crowds of people were definitely an easy clue as to where you needed to be, but it was also fun to see how many of the quests mirrored those of FF14. I've lost count of how many times I've done a quest and had someone on /say help others and tell them the answer or what they should do. After collecting all the letters (we think) from living memory and trying to anagram them, another Warrior of Light walked by, saying, “It's Alexandria.” The job is done.
Another task required a huge queue to get into the eyeballs of the Crystarium, which we didn't want to commit to. Because the answers were specific reflections, we brute-forced the results, entering each item until we found a winner. I want to believe that this conveys the same energy as when you don't want to wait for a mission to start. So rope your FC friends into joining you to avoid the queue.
It may seem like a win here, but we solved 5 out of 8 legally without any outside help. We got that sticker. Then, in true Final Fantasy community fashion, I helped other Warriors of Light earn stickers by simply telling them all the answers. Yes, they missed the fun of counting the bananas hidden in the trees of Tuliyolal. But I would say this is like skipping a cutscene.
Wherever I went, it felt like a mirror wandering around Eorzea. Fans grouped together for photos might as well display the Gpose icon above their heads, while crafters showed off their actual crafting skills in the craft area. Other WoLs were trading stickers in their pockets scattered around the hall, people were admiring and praising the cosplayers for their extravagance, and some were taking the time to sit and recharge AFK.
Everyone was trying their RNG luck with the encounters, prizes and activity slots awarded through the lottery, and some people even wore AFK shirts to show when their social battery was at a low point and they just needed a time out.
Celebrate your victories
It wasn't just the general atmosphere, community spirit and activities on offer. We were all faithfully representing WoL, but it took us a while to understand the extent of it. I spent the weekend trying to get all the minion pins from the gacha machine and realized I spent Fan Fest the same way I spent my time in FF14: Minion Hunt.
I got 7/8 of the minion pins. No, I won't mention how much money I spent to achieve it.
I don't consider myself a hardcore player because the item levels are never impressive, I eat more dirt, and I don't really dabble in raids or difficult missions (unless they involve minions). Although I often feel like the odd one out, I left Fan Fest more confident in myself and my WoL than ever before.
It's all too easy to feel like an imposter among the “proper players” when you compare yourself and your achievements (or lack thereof) to those who crack ultimates and wear rare gear. But as we talked about minions in the press room, I realized that I had the largest collection of anyone, and that I had a power of my own. I didn't really value the time spent hunting minions, I thought it was equally as important as the time the player spent on the content.
It was incredibly heartwarming to hear everyone talk about their in-game passions, and it was exciting to see everyone's Warrior of Light shine through achievements, rankings, and discussions. We all champion and obsess over various aspects of the game, but sometimes it's all too easy to forget that.
One reporter who has been working through Dancing Mad and is a raid regular told the rest of us about her exploits as her group practiced and executed to perfection. It was also important to note that the PR person responsible for bringing journalists together to plan their weekends was also the co-leader of FC, and it seemed fitting that he was as much in charge of real-life activities as he was of in-game activities.
If I could pass on one piece of wisdom from last weekend, it would be to celebrate your own wins, no matter how small they may seem, regardless of whether you attended Fan Fest or not. What you excel at and enjoy may be different from what other people do, but that doesn't make you a warrior of light.
- released
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August 27, 2013
- ESRB
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Teen/Blood, Language, Nudity, Sexual Themes, Alcohol and Tobacco Use, Violence, In-Game Purchases, User Interaction
- engine
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Originally a Crystal Tools engine, it is now a custom engine that uses parts of the Luminous Engine.
