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Fair ticket selling methods for large conventions

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Posts

  • PurpleSkyPurpleSky Registered User regular
    rnicoll wrote: »
    You may be interested to know that Apple's WWDC 2013 sold out in 2 minutes: http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/04/apples-wwdc-2013-tickets-sold-out-in-a-record-two-minutes/

    So it could be worse, I think is the message there.

    This was an interesting read. This kinda proves that PA is doing the right thing by not announcing when registration opens. However, Apple seems kind of dumb for not increasing space. They can easily increase the amount of people allowed to go (it's only 5000!) by either moving or opening a new one. PAX doesn't have the luxury of increasing space so there needs to be another PAX :)

  • PurpleSkyPurpleSky Registered User regular
    PurpleSky wrote: »
    rnicoll wrote: »
    You may be interested to know that Apple's WWDC 2013 sold out in 2 minutes: http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/04/apples-wwdc-2013-tickets-sold-out-in-a-record-two-minutes/

    So it could be worse, I think is the message there.

    After reading this similar article http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/04/can-apple-revamp-the-wwdc-ticket-system-does-it-want-to/, their situation really is worse ha ha. Boy am I glad Apple doesn't run PAX.

  • a5ehrena5ehren AtlantaRegistered User regular
    PurpleSky wrote: »
    rnicoll wrote: »
    You may be interested to know that Apple's WWDC 2013 sold out in 2 minutes: http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/04/apples-wwdc-2013-tickets-sold-out-in-a-record-two-minutes/

    So it could be worse, I think is the message there.

    This was an interesting read. This kinda proves that PA is doing the right thing by not announcing when registration opens. However, Apple seems kind of dumb for not increasing space. They can easily increase the amount of people allowed to go (it's only 5000!) by either moving or opening a new one. PAX doesn't have the luxury of increasing space so there needs to be another PAX :)

    Apple is going to stream all the sessions online for free if you're already a registered developer with one of their App Store programs.

  • schussschuss Registered User regular
    I saw something interesting on one group of concerts recently - Only release the passes at the event, requiring a slide of the original CC to verify. There's already queue rooms and a lot of the infrastructure to support this, and it would 100% prevent scalping.

    Still though, I think a limited presale or something would be great.

  • PhyphorPhyphor Building Planet Busters Tasting FruitRegistered User regular
    edited April 2013
    schuss wrote: »
    I saw something interesting on one group of concerts recently - Only release the passes at the event, requiring a slide of the original CC to verify. There's already queue rooms and a lot of the infrastructure to support this, and it would 100% prevent scalping.

    Still though, I think a limited presale or something would be great.

    Again, this only matters if done on entry every time or sufficiently randomly that it has high coverage. Scalpers will still be able to pick up their passes, then go outside and sell them

    A single-entry event is a much different beast than a multiple-entry event

    Phyphor on
  • silence1186silence1186 Character shields down! As a wingmanRegistered User regular
    So apparently Khoo combed through the purchases and is refunding people he suspects of being scalpers? And there will be a small second batch of tickets sometime in the future.

    Source

  • schussschuss Registered User regular
    Making scalpers go to pick everything up and wait in that line would drastically cut down on time vs. profit, as the line to get in would likely take an hour or two to get through on the first day. One of the keys to defeating scalping is to make it such a pain in the ass for them to do it that passes would have to be worth $1000 for them to do it en masse.
    Doing the pass scan would eliminate non-local scalpers, as well as those who just do it on their free time vs. being a job. Especially if you limit passes given to being in the line, so the scalper can't pick up the 4 at once.

  • PhyphorPhyphor Building Planet Busters Tasting FruitRegistered User regular
    That assumes they're not going to be in the front of the line in the first place though. It would be much harder to do non-local though, true. The scalper would have to mail a prepaid CC used to buy those tickets with instead, which would be annoying. But as for picking up a bunch at once, bring some friends and say you ordered for all of them

  • rnicollrnicoll Registered User regular
    So apparently Khoo combed through the purchases and is refunding people he suspects of being scalpers? And there will be a small second batch of tickets sometime in the future.

    Emphasis on small, there, but I certainly would expect this. There's probably also transactions that didn't complete in the end, and generally other random things that will free up tiny number of tickets.

  • Jebus314Jebus314 Registered User regular
    I wonder if they will repeat the whole tweet/first in line for the tiny second sale. At this point I would almost rather they just gave those tickets away or something. The false hope will be such a slap in the face for people who didn't get in the first time for the same reasons.

