Barcodes are a good idea I think. It complicates the system a little bit but a little bit of work can go a long way. For example, I bought 4 passes. As it is, I just give 3 passes to my group. With the barcode system I would have to register them specifically by name, not a big deal. But if for some reason someone can't go and we find a substitute, then there needs to be a system in place to transfer passes to someone else's name. But it really isn't anything a customer service phone call couldn't handle right?
Well with the show being sold out and me out of my 5 friends is the only one who gotta pass looks like I'm gonna sell mine, as for PAX 2013 move it to the Los Angeles Convention center where they hold E3 and the LA auto show a lot bigger then Seattle's
Dudes. It took 22 days last time. This year it took less than a day. people have the right to be a bit miffed. People expected it would take 10-15 days to sell out, not hours. If you where in classes or where working you where out of luck.
I was in class last week when they went on sale for a few hours and got my ticket then. I was also in class this week when they went on sale and had the opportunity to buy again (which I didn't need to), but managed to snag one of the few hotel rooms at the Homewood. Both thanks to twitter.
Dudes. It took 22 days last time. This year it took less than a day. people have the right to be a bit miffed. People expected it would take 10-15 days to sell out, not hours. If you where in classes or where working you where out of luck.
They thought wrong. Every year there are people who say "BUT IT SOLD OUT AT X TIME LAST YEAR, I DIDN'T GET A BADGE!" Yes it's worse this year, but there's ALWAYS complaining about how it's selling out faster and faster each year. Anyone that thinks they know how long it will take to sell out a popular event is ALREADY WRONG.
This is exactly why I made 4 reminders on my phone to remind me to check every 2 hours during the work day if passes were available yet. Luckily it worked and I got my 3 day. Next year I will definitely be doing the same thing based off what happened this year (and last since I barely got last years).
Well with the show being sold out and me out of my 5 friends is the only one who gotta pass looks like I'm gonna sell mine, as for PAX 2013 move it to the Los Angeles Convention center where they hold E3 and the LA auto show a lot bigger then Seattle's
Where you conveniently already live, haha. Everyone always wants PAX to move to their backyard!
It's like, take a census of last years numbers and then, multiply it by like a 25% growth that next year, and make those passes, and make them available closer to Game Time. So turds like me can go and have happy time. Now I will not go and no. I will not get over it.
Except the convention center has a maximum capacity, a hard limit on the number of people that can attend. Finite amount of space means there is a set amount of people who can attend before it becomes a safety hazard.
Not only that, but the lines to demo some of the hotter games is already horrendously bad. Last year, there was a 3 hour wait to demo Skyrim and Old Republic, for example. Simply cramming more people into the box isn't a good solution.
Its true. I recall the previous year and how it wasn't enjoyable waiting 2+ hours to play a 5 minute demo of a game or needing to appear hours in advance to sit on the floor til the next panel. Really I'm just disappointed that the event can no longer be obtained without camping for tickets. PAX had become my yearly vacation. Almost a ritual of flying people out a few days ahead of time to see Portland, then Seattle, PAX, then wrapping up with a bunch of the board games we purchased back in Vancouver. Now I feel like we've been pushed out for not being extreme enough in devotion when purchasing within the first week.
Well with the show being sold out and me out of my 5 friends is the only one who gotta pass looks like I'm gonna sell mine, as for PAX 2013 move it to the Los Angeles Convention center where they hold E3 and the LA auto show a lot bigger then Seattle's
Except we all saw how E3 ended up. Too big for its own good
As I remember years past there was an option for 2 day passes. If tickets are selling this fast why isn't the option for 2 days there? It seems to me that many of the problems those who did not get 3 day passes could be solved with a 2 day pass.
Dudes. It took 22 days last time. This year it took less than a day. people have the right to be a bit miffed. People expected it would take 10-15 days to sell out, not hours. If you where in classes or where working you where out of luck.
They thought wrong. Every year there are people who say "BUT IT SOLD OUT AT X TIME LAST YEAR, I DIDN'T GET A BADGE!" Yes it's worse this year, but there's ALWAYS complaining about how it's selling out faster and faster each year. Anyone that thinks they know how long it will take to sell out a popular event is ALREADY WRONG.
