It's a shame that the didn't really announce the sale except on Twitter, as Twitter is blocked from work and I only heard about it from my wife. Then a comedy of errors (slow text messages from her to me, her phone not properly refreshing the website, etc.) caused us to only be able to get Sunday passes. At least my streak of being to every single PAX Prime is still alive, but I'm super dissapointed. As sad as it sounds, I'd feel a lot better if they'd announced it ahead of time. That way, at least I could have tried my best to get in, even if my best wasn't good enough.
This age where so much news is coming on Twitter only really sucks for working at places that block it.
It's a shame that the didn't really announce the sale except on Twitter, as Twitter is blocked from work and I only heard about it from my wife. Then a comedy of errors (slow text messages from her to me, her phone not properly refreshing the website, etc.) caused us to only be able to get Sunday passes. At least my streak of being to every single PAX Prime is still alive, but I'm super dissapointed. As sad as it sounds, I'd feel a lot better if they'd announced it ahead of time. That way, at least I could have tried my best to get in, even if my best wasn't good enough.
This age where so much news is coming on Twitter only really sucks for working at places that block it.
But... if you have your cell phone on you, then you have twitter? Even if you don't have a smartphone. I don't check twitter, but I have Official_PAX set to mobile alert any time that account posts.
It didn't give me enough time to get 4-day passes, but I was at least able to see all four 1-day passes.
flatline on
East 2014 Status: Badge [ Friend got it ] Hotel [Crappy] BYOC [YES] Transport [ ] Name on Forum Badge [ ] Challenge Coin [ ]
Yes, also partially my bad, as I turned that off during PAX East and never turned it back on.
But I was also on the front page of the site coincidentally about an hour after tickets had started to sell, expecting there to be a notification there if anything was going on.
The only reason I knew to pay attention today for the passes is because the PAX Prime site put up the button yesterday and a friend pointed out that fact. There was no prewarning from the Twitter or anything that "hey, Passes are going on sale tomorrow at X am" or anything, it was basically "oh hey, they went on sale 10 minutes ago" from the twitter, so only the browser refresh warriors got in the second they were available and 5m after the twitter post the 4 day passes were gone. The amount of communication is completely and totally shit and the fact they "don't want" to have physical pass pickup or raise the prices or anything that'd make it less of a terrible clusterfuck is not an excuse.
I only managed to get my tickets because I was bad while at work and HAPPENED to glance at my phone the very second I got the text from the PAX twitter page (I was text-following their tweets). Even then, I only managed to snag 4 single day passes for every day. Although reading how people could only go Sunday, Monday, etc, I feel lucky even for that.
Erg. Got the twitter message right in the middle of a loved one's funeral. Definitely wasn't able to snag a 4-day, and a singular Monday just doesn't seem worth it. I've been stalking the PAX site since January too Why can't we get some advanced notice? At least I could've prepared for disappoinent. What a horrible day... Will returned passes go on sale at a scheduled date or is it more of a luck thing where they show up immediately upon cancellation?
(also got screwed out of SDCC tickets, despite sitting in the queue RIGHT when they went up. This is just not my year!)
Names at registration, a very difficult process to change them, and waves of ticket sales. Was there not one person who thought these things might be ideas to consider?
It's a pretty big "fuck you" in the face of everyone who is currently ticket-less to execute sales without tiniest shred of consideration or care. I guess you guys sold out in the first hour, so congratulations. From a business standpoint you're the best! From every other standpoint you're just negligent. Cons happen all of the time, and the popular ones prepare. Fuck this, I'm real mad.
Names are useless unless you're checking IDs a lot
Really? Once, when you get the ticket with your name on it. Really??
That's going to be an epic lineup since you can't mail them if you do that. In any case, scalper goes with his friends to pick up the passes and all the names check out. Then turns around and sells them exactly like normal
The only reason I knew to pay attention today for the passes is because the PAX Prime site put up the button yesterday and a friend pointed out that fact. There was no prewarning from the Twitter or anything that "hey, Passes are going on sale tomorrow at X am" or anything, it was basically "oh hey, they went on sale 10 minutes ago" from the twitter, so only the browser refresh warriors got in the second they were available and 5m after the twitter post the 4 day passes were gone. The amount of communication is completely and totally shit and the fact they "don't want" to have physical pass pickup or raise the prices or anything that'd make it less of a terrible clusterfuck is not an excuse.
