Bringing the Community Together

This spring Square Portal collaborated with fans and brought a Final Fantasy XIV themed fan gathering in Helsinki, Finland. The event was a huge success and we had more visitors than originally estimated – the event location didn’t almost have enough space and PCs for everyone! Wow! Thank you all for the amazing experience!

After getting tons of positive feedback from the participants, we are glad to reveal that the next event is already in the works and we’re looking into opportunities to make it happen later this year or in early 2017.

Crystal Tower Madness & Pizza

This fan gathering was all about bringing the community together and give a platform for Final Fantasy fans to connected and share their love towards the series with others – while playing Final Fanntasy XIV! We had tons of different kinds of activities: gaming, competitions, raids, pizza and snacks, the live letter and spending time together.

One of the most memorable moments of the day was when the veteran players formed an alliance to do Crystal Tower raids in Final Fantasy XIV. Sounds easy… What’s the catch, though? Nobody was allowed to equip their job stones, meaning people had to complete the raids as basic classes – losing big stat boosts and job skills. This naturally turned into an amazingly hilarious mess where you could see big smiles on everyone’s face as the room exploded into laughter when someone got rekt by Behemot’s almighty meteor attack. (Duh, don’t ignore the mechnics!)

Final Fantasy Community

Over the years I have been part of many gaming communities and there’s no doubt that the Final Fantasy community is one of the very the best out there. The passionated fans are always ready to tell you why their favorite Final Fantasy is the best one. It’s actually quite crazy to think that the first Final Fantasy game was released nearly three decades ago and the young fans from the time are grown ups now. Who knows, they might even have their own children whose first experiences within the series could be Final Fantasy XIV or Final Fantasy XV.

Thus, the Final Fantasy community consists of many generations with a variety of different views and experiences – making each Final Fantasy a unique experience. For example, a growing teenager could find empowerment for growing up from Final Fantasy XIII, however, an adult doesn’t necessary even pay attention to these details as they are not presents to oneself anymore. Instead of that one could find the political aspects more appealing. This makes it possible for two individuals view the story entirely unique ways as they are focussing on different aspects. When two fans come to together to discuss about their favorite franchise, they will likely realize things they never thought one could ever digest from the story or the characters. This is one of the reasons why the fan gathering itself was so successful.

Social Game Experience

Final Fantasy XIV is truly a remarkable experience for many people: It’s not just a game, it’s actually a perfect social media with entertaining and engaging content to do together. This helps creating bonds for a lifetime and it showed at the fan gathering as well: many visitors came with people they had met in-game while playing Final Fantasy XIV. This altogether reminded me why I love the series once again: there’s an amazing hardcore community welcoming you be part of it and everyone is ready to share their love and ideas about the standard-setting titles. These are the main factories why I keep returning in Final Fantasy XIV and enjoying the series after over a decade – there’s always something new to experience!

We would like to thank you all participating in our Final Fantasy XIV fan gathering! Square Portal is looking forward to see you all at Final Fantasy XIV Fanfest next year. Final Fantasy XIV Patch 3.3 “Revenge of the Horde” is now available on all platforms!

About Final Fantasy XIV

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game that invites you to explore the realm of Eorzea with friends from around the world. Form a party and adventure with a multitude of players from across the globe. Forge friendships, mount chocobos, and board airships as you and your companions create your own unique stories in Eorzea.