Fanfest Las Vegas 2018: Merchandise Considerations and Feedback
Dear Community Team and Event Planners,
With the recent announcement of Encyclopedia Eorzea II debuting at NA Fanfest, I would like to know if there will be an exclusive merchandise pre-purchases for NA Fanfest ticket holders?
And if there are not currently plans in place, I highly suggest a pre-order system of sorts be taken into consideration to avoid past pitfalls and make this year's Fanfest experience a better one.
As many may remember, 2016's merchandising line was quite the experience and the Encyclopedia debute being the main driving force of that (this also was the first item to sell out). As the second edition is debuting here again this time around I believe we will see a similar outcome if not a higher demand.
While the other regional fanfests that came after learned from mistakes of the first, the EU adaptation was very straight forward, and would be very beneficial to those of us attending in Vegas. Seen here. And here.
Based off the high demand and quick sell out of NA 2018 Fan Fest event ticket sales, it would be common to see attendees buying or purchasing items for their fellow FC mates or friends who were not able to be in attendance. This system, in addition, would help to gauge specific item demand and avoid sending incorrect inventory to the event. Of course, if specific items have limited quantities a maximum purchase of certain items could always be put in place.
Additionally, during 2016, one of the other issues that arose with the merchandise line was fire code and public safety due to the line size and people congregated within one place (specifically the massive line of people against the back wall in the Paris which blocked the emergency fire exits due to the line wrapping multiple times in that area). For convention attendees the last thing we'd like to see is the whole event shut down.
I'd like to suggest if pre-orders for merchandise is conducted, adapting what was sort of done in 2014 and what was the band-aid fix day 2 for 2016 for pre-purchased merchandise pick up. For those un-aware 2014 VIP ticket holders were able to enter the event room 1 hour prior to regular attendees. Merchandise line was open at this time and this helped ease flow of people at one point in time.
If a pre-purchase merchandise sale is conducted prior to the event then having a pick up time issued to each pre-purchase order at a later time, but prior to event weekend would ease traffic flow tremendously. Further more, having separate lines for 'pre-purchase pick up' and 'on-site sales' will ensure line flow is more regulated.
That way when doors open you do not have a influx flow or massive congregation of pre-purchases attempting to all pick up their items at once.
In closing, as it has been stated here,
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Bayohne
We made more tickets available this year than ever before
and as many of the community has experienced first hand when trying to obtain tickets, the demand and attendee size is greater than ever before. This year the process and flow for obtaining merchandise needs to be addressed, handled, and supervised more than ever to ensure a favorable and pleasant experience for adventurers and attendees alike. Thank you for reading!
Edit:
Edited wording to be a little more clear. I do not think time slots as others have stated is an acceptable solution by itself or an alternative fix. But I do believe it would prevent a vast majority of attendees who all pre-purchased attempting to pick up their items at one time (ex: the approximate 1 hour prior to keynote or 1 hour prior to convention doors shut down.) I simply see it as a solution so everyone is not present in line at once trying to pick up their pre-purchase orders causing confusion for on site sales or having another public safety issue occur with the fire marshal.
Merch Preorders! <Yes, please!!>
It was my understanding that after the horrible Merch Line Savage disaster of NA FanFest 2016 (including 5+ 16 hour waits (see above) wasting time during the actual FanFest, hundreds of people cutting in line, a failed ticket system where they gave out (and ran out of) all tickets hours before the appointed time, being sold out of lore books - and almost everything else - on the first day, closing merch purchases the second day, and everything else that went horribly wrong) they figured out that a preorder system was a much better idea, and switched to a preorder system for subsequent FanFests.
But now I'm worried, because apparently the FanFests are organized by the local community teams rather than the mother ship, and the NA FanFest might not be guaranteed to be run as well as the others apparently are - certainly ticketing was a mess as demand was vastly underestimated, ShowClix melted down, and the code system did not operate properly, resulting in a great deal of unhappiness and disappointment.
Could someone from SE/Community Team confirm officially that there will be a MERCHANDISE PREORDER SYSTEM for the 2018 NA FanFest (and presumably the others as well) and that it will apply not just to the new lore book but to all items? :cool:
Given that the euro FanFest has merch preorders, the awful disaster of non-preorders demonstrated in 2016, and the fact that a new lore book is being rolled out, it would be insane and horrible to not have merchandise preorders for the Las Vegas FanFest 2018, so I really, really hope they will be happening!!
(But given the ticketing disaster, there are no guarantees....)