The thinking, at least partially, is this - the "Scalpers", although smaller in number than our "Heroes", clearly have more resources available for their nefarious purposes - any type of announcement benefits them asymmetrically. They can start setting up proxies, alternate IP addresses, and whatever else they're doing to game the system. By randomly opening the registration on a Tuesday and tweeting about it slightly *after* doing so, it is democratically the "fairest" way in the mind of the organizers.
East 2014 Status: Badge [ Friend got it ] Hotel [Crappy] BYOC [YES] Transport [ ] Name on Forum Badge [ ] Challenge Coin [ ]
The only reason I knew to pay attention today for the passes is because the PAX Prime site put up the button yesterday and a friend pointed out that fact. There was no prewarning from the Twitter or anything that "hey, Passes are going on sale tomorrow at X am" or anything, it was basically "oh hey, they went on sale 10 minutes ago" from the twitter, so only the browser refresh warriors got in the second they were available and 5m after the twitter post the 4 day passes were gone. The amount of communication is completely and totally shit and the fact they "don't want" to have physical pass pickup or raise the prices or anything that'd make it less of a terrible clusterfuck is not an excuse.
The thinking, at least partially, is this - the "Scalpers", although smaller in number than our "Heroes", clearly have more resources available for their nefarious purposes - any type of announcement benefits them asymmetrically. They can start setting up proxies, alternate IP addresses, and whatever else they're doing to game the system. By randomly opening the registration on a Tuesday and tweeting about it slightly *after* doing so, it is democratically the "fairest" way in the mind of the organizers.
Anyone who is trying is already scraping the pax website every few minutes for changes, they'll be in minutes after the changes go live, long before any announcements
There has to be a better way than what just happened. Guess I'll be enjoying Seattle for the weekend and nerding out on Friday and Monday. Got weekend passes last year and there was no chance this year. I'd actually love to see a system that you could sign up at the 2013 PAX (actually attended-not just purchased and flipped tickets) for early priority for the next year. There should be some sort of priority for people who actually attend the event for loyalty.
I am quite thankful for being able to attend, but disappointed in the inability of being able to grab all 4 days.
I'm sorry for those who couldn't get the 4 day pass or specific days they wanted. But I'm sure if you are in town that weekend, you can pick up same day passes or pro-rated 4 day passes from Craiglist. I've done that for the past 3 years and got face value on the day of.
No guarantees, but with so many tickets out there, there are some bound to be sold for face value at the convention center.
Also, people need to stop trashing PAX about how the tickets are being sold. They are trying their best to be fair, make it convenient, and ensure that they get paid to run this thing. It's not easy organizing this and it will be impossible to please everyone.
I'm sorry to all of you that couldn't get 4 days worth of passes. To everyone getting upset; let's all take a deep breath. PAX still seems more community involved than any of these other cons. This system seems far different than last years from what I've heard, so these mistakes aren't through a lack of effort. PAX is still a relative pup at this, and its explosive growth the last few years has lead to growing pains. It's a learning experience, and who hear doubts they'll try to do better next year?
Today's debacle was fucking bullshit. I got in the queue an hour after it opened (by luck no less, there was no warning whatsoever that tickets were about to go on sale) and still didn't get the passes I needed. By the time I got through, only Monday was available.
There's something very very wrong happening when the only people who can manage to get to go to PAX without shelling out to scalpers are the devout few who keep an every present eye on the twitter or who resort to using bots. I've been lucky in years past but seriously, this shit needs to change somehow.
It's even more wrong that you're not the only person here with that issue. Multiple people have reported getting into the queue very early without having it pop until others who got in line later than them got to buy their tickets first. Such a clusterfuck.
Well I got into the queue right away and waited about 10 mins, selected 4 day badges and poof they were gone by checkout. Ended up buying two sets of single day tickets for my friend and I. Meanwhile, my friend sat in queue for 50 minutes before giving up, so I tried again and was instantly at the purchase screen. Why is it that some people waited hours while I could go right in? I tested it again later and had no problem getting in. Also, that 8 minute timer really screwed some people (mine counted to zero before the successful purchase page came up).