No doubt. But if they sold out 22x faster this year. That's orders of magnitude faster. No one was predicting that. I can imagine the penny arcade staff are pretty flabbergasted also.
It wouldn't hurt to start a facebook group for the trading tickets idea. Just so that it's easier to see who is who and you're tied to an account. Also you could see if that person just made an account that day and is trying to be sneaky. Let me know, I'll join the group. I was fortunate to have a friend in the industry offer me help to get badges. But I know that not even half of you are going to be able to do that which makes me sad.
I am going to report the people selling on CL or Ebay because they're selling something they don't even have in-hand. Which to ebay, is not what they want.
I think if they're going to keep the reg system like it is, perhaps totally getting rid of 3days would be more ideal, it would also help them not instantly meet capacity and use that as the main excuse for not having more badges. Just because someone buys a 3day does not mean they go all three days. They may just be buying it for the discount--which makes sense to me. But that puts the Con in a bind of having to claim that someone goes all three days (thus forcing the capacity rule). Either way, it's something to think about.
As I remember years past there was an option for 2 day passes. If tickets are selling this fast why isn't the option for 2 days there? It seems to me that many of the problems those who did not get 3 day passes could be solved with a 2 day pass.
Ever since PAX went to the 3 days, there hasn't been a 2-day pass.
Well with the show being sold out and me out of my 5 friends is the only one who gotta pass looks like I'm gonna sell mine, as for PAX 2013 move it to the Los Angeles Convention center where they hold E3 and the LA auto show a lot bigger then Seattle's
Where you conveniently already live, haha. Everyone always wants PAX to move to their backyard!
I lived in Portland for years and I was still living there, I'd still say LA or San Diego as they have the biggest Convention Centers on the west coast. You can't have these sell out in hours shabangs happening every year so next thing to do it relocate and those seem to be the best choices. As for the show in general this was the first year I didn't care to go for games I've been living all over the world since last PAX finally settled back in LA and friends from Portland all wanted to meet up for PAX and 2 from LA now that won't happen
i'm one of the unlucky many to wake up this morning in shock to find out that 3 day and sat badges were sold out. at first i was angry at not getting a 3 day badge but settled into a calm and picked up fri and sun badges.
this is an idea for local Pax attendees but i plan on going the day of on saturday and try my luck and buy from sellers outside the WSCC . . by that time they'd be desperate to sell passes the day of and with a fri/sun badge I can compare to make sure its not a fake.
i got a 3 day last year but i do remember seeing a ton of people trying desperately sell badges outside the WSCC. i dunno how much and what the rate of fake ones were to legit ones but i'd rather take a chance instead of paying 2x if not more from CL or Ebay
on a side note:
i am concerned at the rate and size pax is growing. . . i've stopped going to comicon because it just got too huge/crowded for me personally (i'm thankful Seattle has ECCC) i've been going to pax since 07 and the last 2 years was i started to get that overcrowded feeling about pax. it's really awesome for the PA guys and the gaming community as a whole to have such a great convention to go too but i do miss the sense that the convetion was for the fans not for the hype of it all.
I have been going to PAX since 2006 - so I have seen this event grow!
When an event becomes as popular as a Rolling Stones concert and it becomes a difficult pass to get. What does complaining about the difficulty, change the fact it has become as popular as a Rolling Stones concert?
There are three ways to get tickets to an evwnt: sweat, luck, or cash... Basically every suggestion here merely emphasizes one over another.
If you weren't signed up for sms twitter updates? Insudficient sweat. You were at work? At any point during the eight hours that all the one day badges were up did you call a friend or relative to buy them? Same. Like, there was almost certainly something you could have done to ensure you got them.
If you truly have no friends who could do this for you, or no way to make a phone call in an eight hour period? Then yeah, that sucks. But then thank god for scalpers, because you'd have probably wound up screwed anyway, at least now cash is still an option.
As long as the number who want to go exceeds capacity, this will happen. And earlier every year, even if demand doesn't grow....because last year's excluded show up earlier this year.. There's no fix, all you can do is decide which you want to emphasize...sweat, luck, or cash.
Right now the balance is actually pretty decent still.
I have been going to PAX since 2006 - so I have seen this event grow!
