Figure 5.5. Signed items from the Distant Worlds (2014) Meet & Greet
[Photographed by Ying-Ying Law]
Once items were signed, it was common for Final Fantasy fans to admire their signed possessions and post them on fan sites and forums. As mentioned earlier in this chapter, this illustrates Harris’s (1998) argument on fan collection, which suggests that objects can serve as a form of cultural capital in fandom – in particular, autographed copies that have high cultural capital. As Tidus (Group Interview: Final Fantasy Orchestral) states:
Researcher: What does it mean to get something signed?
Tidus: You get to meet someone who, like if you look at the early original soundtracks of 1 – 9 on the cover of the soundtrack it says written, produced and composed by Nobuo himself, so when you first have it its like ok yea. But when you meet him it's like, this one guy wrote all these arrangements, composed all of them and produced all of them by himself…. he probably didn’t do it all by himself but to get something you listen to, to meet the person and get him to sign it is like a stamp of approval… it just makes the soundtrack more nicer.
For Tidus (Group Interview: Final Fantasy Orchestral), he considered signed items to add sentimental value, such as a ‘stamp of approval’, which makes items appear ‘nicer’.
In addition, upon attending the VIP signing session, where I met Sephiroth (Interviewee: Final Fantasy Orchestral) and Rinoa Heartilly (Interviewee: Final Fantasy Orchestral), and they invited me to the Final Fantasy UK Fan group (closed group). This group distributed information on community forums to community members and often organised meet-ups; from Final Fantasy musical-related events, signing sessions, fan festivals and social gatherings.
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