My friends and I have attended Pax Prime every year for the last 7 years. This year my friend Shane who normally buys our tickets logged on minutes after tickets went on sale. he kept getting an error code 502..like the web page timed out..so when I found out that tickets were on sale I logged into the queue room right away. After waiting 3+ hours in the queue room only Monday tickets were left. Shane flies down from out of state to go to Pax. He has already paid for his flight and found a place to stay. So unless we are going to pay ebay scalpers huge amounts of money, we are all stuck with just one day. Here are the little things that get me about this. I follow the Pax twitter and there should have been a small heads up like even 12 hours, just something small like "hey tickets are going on sale tomorrow" but no there was nothing. Then the company they are using for registration seems to be incompetent. People who queued up after me seemed to be checking out before me. at least according to the forums I have read and the people I have talked to. Plus lots of people seem to be having an error code 502 issue. I hate to be that person...you know....but I look forward to this all year... and now I get to go for only one day this year. For someone who has gone every year for 7 years I feel like my loyalty has been overlooked. My friends and I did everything right to get our tickets and but we were still unable to buy them when we should have been able to. We did not even mind buying the 4 one day tickets spending an extra 30 dollars each. I feel like every year sales for Pax just get worse, and I know that there are more people who are attending...I get that but there should be something for loyal pax goers.. an early heads up..,, the ability to buy tickets early... maybe even a phone number to call and buy the tickets if error code 502 keeps popping up...just something.
Why was Saturday SO much more popular than the other days, especially with no schedule announced? Saturday single day sold out very fast compared to the other days and its the only day I could not get.
Why was Saturday SO much more popular than the other days, especially with no schedule announced? Saturday single day sold out very fast compared to the other days and its the only day I could not get.
If I would have to guess, I would say some people wanted Friday+Saturday, and some people wanted Saturday+Sunday, making Saturday sell out faster.
Why was Saturday SO much more popular than the other days, especially with no schedule announced? Saturday single day sold out very fast compared to the other days and its the only day I could not get.
It's the sandwich day. In years past it was the only day that really lasts all day, though Sunday functions the same way now. There were a couple years where Saturday was the only day worth going
Why was Saturday SO much more popular than the other days, especially with no schedule announced? Saturday single day sold out very fast compared to the other days and its the only day I could not get.
It's always the most popular day? People don't have to take any work off for it. They can stay up late Saturday because the next day is Sunday. Saturday is balls-to-the-wall gaming/action - no closing up early, no catching transport out of town. Pick a reason.
flatline on
East 2014 Status: Badge [ Friend got it ] Hotel [Crappy] BYOC [YES] Transport [ ] Name on Forum Badge [ ] Challenge Coin [ ]
Why was Saturday SO much more popular than the other days, especially with no schedule announced? Saturday single day sold out very fast compared to the other days and its the only day I could not get.
Probably cause that's the day that most people aren't busy, and it's the weekend lol. Locals could be working on Friday and Monday.
Why was Saturday SO much more popular than the other days, especially with no schedule announced? Saturday single day sold out very fast compared to the other days and its the only day I could not get.
It's the middle of the weekend. It's also been traditionally when some of the more popular panels happen (wil wheaton for example).
Why was Saturday SO much more popular than the other days, especially with no schedule announced? Saturday single day sold out very fast compared to the other days and its the only day I could not get.
Friday: People work
Saturday: Everybody is free
Sunday: People go to church. Also, Sunday is traditionally the last day of PAX, so a lot of people traditionally skip it. Also, a lot of people will take Sunday to explore Seattle or fly home rather than go to PAX
Monday: Labour Day, a new day to the schedule, but basically it's the new Sunday i.e. shorter hours, less swag, etc.
Well, 2 years in a row now I'm gotten screwed by some BS ticketing process. Last year, the ticketing system went down and I wasn't able to get my tickets before they pulled everything down and then everything sold out really quickly when they finally put things back up.
This year, zero announcement of tickets going on sale - you just had to happen to be on Twitter within a few minutes of them tweeting it out and then you had to have your credit card info ready and at least an hour of free time to sit at a computer waiting/hoping for your queue to pop. I got into the queue in hopes that I would be able to get in contact with my fiancee who has the credit card info because I personally didn't have the money right this second (if they went on sale next week or if they announced WHEN they were going to go on sale, this wouldn't be a problem). But she was on a flight when the tickets went on sale and when the queue popped so by the time I got through, an hour after 4-day passes sold out, I wasn't able to buy any tickets. I was hoping for a Paypal option just in case, but no. So, I've never been and 2 years in a row now I feel like I've been screwed out of my chance to go by really poor planning and announcement of ticket sales.