When an event becomes as popular as a Rolling Stones concert and it becomes a difficult pass to get. What does complaining about the difficulty, change the fact it has become as popular as a Rolling Stones concert?
So you are saying PAX needs to sabotage itself so people won't go so other people will go? Yo dawd I heard you don't like being killed by synthetics...
Oh, and there was no 1k tweet for Saturday badges. My group is pretty much done. I should have trusted my gut and just got some, but if you say you're going to do something, I sort of expect you to stay true to your word.
I don't believe that the PAX organizers said that they would tweet about quantities this year (if they did, what I'm saying obviously doesn't apply). It's been said multiple times now - do not base your plans for this year based on what happened last year. It's entirely possible and likely that the PAX staff were completely flabbergasted that the 3-Day passes sold out in 4.5 hours on Tuesday - based on last year's rates, someone was probably going to check inventory after 6-8 hours and post about it then, but obviously things went faster than even that expectation. I'm sure they will learn from it and improve for next year.
@official_pax 7:59PM May 12 - "@alrightydan We're still clear on those, I'll update when we get below 1k."
Yeah but we did everything right and still somehow missed it. Between three people organizing we camped the page every day. I'm ON twitter. Two of us were in lab and one of us was at the gym/commuting when they sold out.
Obviously even with a lot of technologically savvy people when the 3-days sold out we had to reconsult with 6 other people, and in that time the Saturday passes sold out.
Again, I understand I should have just followed my neurotic tendencies and bought three 1-days (as I did last year) as soon as the 3-days went but a lot of you are acting like if people were on the ball they wouldn't have missed out. If our group had even a full 24 hours to reconsider we could have all just bought the 1-days. Hell, if the proper 1k tweet had come up, I would have at least salvaged a smaller subgroup because I at least knew the other two organizers were committed.
Anyhow, it's all over now. I might just visit my friends in Seattle that weekend by myself and see if I can buy some scalped tickets. But the group is done.
mossey3535 on
0
Options
SkeleVaderYour Friendly Dark Lord of DestructionRegistered Userregular
There are three ways to get tickets to an evwnt: sweat, luck, or cash... Basically every suggestion here merely emphasizes one over another.
If you weren't signed up for sms twitter updates? Insudficient sweat. You were at work? At any point during the eight hours that all the one day badges were up did you call a friend or relative to buy them? Same. Like, there was almost certainly something you could have done to ensure you got them.
If you truly have no friends who could do this for you, or no way to make a phone call in an eight hour period? Then yeah, that sucks. But then thank god for scalpers, because you'd have probably wound up screwed anyway, at least now cash is still an option.
As long as the number who want to go exceeds capacity, this will happen. And earlier every year, even if demand doesn't grow....because last year's excluded show up earlier this year.. There's no fix, all you can do is decide which you want to emphasize...sweat, luck, or cash.
Right now the balance is actually pretty decent still.
This is spot on.
People need to realize they are not special, Pax is crazy popular and the staff simply can't make everyone happy.
This is exactly what I was thinking about when I said limit the number of badges sold per card to ONE.... If you have a child your purchasing for, there is things the site could do to accommodate for that with enough effort for sure, ALL those over the age of 18 could obtain a debit/CC or a prepaid visa card to purchase... so with one card, one ticket, one person and a barcode on the ticket or name, we could eliminate the problem that everyone did not get the "chance" to buy a ticket... it will make your friends/ family/ co workers (etc) actually put forth the effort needed to actually go to the event and give a fair option for everyone. Also releasing during work probably was not percieved as a problem for PAX folks guys... they lasted 3 weeks last time, this time 1000% faster lol Not your guys faults but limiting the number purchased per person would have slowed down the sell out process for sure and gave ample opportunity for all to have a chance to purchase without to many complaints
And your idea completely screws over any couple/family that has a joint bank account and no credit cards, only one debit card. It also effectively does nothing to a person such as myself, who has 13 personal credit cards and 2 more corporate cards I can use and just reimburse my company on.
you still would only have the ability to purchase 13 tickets not 65 that's a huge difference right there. Also it would screw over NO one... ANYONE can obtain a visa card from a 7-11, plaid pantry, circle k, wall-mart, etc. and as I mentioned there is easy ways to set up an option for all patrons under the age of 18, I have a ton of good ideas on this and would be happy to share them with the powers that be, BUT your point is very invalid... it would still drastically slow down the process of purchase greatly and give opportunities to all those involved to purchase at least a ticket for THEMSELVES.
