Tickets are all gone for fan fest

[Xellos2099]

I think i went to one of the panel for xi organized by you years ago at acen

[Luluka]

Mostly, I'm wondering how much of the hall is going to be empty despite the fact their tickets sold out. Hopefully very, I'd rather not find out a lot of people bought tickets to the event off of scalpers who are selling them for twice their worth on Facebook and other Social media platforms right now.

It's doubtful that the convention hall is going to be empty. Someone's trying to poll the FF14 subreddit population to see how many succeeded in obtaining tickets; 396 individuals suceeded as of now (46% of all votes). While there are many limitations to surveys like these, anything from sample size, limited access to the entire population of concern, to responder bias, etc, it does tell us that hundreds have obtained tickets (especially if you consider some individuals may have ordered more than 1 ticket).

It would be interesting to see, however, if everyone follows-through with their Vegas travel plans. Many individuals were considering canceling when they found out their friends/family weren't able to obtain tickets, etc, but the alleged name-freeze administered by showclix shortly after the sellout, the non-refundable travel plans some folks have made, and perhaps other factors may influence some into going afterall...

Link to reddit poll: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...in_buying_fan/

[Hakane_Mitsu]

As someone who managed to buy a ticket I'm happy, sure it sucks for others but these things happen sometimes.

[Tsalmaveth]

Suuuuper easy to say where you're sitting. So point of the comment?

[LunaP]

You had literally months to prepare for this. This is how it's gonna be from now on, FFXIV Fanfest is a now a popular con in high demand. There are certain preparations you're going to have to make if you want to increase your chances of going. This includes collaborating with friends and pooling money together so that the first person who gets in can buy for everyone. Since I've started doing this I haven't missed a particular con I want to go to(Though I recognize the chance is definitely still there!). Take it as a lesson learned and better luck next time!

You quoted the wrong person lol, but just in case, my comment was to the person assuming everyone should have 1600$ cash on hand to purchase group tickets for their internet friends on their behalf and if you didn't have it on hand that you were just silly. I'm not complaining at all just they were calling people stupid for not, and sure some people may have known about this, though this is my first time noticing it based on an email I got 2 days ago, saying you had months to plan would mean you're fully aware of it. I'm not complaining about the event, just giving accurate reasons in response to the silly demeaning comment against others by the person I quoted. I get lots of people are upset here and they have the right of it, but theres no reason for people to attack others or assume their level of intelligence based off of how 1 person thinks. Just don't treat people like idiots for not being aware especially if they're new to something, as well as assuming they've always known. Calm down take a breather then post.

[Avenger]

I haven't caught up completely with the thread (I think I read the first 19 pages), but has anyone suggested an alternate Fan-organized event or meetup in Las Vegas, concurrent with the official FanFest?

I mean, all you really need is wifi, a projector, and some space and you could

- view the live stream
- organize an in-game meetup (people could make alts)
- maybe present a live performance from A Stage Reborn (if you could get them to do it?)
- have a real-world costume/cosplay contest, or panel about costume construction
- have an in-game glamour contest (and share secrets of the glamour masters)
- have a fan art contest
- have panel discussions about anything (job roles, battle strategies, crafting/gathering, etc.)
- have live demos of clearing Ultimate Bahamut or other raids
- FFXIV "best and worst experiences" story time
- have a screenshot or "postcards from Eorzea" contest
etc.

For other conventions where you can't get tickets, offsite events are often a popular alternative and are sometimes better than the "real" thing.

Also some regional fan meetups might be pretty cool as well.

[Catwho]

I think i went to one of the panel for xi organized by you years ago at acen

You probably did! I ran the XI panel for 4-5 years at ACEN, got denied after the combined XI+XIV panel didn't go so well, and went back the next year with a solid XIV panel.

I stopped going to ACEN though because Momocon tended to be a back to back weekend with it, and Momocon is a lot less expensive for me XD But then Momocon, then AWA, stopped giving me the XIV panels, and I'm kind of just burnt out now. Only going to AWA this year to be with the anime club I'm staff adviser for.

[Avenger]

As someone who managed to buy a ticket I'm happy, sure it sucks for others but these things happen sometimes.

Suuuuper easy to say where you're sitting. So point of the comment?

The "sucks for [you] but these things happen sometimes" bit would probably be better said as something like "This is the awful reality of the horrible state of ticket sales for popular live events: It's a crap shoot and the odds of getting tickets to a popular event are stacked in favor of professional ticket brokers rather than fans. Unfortunately Fan Fest seems to have crossed the threshold into undersupply/overdemand hell where it's almost impossible for normal people to get tickets - and apparently this took SE completely by surprise, as well as many fans who had no trouble getting tickets to the last FanFest, which took hours to sell out. It would be nice if SE would try to do something to fix the obvious issues, but it is a hard problem to solve overall - as you can see from trying to get tickets to almost any popular convention, concert, etc.."

I'd suggest that there are a lot of things SE could do to try to fix the problem and also to compensate the many disappointed fans who were crushed by ShowClix Ticket Queue (Savage).

[Melchar]

For other conventions where you can't get tickets, offsite events are often a popular alternative and are sometimes better than the "real" thing.

Also some regional fan meetups might be pretty cool as well.

I gotta say, I really like your pragmatic thinking. However, I think until the issue of the sale is addressed with some more transparency and empathy than we saw a few pages ago people will be fixated on the sale rather than on-site solutions.

Thank you for sharing these great ideas .

[Lainmyst]

I have said my personal piece of how I, along with many were cheated out of a ticket we should be in possession of. Today I felt a deep sadness over this mess not just for myself but mostly for all the others who missed out on the 2018 FF!4 Fan Festival. Which now if nothing is done should be called the Fan Wake instead. My sadness is even deeper then it normally would but for the knowledge that many fine and even great cosplay artists, who spent probably one-two years pouring their hearts and souls into the best costume they could make. Of course hoping to be in the contest and even winning. Now those dreams have been dashed by a broken ticket system and cheaters. If you, SE, choose to go the easy route and do nothing about this then this will be a very sad fan fest. All your best fans will now regard you with no trust but only that you only seem to care about the $$ and not the players. What would Yoshi think of this mess? If you don't fix this and figure out a way to cancel the current tickets without hurting those who were legit and lucky enough to get a ticket, then sell them again to us with a vastly improved and secure system then this will be your permanent legacy! I know this post is buried in many pages of comments, I hope you take the time to read this and know this will be a permanent stain on this game and SE and all the Devs who worked so hard to make this a great game.