What is wrong with announcing ahead of time when the tickets will go on sale so people can prepare and not get blindsided in the middle of the day? What is wrong with releasing a block of tickets a week for a month so people have multiple chances to get tickets? What is wrong with requiring ID that matches a name on a ticket so scalpers aren't posting tickets for 400-500% markup MINUTES after tickets sell out? It's like they've intentionally tried to make as many people feel screwed out of a chance to go to PAX as possible.
My fiancee and I were hoping to go to PAX as part of our honeymoon too since we're getting married the weekend before but this is now the second year in a row I'm really disappointed and really pissed off that this is the best the minds behind PAX can come with for ticket sales.
I'm sorry to all of you that couldn't get 4 days worth of passes. To everyone getting upset; let's all take a deep breath. PAX still seems more community involved than any of these other cons. This system seems far different than last years from what I've heard, so these mistakes aren't through a lack of effort. PAX is still a relative pup at this, and its explosive growth the last few years has lead to growing pains. It's a learning experience, and who hear doubts they'll try to do better next year?
I'm not going to make excuses for them this year.
There were discussions after the quick sellout last year.
Clearly the "solution" decided upon this year didn't work.
Trying to do better simply isn't enough when you have people looking forward to things months(years in some cases) in advance.
That being said, i'm still going to East next year no matter what, but Prime clearly needs to change locations, and/or find a better system for handling ticket sales.
Why was Saturday SO much more popular than the other days, especially with no schedule announced? Saturday single day sold out very fast compared to the other days and its the only day I could not get.
It's the middle of the weekend. It's also been traditionally when some of the more popular panels happen (wil wheaton for example).
I hear that if you say Wil Wheaton three times, he'll appear.
2015 PAX Prime: Badge(s) [ ] Transportation [ ] Hotel [ ] TWDT replacement [ ] Party Pants [ ]
TWDT Slytherin Death Eater - 2012
TWDT Slytherin Death Eater - 2013
TWDT Slytherin Death Eater - 2014
Before you spout any more b.s, why do you not try a forum search and read the discussions from the prior year.
Yes, this year was f*ck$d because of the queue issue; that is up to Penny Arcade to determine how to deal with it.
But all of your "ideas" WERE discussed in prior year.
Educate yourself before you continue whining.
Please, oh please link me to this. I'd love to see the reasoning. I've searched, but I don't really give enough fucks to search for the unicorn thread that talks about why tickets waves and person-specific ticket purchases are a bad idea.In fact, I think you're a liar. Hell, could you sum up the main points for me real quick? "It's too much work" and "Any system can be gamed" don't count... Go!
Before you spout any more b.s, why do you not try a forum search and read the discussions from the prior year.
Yes, this year was f*ck$d because of the queue issue; that is up to Penny Arcade to determine how to deal with it.
But all of your "ideas" WERE discussed in prior year.
Educate yourself before you continue whining.
Please, oh please link me to this. I'd love to see the reasoning. I've searched, but I don't really give enough fucks to search for the unicorn thread that talks about why tickets waves and person-specific ticket purchases are a bad idea.In fact, I think you're a liar. Hell, could you sum up the main points for me real quick? "It's too much work" and "Any system can be gamed" don't count... Go!
I'm sorry to all of you that couldn't get 4 days worth of passes. To everyone getting upset; let's all take a deep breath. PAX still seems more community involved than any of these other cons. This system seems far different than last years from what I've heard, so these mistakes aren't through a lack of effort. PAX is still a relative pup at this, and its explosive growth the last few years has lead to growing pains. It's a learning experience, and who hear doubts they'll try to do better next year?
I'm not going to make excuses for them this year.
There were discussions after the quick sellout last year.
Clearly the "solution" decided upon this year didn't work.
Trying to do better simply isn't enough when you have people looking forward to things months(years in some cases) in advance.
That being said, i'm still going to East next year no matter what, but Prime clearly needs to change locations, and/or find a better system for handling ticket sales.
They obviously do. But they seemed to think the queue would help streamline the server load. It didn't. I don't envy the folks who have to manage a system like this. Until the system is under the strain of 100k requests you don't know what will happen. There is no way they went into it knowing what would happen, and pushing through anyway. Look at the vitriol they're getting here and on twitter. You can't tell me they didn't try to avoid that.
If you're not following the PAX twitter feed and having it send you tweets through SMS, you're doing it wrong.