There are three ways to get tickets to an evwnt: sweat, luck, or cash... Basically every suggestion here merely emphasizes one over another.
If you weren't signed up for sms twitter updates? Insudficient sweat. You were at work? At any point during the eight hours that all the one day badges were up did you call a friend or relative to buy them? Same. Like, there was almost certainly something you could have done to ensure you got them.
If you truly have no friends who could do this for you, or no way to make a phone call in an eight hour period? Then yeah, that sucks. But then thank god for scalpers, because you'd have probably wound up screwed anyway, at least now cash is still an option.
As long as the number who want to go exceeds capacity, this will happen. And earlier every year, even if demand doesn't grow....because last year's excluded show up earlier this year.. There's no fix, all you can do is decide which you want to emphasize...sweat, luck, or cash.
Right now the balance is actually pretty decent still.
This is spot on.
People need to realize they are not special, Pax is crazy popular and the staff simply can't make everyone happy.
I second that - welcome to reality... I wrote a script to txt me when there was any updates to the PAX mainpage - so I went with the sweat...
Has PAX thought about doing will-call tickets only? Rather than selling tickets on the second hand market, people could get a refund and they would be made available to others. That would prevent the issue of scalping online ahead of time/fake passes.
We got our tickets this year but it was really luck more than anything else.
So my birthday was two days ago and badges went on sale (again) yesterday. I didn't get wind of it until last night and can't believe that 3-day and Saturday badges are sold out . I am a sad puppy and just wanted to vent. I hope scalpers didn't buy half of them just to turn a quick buck. I hope the rest of you have fun without 2 of us!
BLaZuRE on
PAX West 2017 Checklist:
[X] Order Badges [X] Hotel [ X ] Flight [ X ] Time Off [ X ] Bobcat [ . ] Office Set [ . ] Challenge Coin [ . ] Sanity
There are three ways to get tickets to an evwnt: sweat, luck, or cash... Basically every suggestion here merely emphasizes one over another.
If you weren't signed up for sms twitter updates? Insudficient sweat. You were at work? At any point during the eight hours that all the one day badges were up did you call a friend or relative to buy them? Same. Like, there was almost certainly something you could have done to ensure you got them.
If you truly have no friends who could do this for you, or no way to make a phone call in an eight hour period? Then yeah, that sucks. But then thank god for scalpers, because you'd have probably wound up screwed anyway, at least now cash is still an option.
As long as the number who want to go exceeds capacity, this will happen. And earlier every year, even if demand doesn't grow....because last year's excluded show up earlier this year.. There's no fix, all you can do is decide which you want to emphasize...sweat, luck, or cash.
Right now the balance is actually pretty decent still.
This is spot on.
People need to realize they are not special, Pax is crazy popular and the staff simply can't make everyone happy.
I second that - welcome to reality... I wrote a script to txt me when there was any updates to the PAX mainpage - so I went with the sweat...
totally agree. . i for one didn't get a 3 day or sat but i'm not raging over it.
i didn't put in enought sweat, i don't have twitter but i tried to diligently check the sight at least once a day but on the day i forgot to check, it went live, luck failed me there. i got a fri and sun and gonna try luck and a little cash on the day of saturday.
if not, i'll go with hope and hopefully the M's are still competitive at that point, haha
There are three ways to get tickets to an evwnt: sweat, luck, or cash... Basically every suggestion here merely emphasizes one over another.
If you weren't signed up for sms twitter updates? Insudficient sweat. You were at work? At any point during the eight hours that all the one day badges were up did you call a friend or relative to buy them? Same. Like, there was almost certainly something you could have done to ensure you got them.
If you truly have no friends who could do this for you, or no way to make a phone call in an eight hour period? Then yeah, that sucks. But then thank god for scalpers, because you'd have probably wound up screwed anyway, at least now cash is still an option.
