NA Fanfest 2018 Debacle

[Awha]

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.

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.

[Effi]

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

[Cattibrie]

I had a similar experience to what Renato stated. I was logged into the site right when the tickets went live and had to use my emailed code.

I was in the queue for about thirty minutes when I got the the purchase screen. I got a screen that said "Sold Out". I thought it was a glitch, so I refreshed the page. I was concerned that refreshing would mess thing up but I got the option to select tickets but only gave me the option to buy zero or one ticket. I needed two tickets and took a chance to refresh the page again. This time I got the "Sold Out" message again. I was starting to get angry.

I refreshed the page several more times, about once every thirty seconds. I got the purchase page again and was able to get two tickets.

I really hope that SE is able to recover any scalped tickets and allow actual players to attend. The fanfest would be boring.
It is completely within reason for SE and Showclix to review purchase orders, there will be alot. They can check and see if any orders purchased more than the allotted four ticket max.
If any buyer did purchase more than four tickets. Void the complete transaction, which would refund the purchase and recirculate tickets to the players. With any tickets that become available this way require the use of an unused ticket code as previously sent out.

This my add more work to SE but they can monitor the new sales of the returned tickets to try and minimize problems. There is no way to completely stop all problems that can occur but they can at least try to block as much as possible.

[Jane_Ives]

My access code was useless. I waited in the ticket queue like so many others only for the tickets to sold out in mere minutes and not by legitimate, loyal fans of the game who actually play and subscribe to the game. If you check out the hashtags #RIPFFXIVFanFest#FFXIVFanFest #FFXIVFanFest2018 #mydreamsaredead#ileftworkearlyforthis on twitter, you'll see the many accounts of bots and other individuals having earlier access to the ticket queue website https://sqex.to/LSQ than everyone else had, bypassing of the queue altogether, individuals purchasing more than the 4-ticket limit, individuals purchasing tickets WITHOUT access codes and people bragging about re-selling tickets with supposed proof of it all over twitter. The press is starting to write about it as well https://www.runaroundnet.com/2018/07...v-players.html .

[T-of-the-Triad]

Adding my story. Took time from work to wait through the 30 minute queue. My fiance tried as well. Both of us got the SOLD OUT screen of doom. Time well spent, vacation plans dashed, and the spark of a terribly disappointing day. RIP.

[Avenger]

It would be nice if they could try to compensate all the disappointed people who queued exactly at 12pm but got nothing.

Here are some things they could consider to help compensate legitimate players who waited in the queue but got absolutely nothing:

• Offering free live streams of the event
• Offering merch purchases
• Offering in-game item purchases
• Offering Mog Station discounts (maybe kind of lame, but better than nothing?)
• Requiring re-verification for all existing ticket sales to make sure they went to legitimate players
• Allowing ticket returns before a certain date, to possibly free up more tickets
• Possibly having a secondary sale of returned or canceled tickets
• Supporting an alternate fan-organized event to supplement FanFest

I realize that some of these ideas (like opening up merch and in-game item purchases) might remove some of the exclusivity and bragging rights for the lucky few who got tickets, but since the ticket sale was such a mess and there were so many disappointed people (who got in the queue at 12 but got nothing) it seems fair to try to do something.

I also think the main advantage of attending FanFest in person is ... actually being there in person to hang out with players and the FFXIV developers!! And hearing Soken's awesome metal band (The Primals!!) in person!

[Dustytome]

• Offering free live streams of the event
• Offering in-game item purchases

Most of the event (minus the concert) is going to be streamed live for free and the in-game goodies will be available on the mogstation. (Source)

[Stormfur]

Who's really to blame though? SE for not making enough tickets available, or the ticket vendor site for not having the systems in place to thwart the scalpers/bots ? (I'm not trying to minimize SE's role in this at all, just completely gobsmacked that a ticket vendor would have such a toothpick-like infrastructure to try and manage what they should have realized would be a MASSIVE event).

[Stormfur]

Also, as if this wasn't a brilliant indicator of just how passionate fans of the series are, maybe SE should consider having a fanfest on the west coast, and one on the east coast. I hear New York and Boston are pretty well set up to handle these types of things.

[Matrinka]

I'd also vote for Orlando.