This is the exact instruction that was told to me the first time I asked "How do I get tickets to PAX?". Like, first response. And it worked flawlessly.
+3
TalskarVideo Game Something-or-OtherMontanaRegistered Usernew member
I survived the queue t-shirts.. just ordered mine LOL
The reviews are hilarious
"Got this in white basic style. It did shrink more than most, but still fits. Seems to be wearing well. My son wears this shirt every time it comes out of the wash!"
The only reason I knew to pay attention today for the passes is because the PAX Prime site put up the button yesterday and a friend pointed out that fact. There was no prewarning from the Twitter or anything that "hey, Passes are going on sale tomorrow at X am" or anything, it was basically "oh hey, they went on sale 10 minutes ago" from the twitter, so only the browser refresh warriors got in the second they were available and 5m after the twitter post the 4 day passes were gone. The amount of communication is completely and totally shit and the fact they "don't want" to have physical pass pickup or raise the prices or anything that'd make it less of a terrible clusterfuck is not an excuse.
I agree, it wasn't enough of a zerg rush to get tickets as it was.
Face it, there's no good solution here as long as the number of tickets is limited to what it is now. It doesn't matter if you do it in waves, or announce some things ahead of time, or raise the price, or fight scalpers, or whatever. Ultimately, X people will want in, and Y people will actually get in.
Do it in waves? So now you have more chances to get in, but each chance is smaller, the end result chance is the same.
Announce ahead of time? Then the servers crash even harder when the floodgates open, ultimately just as many people get tickets.
Raise the price? Now it's "easier" to get tickets...if you have the cash to spare. Don't have enough money? Too bad, now the poor are left out.
Eliminate scalpers? You realize scalpers eventually sell to regular people who want in, right? They don't keep the tickets to themselves. Getting rid of scalpers would make things more fair price-wise, of course, but it wouldn't magically result in more total tickets to go around.
+1
Spud387Man of InactionVancouver, BC, CanadaRegistered Userregular
If you're not following the PAX twitter feed and having it send you tweets through SMS, you're doing it wrong.
^ This.
If you are on these forums and are not doing this, I can't see how "I happened to see they went on sale X time later" is a valid excuse.
Based on last year, we knew the demand would be HIGH so you should have (I did) taken steps to ensure you were as ready as possible. Still not a guarantee, but at least at that point you could say you did all you could.
Erg. Got the twitter message right in the middle of a loved one's funeral. Definitely wasn't able to snag a 4-day, and a singular Monday just doesn't seem worth it. I've been stalking the PAX site since January too Why can't we get some advanced notice? At least I could've prepared for disappoinent. What a horrible day... Will returned passes go on sale at a scheduled date or is it more of a luck thing where they show up immediately upon cancellation?
(also got screwed out of SDCC tickets, despite sitting in the queue RIGHT when they went up. This is just not my year!)
I am SO sorry to hear that.That is horrible. Perhaps you could find one on ebay, or talk to friends you know about how to obtain a ticket? I'm sending mental hugs.
Raise the price? Now it's "easier" to get tickets...if you have the cash to spare. Don't have enough money? Too bad, now the poor are left out.
Even assuming the tickets went up in price by double, saying that you're "Leaving out the poor" is the worst excuse I've heard.
The price of hotel rooms in the area far outstrip the price of tickets. Never mind the travel prices for the out of townees.
So, if the system spots multiple orders with the same queue ID, it should be easy to cancel them all after the fact. Assuming the queue ID is saved with the order, of course.
How is that any more fair to those of us who were able to complete a couple different legitimate purchases? I'm not a scalper. All the passes I bought are for actual people, who then bailed on their queue (freeing up a spot for you).
I hope you're not suggesting I (and my friends) be punished because I didn't know I was jumping the line?
The only reason I knew to pay attention today for the passes is because the PAX Prime site put up the button yesterday and a friend pointed out that fact. There was no prewarning from the Twitter or anything that "hey, Passes are going on sale tomorrow at X am" or anything, it was basically "oh hey, they went on sale 10 minutes ago" from the twitter, so only the browser refresh warriors got in the second they were available and 5m after the twitter post the 4 day passes were gone. The amount of communication is completely and totally shit and the fact they "don't want" to have physical pass pickup or raise the prices or anything that'd make it less of a terrible clusterfuck is not an excuse.
I agree, it wasn't enough of a zerg rush to get tickets as it was.
