Final Fantasy XI FanFest:
The Event Report

Square Enix put on the Final Fantasy XI Fan Festival 2007 last weekend at the Anaheim Hilton in Southern California - and the hotel served as both venue and accommodations for many of the attendees.

Waking up in the morning, you knew you were at home with the gamers when in the next room someone was taking their shower to the Portal end theme. Straight across the second floor in another hall was a weightlifters' convention, and when a few of them wandered over to wonder what all the cosplayers were for, the contrast was sharp.

The Festivities Begin

Things kicked off for us Friday morning when producer and Square Enix vice president Hiromichi Tanaka gave an opening address, including an announcement of the new windowed mode, to enthusiastic applause.

Directly after the opening, while all the eager players were still in their seats, Kenichi Iwao, one of the planners of the game, gave everyone a history lesson featuring the two main continents of Vana'diel, Quon and Mindartia. After learning things like who first discovered magic and how Bastok won its independence, fans were addressed by Mitsutoshi Gondai, another planner, regarding the two new job classes for Wings of the Goddess: dancer and scholar.

A dancer was described as a frontline healer, able to both help her teammates and enfeeble monsters with various steps that stack to unlock powerful finishing flourishes. Meanwhile, the scholar, looking somewhat like a schoolgirl in the female version-- high socks, short skirt -- was explained as a strong support character who uses "stratagems" to affect magical spells her teammates cast.

What The Players Wanted

Everyone was ready to be cut loose and try them out, so after the presentation the expansion tour stations were full. Trying out the new jobs was stressful for some players, because since the game has been released on PS2 and Xbox 360 as well as PC there were at least a few people there who had never played on a standard keyboard.

Some seemed to come to the festival exclusively to play even more FFXI. The Atomos Challenge was a grind-a-thon for players who thought they could level up or collect money faster than anyone else. Groups set up a tag-team schedule for lunch and bathroom breaks, pausing only to hand over the keyboard. Two other (relatively) less intense in-game events were also available for teams to tackle. Both the Mercenary Camp and the Heroes' & Heroines' Combat quests required players to face off against extremely difficult enemies, but winning was worth some serious bragging rights.

A hall outside the main stage became a carnival, with real-life minigames to play for FFXI prizes. Fans lined up to try out an archery range (with Nerf arrows), or try to aim their ring tosses squarely at the arms of Final Fantasy's famous cactus monster, Cactaur. Nearby the merchandise booth was doing exceedingly brisk business, selling out pretty much everything, especially the five year commemorative keychains.

Halfway between playing the videogame and playing real life games was the returning Live Quest, which was popular last year. Teams of flesh and blood players -- wearing their server and character name badges -- gathered into teams and were lead by numbered Non-Player Characters through a variety of tasks toward the goal of in-game rewards.

Another very popular event returning from last year was held Friday at 3:00 PM: The Tarutaru Marathon. Registered players were each assigned one tiny, adorable, level one Tarutaru character to send hurtling through a perilous dungeon. Monsters there could smite these wimpy Tarutaru into dust with just one hit, so stealth -- well, more so just running like hell -- played a big part in advancing the furthest. No one actually managed to cure the goal Galka character before the 20 minutes was over, but the closest three were awarded pretty sweet tech prizes. In fact, the top prize for many of the contests was a new PC.