As long as the number who want to go exceeds capacity, this will happen. And earlier every year, even if demand doesn't grow....because last year's excluded show up earlier this year.. There's no fix, all you can do is decide which you want to emphasize...sweat, luck, or cash.
Right now the balance is actually pretty decent still.
This is spot on.
People need to realize they are not special, Pax is crazy popular and the staff simply can't make everyone happy.
Being special isn't the problem. This year's ticket sales pretty much put a nail in the coffin of group travel to the convention. As an individual I could have acquired my personal ticket/s but if we can't muster the majority of a 12+ group to be able to snag tickets before they are gone then we are going to have to just give up on PAX which has otherwise been our gathering each year. I'd rather not end up having to sell the 5 tickets I acquired for the group after I'm told no one else got any.
I will also say I'd be interested to see the sellout (and on sale) for previous years. I'd bet money if you plotted the shrinking on sale window, this was pretty predictable. Exampk: if it sells out in three months, then two, then one...well, next year expect a one day sellout.
Plotting it mathematically I bet a sellout period of less than five days was predictable, and the server meltdown (both giving warning to buyers and signaling demand) should have strongly hinted at a one day sellout when it came back up.
There is no BlizzCon this year. I don't think it's a coincidence that the PAX tickets sold out ~11,633% faster this year. BlizzCon usually sells out in less than an hour, though it is split into two releases and mostly on weekends.
My guess is people can only get time off/afford one major event a year, and when one big option disappears they switched to a reasonable alternative.
The goal should be to try to eliminate scalpers. Because, now that the word is out that you can make money from scalping passes, people are going to be scalping, either professionally or just to finance their travels.
I think there is a better solution. Or, at least I hope there is. You can't get rid of scalping, but you can deter it or make it enough of a hassle that it becomes difficult to do and not worth people's while.
Ticket scalping means you're getting sold an authentic ticket. That's a good thing. And if those tickets are being sold for many times above their retail price, that means someone who is very eager to go, actually got to go, who otherwise wouldn't have been able to! You know, like me.
The problem isn't scalping, it's the banning of it that creates black markets and fake badges. That's the bad stuff to be worried of (both the banning of resales and fake badges).
There is no BlizzCon this year. I don't think it's a coincidence that the PAX tickets sold out ~11,633% faster this year. BlizzCon usually sells out in less than an hour, though it is split into two releases and mostly on weekends.
My guess is people can only get time off/afford one major event a year, and when one big option disappears they switched to a reasonable alternative.
I totally forgot there was no BlizzCon this year. That could have some impact I guess
The thing that's difficult for me to accept/deal with is that Prime is starting to feel less like "Welcome Home", and more like "Huge Industry Show in Seattle!". I'm sure it's good for PAX overall, but I wonder if there's a community subset that might like a PAX Roots event that drags the emphasis back to getting a bunch of gamers together for three days of non-stop gaming and silliness.
As it stands, this might be my last Prime. I'll have to do some evaluation of my experience post-PAX to decide whether it's worth the amount of pain that 2013 is likely to be, or whether I'll be happier carting my PC rig to a hotel and locking myself in a room for three days of gaming instead.
The thing that's difficult for me to accept/deal with is that Prime is starting to feel less like "Welcome Home", and more like "Huge Industry Show in Seattle!". I'm sure it's good for PAX overall, but I wonder if there's a community subset that might like a PAX Roots event that drags the emphasis back to getting a bunch of gamers together for three days of non-stop gaming and silliness.
As it stands, this might be my last Prime. I'll have to do some evaluation of my experience post-PAX to decide whether it's worth the amount of pain that 2013 is likely to be, or whether I'll be happier carting my PC rig to a hotel and locking myself in a room for three days of gaming instead.
Back to Bellevue to relaunch Shadow-PAX? Bring back Sno-bawls?
Ok there have been multiple posts about PAX not "feeling" like PAX. Don't get all hipster on me now! Do industry shows have the number of free play areas and encourage people to strike up conversations and games with others?? THAT'S the difference.
No really, I'm asking bc I've never been to one. Do they? I have a feeling they don't.
No, it's really not. It certainly isn't fair to people who don't have the ability to be online during the day.
Is there a way to make it fair for everyone? Short of instituting some sort of ticket lottery, no, probably not.