Face it, there's no good solution here as long as the number of tickets is limited to what it is now. It doesn't matter if you do it in waves, or announce some things ahead of time, or raise the price, or fight scalpers, or whatever. Ultimately, X people will want in, and Y people will actually get in.
Do it in waves? So now you have more chances to get in, but each chance is smaller, the end result chance is the same.
Announce ahead of time? Then the servers crash even harder when the floodgates open, ultimately just as many people get tickets.
Raise the price? Now it's "easier" to get tickets...if you have the cash to spare. Don't have enough money? Too bad, now the poor are left out.
Eliminate scalpers? You realize scalpers eventually sell to regular people who want in, right? They don't keep the tickets to themselves. Getting rid of scalpers would make things more fair price-wise, of course, but it wouldn't magically result in more total tickets to go around.
Posts
This age where so much news is coming on Twitter only really sucks for working at places that block it.
^This is like the ball pit at Chuck E Cheese's^
Edited because I was out of line in my tone.
But... if you have your cell phone on you, then you have twitter? Even if you don't have a smartphone. I don't check twitter, but I have Official_PAX set to mobile alert any time that account posts.
It didn't give me enough time to get 4-day passes, but I was at least able to see all four 1-day passes.
But I was also on the front page of the site coincidentally about an hour after tickets had started to sell, expecting there to be a notification there if anything was going on.
There were many mistakes involved in the process.
^This is like the ball pit at Chuck E Cheese's^
(also got screwed out of SDCC tickets, despite sitting in the queue RIGHT when they went up. This is just not my year!)
That's going to be an epic lineup since you can't mail them if you do that. In any case, scalper goes with his friends to pick up the passes and all the names check out. Then turns around and sells them exactly like normal
The thinking, at least partially, is this - the "Scalpers", although smaller in number than our "Heroes", clearly have more resources available for their nefarious purposes - any type of announcement benefits them asymmetrically. They can start setting up proxies, alternate IP addresses, and whatever else they're doing to game the system. By randomly opening the registration on a Tuesday and tweeting about it slightly *after* doing so, it is democratically the "fairest" way in the mind of the organizers.
Anyone who is trying is already scraping the pax website every few minutes for changes, they'll be in minutes after the changes go live, long before any announcements
I am quite thankful for being able to attend, but disappointed in the inability of being able to grab all 4 days.
No guarantees, but with so many tickets out there, there are some bound to be sold for face value at the convention center.
Also, people need to stop trashing PAX about how the tickets are being sold. They are trying their best to be fair, make it convenient, and ensure that they get paid to run this thing. It's not easy organizing this and it will be impossible to please everyone.
It's even more wrong that you're not the only person here with that issue. Multiple people have reported getting into the queue very early without having it pop until others who got in line later than them got to buy their tickets first. Such a clusterfuck.
Why was Saturday SO much more popular than the other days, especially with no schedule announced? Saturday single day sold out very fast compared to the other days and its the only day I could not get.
If I would have to guess, I would say some people wanted Friday+Saturday, and some people wanted Saturday+Sunday, making Saturday sell out faster.
It's the sandwich day. In years past it was the only day that really lasts all day, though Sunday functions the same way now. There were a couple years where Saturday was the only day worth going
It's always the most popular day? People don't have to take any work off for it. They can stay up late Saturday because the next day is Sunday. Saturday is balls-to-the-wall gaming/action - no closing up early, no catching transport out of town. Pick a reason.
Probably cause that's the day that most people aren't busy, and it's the weekend lol. Locals could be working on Friday and Monday.
Friday: People work
Saturday: Everybody is free
Sunday: People go to church. Also, Sunday is traditionally the last day of PAX, so a lot of people traditionally skip it. Also, a lot of people will take Sunday to explore Seattle or fly home rather than go to PAX
Monday: Labour Day, a new day to the schedule, but basically it's the new Sunday i.e. shorter hours, less swag, etc.
This year, zero announcement of tickets going on sale - you just had to happen to be on Twitter within a few minutes of them tweeting it out and then you had to have your credit card info ready and at least an hour of free time to sit at a computer waiting/hoping for your queue to pop. I got into the queue in hopes that I would be able to get in contact with my fiancee who has the credit card info because I personally didn't have the money right this second (if they went on sale next week or if they announced WHEN they were going to go on sale, this wouldn't be a problem). But she was on a flight when the tickets went on sale and when the queue popped so by the time I got through, an hour after 4-day passes sold out, I wasn't able to buy any tickets. I was hoping for a Paypal option just in case, but no. So, I've never been and 2 years in a row now I feel like I've been screwed out of my chance to go by really poor planning and announcement of ticket sales.
