[News] Distant Worlds - new Final Fantasy concert series

Originally Posted by Arcubalis

VGL is a pretty special case. Meet and greets for commercial artists typically run how Distant Worlds/PLAY! runs, with premium ticketing. Think about it, yeah, the artist likes to see their fans, etc, but it must be pretty tiring sitting there for that long and not really having meaningful conversation with anyone. It's the same thing over and over again, you know?

Speaking as a video game composer and the person who has arranged over 40 video game concert meet & greets that have included over 250 industry people.... I can tell you that we all enjoy talking and listening to the fans who grace us with their presence. Lets face it... the video game industry hasn't exactly done a stellar job of focusing on the actual people who MAKE the games or music... so we've had to do it for ourselves. All of the game developers love the fact that they get a chance to meet the public in a way that is respecting their work, career and lives.

I perosonally believe it's an absolute travesty that some game concerts out there are changing people $125 - $150 to meet game composers. I can see if the industry was established so much that tens of thousands of people were selling out every show... then obviously you would need to somehow limit the number of people willing to attend the meet & greet (although when we played VGL at the Hollywood Bowl twice to over 11,000 people... we didn't).

When we play a normal show there are about 2,500 people in the audience. We find an average of about 800 - 1,000 people stay after for the meet & greet. It normally takes us about 2 - 3 hours to get through the entire line (and mostly because we have so many game industry people at our meet & greets).

Our goal has always been to spread the word about game music and game music composers to as many people as possible. I believe that by having a free meet & greet that our goals of exposing people to the talent of game music are being accomplished on a greater scale.

But hey... that's just me and my outlook. It's fine to have other opinions and to set concerts up in different ways. Just giving my opinion from someone who knows how cool it is to meet the fans interested enough to want to meet us.


Tommy



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Additional Spam:

Originally Posted by -=SeRaPH=-

Is VGL that special? I think what they do is a common courtesy and the right mind set

We had all our guests meeting all the composers and our musicians for our A Night in Fantasia concerts. Yes it's tiring, but at the same time rewarding. How often do composers get to hear their music live and greet fans?

Exactly!! I agree 100%!


Tommy

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Arcubalis

Don't take what I said as a complaint of any sort! I absolutely love what VGL does, and I think it's an impressive feat to get everyone there for 2-3 hours. I've gone through those lines, so I know first-hand how amazing it is.

I'm simply saying that I don't mind paying a premium to attend a meet and greet, since I also understand that's how it's done elsewhere in the industry, and I personally find it worth it.

Keep up the good work, Tommy. =)

No... not at all. I didn't think you were complaining. Just wanted to give my perspective and experience with other industry folks about having to sit for hours and meet the public. We all love it!

T.T.

There's nowhere I can't reach.