    "The world is a mess, and I just need to rule it" - Dr Horrible
  • DracilDracil Registered User regular
    edited April 2013
    So one thing different from PAX (and a lot of similar cons) and other cons/concerts is that it has day badges instead of whole-event badges, and I think this is an important distinction when comparing PAX to other events. With cons/events that only have whole-event badges, or where they are the primary choice amongst con-goers, with Y capacity, and X attendees, X tends to be about the same as Y. But PAX, and other multi-day cons really have a capacity of Y capacity * Z days. So if we can somehow limit the number of days attendees can go to to only 1-2 days (either by price, or by limiting you to a single day during purchase, (not including the gray market)), we can make X closer to Y*Z attendees, instead of the current Y number.

    Dracil on
    3DS: 2105-8644-6304
    Switch: US 1651-2551-4335 JP 6310-4664-2624
    MH3U Monster Cheat Sheet / MH3U Veggie Elder Ticket Guide
  • The EnderThe Ender Registered User regular
    edited April 2013
    This was an interesting read. This kinda proves that PA is doing the right thing by not announcing when registration opens. However, Apple seems kind of dumb for not increasing space. They can easily increase the amount of people allowed to go (it's only 5000!) by either moving or opening a new one. PAX doesn't have the luxury of increasing space so there needs to be another PAX :)

    Increasing venue space isn't often as good a solution as you might think. You have to arrange a new deal with a new property owner/manager, you lose the previous relationship (or damage it, anyway), you'll alienate some part of your attendee base (because 'it's just not as good as it used to be!'), it's expensive, and at the end of the day you're probably going to sell out quickly anyway and have roughly the same amount of bitching.

    Satellite conventions tend to be better solutions, because they address the core problem (too many people wanting access to a limited service). But you've got to expand management of your company in order to set those up, and that can have it's own issues.

    The Ender on
    With Love and Courage
  • mcdermottmcdermott Registered User regular
    The Ender wrote: »
    This was an interesting read. This kinda proves that PA is doing the right thing by not announcing when registration opens. However, Apple seems kind of dumb for not increasing space. They can easily increase the amount of people allowed to go (it's only 5000!) by either moving or opening a new one. PAX doesn't have the luxury of increasing space so there needs to be another PAX :)

    Increasing venue space isn't often as good a solution as you might think. You have to arrange a new deal with a new property owner/manager, you lose the previous relationship (or damage it, anyway), you'll alienate some part of your attendee base (because 'it's just not as good as it used to be!'), it's expensive, and at the end of the day you're probably going to sell out quickly anyway and have roughly the same amount of bitching.

    Satellite conventions tend to be better solutions, because they address the core problem (too many people wanting access to a limited service). But you've got to expand management of your company in order to set those up, and that can have it's own issues.

    Also, as somebody pointed out in the other thread, some of the "product" of a con like this doesn't scale. Go ahead, find a place that has double the capacity. Publishers aren't going to pay for double the booth space. Which means now you're in a four hour line to play some new game, instead of two.

  • MortiousMortious The Nightmare Begins Move to New ZealandRegistered User regular
    Phyphor wrote: »
    It's not so much that it's hard, but if you don't know the vendor's system in advance then there might be glitches at the start

    That's pretty much it.

    Unless you have access to the system before hand, automating it is pretty much impossible.

    Using last year's system can give you a head start, but one more page/different options/dialog pop-up and the entire thing falls over.

    This is assuming PA uses their own site for selling tickets, and not a 3rd party one though.

    Move to New Zealand
    It’s not a very important country most of the time
    http://steamcommunity.com/id/mortious
  • DracilDracil Registered User regular
    edited April 2013
    mcdermott wrote: »
    The Ender wrote: »
    This was an interesting read. This kinda proves that PA is doing the right thing by not announcing when registration opens. However, Apple seems kind of dumb for not increasing space. They can easily increase the amount of people allowed to go (it's only 5000!) by either moving or opening a new one. PAX doesn't have the luxury of increasing space so there needs to be another PAX :)

    Increasing venue space isn't often as good a solution as you might think. You have to arrange a new deal with a new property owner/manager, you lose the previous relationship (or damage it, anyway), you'll alienate some part of your attendee base (because 'it's just not as good as it used to be!'), it's expensive, and at the end of the day you're probably going to sell out quickly anyway and have roughly the same amount of bitching.