What is wrong with announcing ahead of time when the tickets will go on sale so people can prepare and not get blindsided in the middle of the day? What is wrong with releasing a block of tickets a week for a month so people have multiple chances to get tickets? What is wrong with requiring ID that matches a name on a ticket so scalpers aren't posting tickets for 400-500% markup MINUTES after tickets sell out? It's like they've intentionally tried to make as many people feel screwed out of a chance to go to PAX as possible.
My fiancee and I were hoping to go to PAX as part of our honeymoon too since we're getting married the weekend before but this is now the second year in a row I'm really disappointed and really pissed off that this is the best the minds behind PAX can come with for ticket sales.
I'm not going to make excuses for them this year.
There were discussions after the quick sellout last year.
Clearly the "solution" decided upon this year didn't work.
Trying to do better simply isn't enough when you have people looking forward to things months(years in some cases) in advance.
That being said, i'm still going to East next year no matter what, but Prime clearly needs to change locations, and/or find a better system for handling ticket sales.
I hear that if you say Wil Wheaton three times, he'll appear.
TWDT Slytherin Death Eater - 2012
TWDT Slytherin Death Eater - 2013
TWDT Slytherin Death Eater - 2014
Please, oh please link me to this. I'd love to see the reasoning. I've searched, but I don't really give enough fucks to search for the unicorn thread that talks about why tickets waves and person-specific ticket purchases are a bad idea.In fact, I think you're a liar. Hell, could you sum up the main points for me real quick? "It's too much work" and "Any system can be gamed" don't count... Go!
Have fun.
They obviously do. But they seemed to think the queue would help streamline the server load. It didn't. I don't envy the folks who have to manage a system like this. Until the system is under the strain of 100k requests you don't know what will happen. There is no way they went into it knowing what would happen, and pushing through anyway. Look at the vitriol they're getting here and on twitter. You can't tell me they didn't try to avoid that.
I survived the queue t-shirts.. just ordered mine LOL
This is the exact instruction that was told to me the first time I asked "How do I get tickets to PAX?". Like, first response. And it worked flawlessly.
The reviews are hilarious
"Got this in white basic style. It did shrink more than most, but still fits. Seems to be wearing well. My son wears this shirt every time it comes out of the wash!"
Face it, there's no good solution here as long as the number of tickets is limited to what it is now. It doesn't matter if you do it in waves, or announce some things ahead of time, or raise the price, or fight scalpers, or whatever. Ultimately, X people will want in, and Y people will actually get in.
Do it in waves? So now you have more chances to get in, but each chance is smaller, the end result chance is the same.
Announce ahead of time? Then the servers crash even harder when the floodgates open, ultimately just as many people get tickets.
Raise the price? Now it's "easier" to get tickets...if you have the cash to spare. Don't have enough money? Too bad, now the poor are left out.
Eliminate scalpers? You realize scalpers eventually sell to regular people who want in, right? They don't keep the tickets to themselves. Getting rid of scalpers would make things more fair price-wise, of course, but it wouldn't magically result in more total tickets to go around.
If you are on these forums and are not doing this, I can't see how "I happened to see they went on sale X time later" is a valid excuse.
Based on last year, we knew the demand would be HIGH so you should have (I did) taken steps to ensure you were as ready as possible. Still not a guarantee, but at least at that point you could say you did all you could.
Attended: PAX Prime 2010/'11/'12/'13/'14
I am SO sorry to hear that.That is horrible. Perhaps you could find one on ebay, or talk to friends you know about how to obtain a ticket? I'm sending mental hugs.
Even assuming the tickets went up in price by double, saying that you're "Leaving out the poor" is the worst excuse I've heard.
The price of hotel rooms in the area far outstrip the price of tickets. Never mind the travel prices for the out of townees.
How is that any more fair to those of us who were able to complete a couple different legitimate purchases? I'm not a scalper. All the passes I bought are for actual people, who then bailed on their queue (freeing up a spot for you).
I hope you're not suggesting I (and my friends) be punished because I didn't know I was jumping the line?
Twitch: akThera
Steam: Thera
Is that logic? What are you doing here?