Some people are like Slinkies. They have no practical use whatsoever,
but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs.
Yeah but we did everything right and still somehow missed it. Between three people organizing we camped the page every day. I'm ON twitter. Two of us were in lab and one of us was at the gym/commuting when they sold out.
Okay, I'm not trying to dogpile on you here, but all three of you were completely busy for the 4.5 hour span of time when the 3-Day passes were available? And then you needed another 24 hours to talk to everyone to buy the backup plan? That sounds like poor planning, unfortunately, which sucks but there's absolutely nothing that can be done about it. Discussion of what to do if 3-Days sold out should've happened when you set up the group - and that's exactly why I don't buy for a group.
My thoughts on multiple PAX locations throughout the country.... Rename "Prime". Because the word itself leads people to believe it's the "best" one, the one most worthy of spending your almighty vacation dollars, over PAX East (or PAX Central if they added that). Rename PAX Prime to PAX West and then you'll potentially reduce the number of people who pass up going to East because Prime is "better". Then make sure that all variations of PAX are equal (as much as possible). That will help spread the attendee load and give the impression that all locations of PAX are equally excellent.
Well with the show being sold out and me out of my 5 friends is the only one who gotta pass looks like I'm gonna sell mine, as for PAX 2013 move it to the Los Angeles Convention center where they hold E3 and the LA auto show a lot bigger then Seattle's
Where you conveniently already live, haha. Everyone always wants PAX to move to their backyard!
I lived in Portland for years and I was still living there, I'd still say LA or San Diego as they have the biggest Convention Centers on the west coast. You can't have these sell out in hours shabangs happening every year so next thing to do it relocate and those seem to be the best choices. As for the show in general this was the first year I didn't care to go for games I've been living all over the world since last PAX finally settled back in LA and friends from Portland all wanted to meet up for PAX and 2 from LA now that won't happen
And why can't you have these "sell out in a few hours shebangs" every year? Hmm? Cause you might not get in at face value of the ticket? THat's not a reason.
Again, your solution is to simply "cram more people into the box". Who cares if you can fit twice as many people in the LA convention center if it means waiting twice as long to play a game and the body odor stench is magnified by 2?
PAX and Seattle are inextricably linked. That's just how it is. Sure, maybe some people don't get to go, but a lot of people do. The total size of the convention is fine as it is. Heck, it might be a little *too* big in terms of headcount. If you want to wait 6 hours to do something, go buy a ticket to Six Flags.
As I remember years past there was an option for 2 day passes. If tickets are selling this fast why isn't the option for 2 days there? It seems to me that many of the problems those who did not get 3 day passes could be solved with a 2 day pass.
Ever since PAX went to the 3 days, there hasn't been a 2-day pass.
So wouldnt this be a prime time to make a switch to having 2 day passes again. And not that I fully remember, but I thought while doing the convention in Bellevue they had 2 day passes, and at that time it was still a 2 day event.
Was there a way that we could be notified when the tickets were going up for sale? I just visited the PAX site on a whim and found out I was a day late. I am incredibly disappointed that I wont be going, now.
Posts
I was in class last week when they went on sale for a few hours and got my ticket then. I was also in class this week when they went on sale and had the opportunity to buy again (which I didn't need to), but managed to snag one of the few hotel rooms at the Homewood. Both thanks to twitter.
This is exactly why I made 4 reminders on my phone to remind me to check every 2 hours during the work day if passes were available yet. Luckily it worked and I got my 3 day. Next year I will definitely be doing the same thing based off what happened this year (and last since I barely got last years).
Where you conveniently already live, haha.
Its true. I recall the previous year and how it wasn't enjoyable waiting 2+ hours to play a 5 minute demo of a game or needing to appear hours in advance to sit on the floor til the next panel. Really I'm just disappointed that the event can no longer be obtained without camping for tickets. PAX had become my yearly vacation. Almost a ritual of flying people out a few days ahead of time to see Portland, then Seattle, PAX, then wrapping up with a bunch of the board games we purchased back in Vancouver. Now I feel like we've been pushed out for not being extreme enough in devotion when purchasing within the first week.