    Satellite conventions tend to be better solutions, because they address the core problem (too many people wanting access to a limited service). But you've got to expand management of your company in order to set those up, and that can have it's own issues.

    Also, as somebody pointed out in the other thread, some of the "product" of a con like this doesn't scale. Go ahead, find a place that has double the capacity. Publishers aren't going to pay for double the booth space. Which means now you're in a four hour line to play some new game, instead of two.

    Well, you could have double the publishers instead. I'm assuming many companies get turned away due to lack of space.

    More likely scenario is that the constraining factor is the number of hours in a day to see everything. See: Comiket, which has 500,000-560,000 attendees and 35,000 sellers.

    Dracil on
    3DS: 2105-8644-6304
    Switch: US 1651-2551-4335 JP 6310-4664-2624
    MH3U Monster Cheat Sheet / MH3U Veggie Elder Ticket Guide
  • DehumanizedDehumanized Registered User regular
    edited April 2013
    Dracil wrote: »
    mcdermott wrote: »
    The Ender wrote: »
    This was an interesting read. This kinda proves that PA is doing the right thing by not announcing when registration opens. However, Apple seems kind of dumb for not increasing space. They can easily increase the amount of people allowed to go (it's only 5000!) by either moving or opening a new one. PAX doesn't have the luxury of increasing space so there needs to be another PAX :)

    Increasing venue space isn't often as good a solution as you might think. You have to arrange a new deal with a new property owner/manager, you lose the previous relationship (or damage it, anyway), you'll alienate some part of your attendee base (because 'it's just not as good as it used to be!'), it's expensive, and at the end of the day you're probably going to sell out quickly anyway and have roughly the same amount of bitching.

    Satellite conventions tend to be better solutions, because they address the core problem (too many people wanting access to a limited service). But you've got to expand management of your company in order to set those up, and that can have it's own issues.

    Also, as somebody pointed out in the other thread, some of the "product" of a con like this doesn't scale. Go ahead, find a place that has double the capacity. Publishers aren't going to pay for double the booth space. Which means now you're in a four hour line to play some new game, instead of two.

    Well, you could have double the publishers instead. I'm assuming many companies get turned away due to lack of space.

    More likely scenario is that the constraining factor is the number of hours in a day to see everything. See: Comiket, which has 500,000-560,000 attendees and 35,000 sellers.

    There was available exhibitor space (admittedly on the less desirable 6th floor) for PAX Prime 2012. All of the major publishers were represented, and a pretty large number of development studios came with their own booths. Anyone who didn't come wasn't interested. For example Blizzard came in 2012, but skipped 2011 because it was close to BlizzCon. Atlus didn't come because they don't want to devote money to sending people to trade shows.

    Dehumanized on
  • PhyphorPhyphor Building Planet Busters Tasting FruitRegistered User regular
    Yeah they totally could have squeezed more devs in if they wanted to, the upper floor exhibits were almost roomy

  • RedwingedblackbirdRedwingedblackbird Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    Darkewolfe wrote: »
    There's some sort of "real fan" one-upsmanship going on here.

    Anyone who is willing to buy a ticket and go to a convention about Penny Arcade is a fan. They may express their fandom by frequenting the forums, or maybe they just bought a poster and have it over their ping pong table. Either way, just because people hang out on the forums doesn't make us any more significant or important fans of the larger Penny Arcade brand. We're just bigger fans of the forums, which G&T have very specifically distanced themselves from.

    Agreed
    This whole idea that forum members, or any other arbitrary group, should get special access to badges is just elitism... Lets have all the people on one cherrry picked forum get passes first... because you're not a "real fan" unless you're on the PA forums? Meanwhile G&T make an effort to distance themselves from that very same group. Inclusiveness is one of the things that sets PAX apart from other gaming cons like E3. I could make the same argument for cosplayers... maybe cosplayers should get special access to badges, before those average joes that aren't hard core enough fans to cosplay? The goal should be to allow more people to attend PAX, who can't... Not make it even harder to get a badge by giving arbitrary group special access.

  • DedwrekkaDedwrekka Metal Hell adjacentRegistered User regular
    edited May 2014
    Didn't see the dates, whoops

    Dedwrekka on
  • DedwrekkaDedwrekka Metal Hell adjacentRegistered User regular
    edited May 2014
    Not adding any more to this threadomancy

    Dedwrekka on
This discussion has been closed.