NA Fanfest 2018 Debacle

The shitty thing is that I remember when I went you had to register names to your tickets when you purchased (SMART). This year you didn't even have too, stupid af

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Originally Posted by SinisterJoints

The shitty thing is that I remember when I went you had to register names to your tickets when you purchased (SMART). This year you didn't even have too, stupid af

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Uh, you did have to put real names to each badge. It was a mandatory field. It's just that up until they started getting complaints about it, you could edit those names (which allowed for scalpers). Since 4pm names have been locked.

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Originally Posted by Noahlimits

Uh, you did have to put real names to each badge. It was a mandatory field. It's just that up until they started getting complaints about it, you could edit those names (which allowed for scalpers). Since 4pm names have been locked.

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Was going to by my reply, didn't know they locked the names. Hope all these scalpers get f'd hard

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Originally Posted by Patt

Seconding this! It's very odd, especially in comparison to prior fan fests, that the tickets sold out so quickly in a legitimate manner. I know myself (and several others) were in queue from the exact second that sales opened (12PM PDT) and patiently waited in queue were met with a "Sold Out" message upon reaching the ticketing page.

It's really heartbreaking for those of us who already booked hotel rooms through the SE Rio partnership that went live weeks ago; now we're left with hotel reservations for an event we can't attend.

I really hope SE does something about this as it is heartbreaking and frustrating.

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Wait the reservation did not come with a guarantee ticket for the event the reservation partnership was intended for?

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Originally Posted by SinisterJoints

Was going to by my reply, didn't know they locked the names. Hope all these scalpers get f'd hard

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I'm sure they have been. Like I said, I have a ticket I can't even use now and instead of giving it to someone who wants it I'm being forced to just eat my $150 and keeping someone from going. Yay. :>

Nope! Convention events typically offer "blocks" of hotel rooms at or near the event location, in this case the Rio in Las Vegas. Weirdly though, these went up for reservation way before tickets for the actual event went on sale. If you wanted a chance at reserving your accommodations for the event in this manner, you had to book well in advance of the ticket sales. It makes no sense.

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Originally Posted by Patt

Nope! Convention events typically offer "blocks" of hotel rooms at or near the event location, in this case the Rio in Las Vegas. Weirdly though, these went up for reservation way before tickets for the actual event went on sale. If you wanted a chance at reserving your accommodations for the event in this manner, you had to book well in advance of the ticket sales. It makes no sense.

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Yeah I was just shocked since you mentioned you made your reservations weeks in advance so I figured they would at the very least offer some form of guarantee bundle since you are making a reservation at the venue the event is being held. Well I guess that is how I thought the partner ship worked. That is crazy.

Bayohne's made a statement for SE.

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Originally Posted by Bayohne

Greetings,

We would like to follow up on reports that there were Fan Festival tickets sold without users needing an access code. Our ticket vendor explained that they had to temporarily pause the access code requirement while they addressed a technical issue that was slowing down the site. During this brief period, a small number of tickets were purchased without an access code. We investigated those purchases and did not find any evidence of ineligible purchases.

Please rest assured that we have also seen comments on other issues with ticket sales shared by the community, such as claims of users purchasing more than their allotted amount of tickets. We have investigated these concerns, and at this time have not found anything outside of the expected results. Should we discover any abnormalities, we will take the appropriate measures as necessary.

We are humbled by the overwhelming response from those who want to attend the Fan Festival. We made more tickets available this year than ever before and we understand the frustration of not being able to procure tickets. We wish we could accommodate everyone, and so we'll do our best to try and host even more of our passionate adventurers in the future.

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Originally Posted by Zohnax

I'd like to point out the irony in a company that's so adamant about being against reselling housing in-game that they enable a similar environment in real world terms.
While people won't be keen to the idea, SE should have ShowClix rebuke all Fanfest ticket purchases and resell tickets in a more secure form.

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This is a horrible idea.

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Originally Posted by Zohnax

I'd like to point out the irony in a company that's so adamant about being against reselling housing in-game that they enable a similar environment in real world terms.
While people won't be keen to the idea, SE should have ShowClix rebuke all Fanfest ticket purchases and resell tickets in a more secure form. The flame of outrage is lighting up reddit and smoldering on Twitter. It's only a matter of time before the gaming media gives Square Enix the bad press and reputation they deserve for such a severe oversight.

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I got the shaft on a ticket but this is a horrible idea, especially taking the reponse from Bayohne's into account. I have always viewed convention tickets as a luck of the draw kind of thing, I was just unlucky this time around. I will try again next year.

Sadly it's every 2 years, not every year.