Except we all saw how E3 ended up. Too big for its own good
No doubt. But if they sold out 22x faster this year. That's orders of magnitude faster. No one was predicting that. I can imagine the penny arcade staff are pretty flabbergasted also.
I am going to report the people selling on CL or Ebay because they're selling something they don't even have in-hand. Which to ebay, is not what they want.
I think if they're going to keep the reg system like it is, perhaps totally getting rid of 3days would be more ideal, it would also help them not instantly meet capacity and use that as the main excuse for not having more badges. Just because someone buys a 3day does not mean they go all three days. They may just be buying it for the discount--which makes sense to me. But that puts the Con in a bind of having to claim that someone goes all three days (thus forcing the capacity rule). Either way, it's something to think about.
Good luck gamers...hope you find a way to go!
Ever since PAX went to the 3 days, there hasn't been a 2-day pass.
I lived in Portland for years and I was still living there, I'd still say LA or San Diego as they have the biggest Convention Centers on the west coast. You can't have these sell out in hours shabangs happening every year so next thing to do it relocate and those seem to be the best choices. As for the show in general this was the first year I didn't care to go for games I've been living all over the world since last PAX finally settled back in LA and friends from Portland all wanted to meet up for PAX and 2 from LA now that won't happen
this is an idea for local Pax attendees but i plan on going the day of on saturday and try my luck and buy from sellers outside the WSCC . . by that time they'd be desperate to sell passes the day of and with a fri/sun badge I can compare to make sure its not a fake.
i got a 3 day last year but i do remember seeing a ton of people trying desperately sell badges outside the WSCC. i dunno how much and what the rate of fake ones were to legit ones but i'd rather take a chance instead of paying 2x if not more from CL or Ebay
on a side note:
i am concerned at the rate and size pax is growing. . . i've stopped going to comicon because it just got too huge/crowded for me personally (i'm thankful Seattle has ECCC) i've been going to pax since 07 and the last 2 years was i started to get that overcrowded feeling about pax. it's really awesome for the PA guys and the gaming community as a whole to have such a great convention to go too but i do miss the sense that the convetion was for the fans not for the hype of it all.
When an event becomes as popular as a Rolling Stones concert and it becomes a difficult pass to get. What does complaining about the difficulty, change the fact it has become as popular as a Rolling Stones concert?
If you weren't signed up for sms twitter updates? Insudficient sweat. You were at work? At any point during the eight hours that all the one day badges were up did you call a friend or relative to buy them? Same. Like, there was almost certainly something you could have done to ensure you got them.
If you truly have no friends who could do this for you, or no way to make a phone call in an eight hour period? Then yeah, that sucks. But then thank god for scalpers, because you'd have probably wound up screwed anyway, at least now cash is still an option.
As long as the number who want to go exceeds capacity, this will happen. And earlier every year, even if demand doesn't grow....because last year's excluded show up earlier this year.. There's no fix, all you can do is decide which you want to emphasize...sweat, luck, or cash.
Right now the balance is actually pretty decent still.
So you are saying PAX needs to sabotage itself so people won't go so other people will go? Yo dawd I heard you don't like being killed by synthetics...
Yeah but we did everything right and still somehow missed it. Between three people organizing we camped the page every day. I'm ON twitter. Two of us were in lab and one of us was at the gym/commuting when they sold out.
Obviously even with a lot of technologically savvy people when the 3-days sold out we had to reconsult with 6 other people, and in that time the Saturday passes sold out.
Again, I understand I should have just followed my neurotic tendencies and bought three 1-days (as I did last year) as soon as the 3-days went but a lot of you are acting like if people were on the ball they wouldn't have missed out. If our group had even a full 24 hours to reconsider we could have all just bought the 1-days. Hell, if the proper 1k tweet had come up, I would have at least salvaged a smaller subgroup because I at least knew the other two organizers were committed.
Anyhow, it's all over now. I might just visit my friends in Seattle that weekend by myself and see if I can buy some scalped tickets. But the group is done.
This is spot on.
People need to realize they are not special, Pax is crazy popular and the staff simply can't make everyone happy.
you still would only have the ability to purchase 13 tickets not 65 that's a huge difference right there. Also it would screw over NO one... ANYONE can obtain a visa card from a 7-11, plaid pantry, circle k, wall-mart, etc. and as I mentioned there is easy ways to set up an option for all patrons under the age of 18, I have a ton of good ideas on this and would be happy to share them with the powers that be, BUT your point is very invalid... it would still drastically slow down the process of purchase greatly and give opportunities to all those involved to purchase at least a ticket for THEMSELVES.
Staticwave Entertainment
AIM DJMLORD2001
I second that - welcome to reality... I wrote a script to txt me when there was any updates to the PAX mainpage - so I went with the sweat...
We got our tickets this year but it was really luck more than anything else.
[X] Order Badges [X] Hotel [ X ] Flight [ X ] Time Off [ X ] Bobcat [ . ] Office Set [ . ] Challenge Coin [ . ] Sanity
totally agree. . i for one didn't get a 3 day or sat but i'm not raging over it.
i didn't put in enought sweat, i don't have twitter but i tried to diligently check the sight at least once a day but on the day i forgot to check, it went live, luck failed me there. i got a fri and sun and gonna try luck and a little cash on the day of saturday.
if not, i'll go with hope and hopefully the M's are still competitive at that point, haha
Being special isn't the problem. This year's ticket sales pretty much put a nail in the coffin of group travel to the convention. As an individual I could have acquired my personal ticket/s but if we can't muster the majority of a 12+ group to be able to snag tickets before they are gone then we are going to have to just give up on PAX which has otherwise been our gathering each year. I'd rather not end up having to sell the 5 tickets I acquired for the group after I'm told no one else got any.
Plotting it mathematically I bet a sellout period of less than five days was predictable, and the server meltdown (both giving warning to buyers and signaling demand) should have strongly hinted at a one day sellout when it came back up.
My guess is people can only get time off/afford one major event a year, and when one big option disappears they switched to a reasonable alternative.
The problem isn't scalping, it's the banning of it that creates black markets and fake badges. That's the bad stuff to be worried of (both the banning of resales and fake badges).
I totally forgot there was no BlizzCon this year. That could have some impact I guess
As it stands, this might be my last Prime. I'll have to do some evaluation of my experience post-PAX to decide whether it's worth the amount of pain that 2013 is likely to be, or whether I'll be happier carting my PC rig to a hotel and locking myself in a room for three days of gaming instead.
Contributing writer at Marooner's Rock
Twitch broadcasting! Currently playing through Wing Commander: Privateer
Pinny Lanyard
Back to Bellevue to relaunch Shadow-PAX? Bring back Sno-bawls?
No really, I'm asking bc I've never been to one. Do they? I have a feeling they don't.
Is there a way to make it fair for everyone? Short of instituting some sort of ticket lottery, no, probably not.
but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs.
Okay, I'm not trying to dogpile on you here, but all three of you were completely busy for the 4.5 hour span of time when the 3-Day passes were available? And then you needed another 24 hours to talk to everyone to buy the backup plan? That sounds like poor planning, unfortunately, which sucks but there's absolutely nothing that can be done about it. Discussion of what to do if 3-Days sold out should've happened when you set up the group - and that's exactly why I don't buy for a group.
PAX Prime Attendee since 2006, BYOC Attendee 2008-2012, Buttoneer 2010-2014
https://www.pinnypals.com/pals/alegria
....but prime *is* better!
:P
And why can't you have these "sell out in a few hours shebangs" every year? Hmm? Cause you might not get in at face value of the ticket? THat's not a reason.
Again, your solution is to simply "cram more people into the box". Who cares if you can fit twice as many people in the LA convention center if it means waiting twice as long to play a game and the body odor stench is magnified by 2?
PAX and Seattle are inextricably linked. That's just how it is. Sure, maybe some people don't get to go, but a lot of people do. The total size of the convention is fine as it is. Heck, it might be a little *too* big in terms of headcount. If you want to wait 6 hours to do something, go buy a ticket to Six Flags.
So wouldnt this be a prime time to make a switch to having 2 day passes again. And not that I fully remember, but I thought while doing the convention in Bellevue they had 2 day passes, and at that time it was still a 2 day event.
Oh, sorry! I didn't mean to be so personal if that wasn't your view... XD
My point still stands, generally, of course. Sorry again!