Something that I feel that PA should do, but may make quite a few people angry is have a poll. With 1 question that has 2 answers-
"Should we revoke all passes for 2013, and give everybody a refund, switch to a new ticket platform, and relaunch it in about 2 weeks?"
"-Yes"
"-No"...
You sir, are a silly goose if you think they're going to refund the over 1.5 million dollars they made in the last 5 hours.
nianiania on
2014 Tri-Wizard Drinking Tournament Hufflepuff: Death Eaters / Head of House
Something that I feel that PA should do, but may make quite a few people angry is have a poll. With 1 question that has 2 answers-
"Should we revoke all passes for 2013, and give everybody a refund, switch to a new ticket platform, and relaunch it in about 2 weeks?"
"-Yes"
"-No"...
You sir, are a moron if you think they're going to refund the over 1.5 million dollars they made in the last 5 hours.
"No one can attend on a monday?"
It's labor day...
I think what would help out a lot is to release the schedule before selling tickets. Personally I'll probably only attend 2 days. But I bought all 4 days because I have no clue what or when panels will be shown. If I knew which days I want to go, I'd buy JUST those days.
ummm if you got in before it was announced on twitter then it's not the only fair way to do it.
Why not? Because I checked the registration site, of my own volition, and saw tickets were up? Anyone can do that. That's what makes it fair. Arguably Twitter makes it less fair because those with a Twitter account have a better chance at getting in then those that don't.
Are there still countries where people are free to travel to Seattle but unable to sign up for Twitter?
If so, then you have a point.
If not, still fair, because everybody can choose to have Twitter. And have tweets from PAX forwarded to both email and phone.
This entire process is some pretty serious bullshit. I went two years ago, didn't get in last year, and have been waiting for tickets this year - no advance notice on the PAX site at all. If you don't tweet you don't have a chance, apparently.
This has become not fun, guys. Step up your game. There's more ill will about the lottery of getting in, than there is good will for attending what can be a really fun event.
I won't be trying to buy tickets any time in the future, it's just not worth it.
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!
Oh wow... After reading that I am no longer confused as to why we have what we have this year. No one knows what the fuck they're talking about, and anyone with real data (PA themselves) are completely silent. Seriously, it's a thread of speculation that results in absolutely nothing because no one of importance was there to comment, moderate or care.
What I got out of that was everyone had some ideas (see this thread), everyone stated both negative and positives about them and at page 14 it suddenly stopped because it wasn't going anywhere. The "Oh well it'll always suck for someone" won out in lieu of actually doing something about the problem! Thus, here we are. We end up here with this impossibly lame brained system for distributing tickets with ZERO hinderances or checks for scalpers, ZERO consideration for anyone unavailable at 11AM on a random Tuesday, and ZERO real thought. Great. Talking sure is fun, let's do it again next year after this happens again.
Seriously, defending the current system or citing that thread at all can really only mean one thing... you already got your ticket.
Remember that this is not a customer support forum. If you want to talk directly to the people at PAX, email them. Or fill out the post-pax survey. They get read. People wanting to talk about it on the forum are just talking about it on a forum.
I agree. I usually go the first day and a half, then sell off the remain part of my pass.
It has gotten to be too much of the Expo Hall, but I still love it (and I am a swag wh*re, even if it is crappy swag!) I like the sights/sounds, but it is too much.
Plus with this year being the launch of the PS4/Xbox next, it is going to be crazy with video game stuff.
0
EvilBadmanDO NOT TRUST THIS MANRegistered Userregular
Cant afford scalper prices? Be more on the ball next year.
This is a thing that you actually said. I was on the ball, in the queue seconds after the tweet and the four day passes evaporated.
You cannot even begin to try and rationalize the agony of going through the queue, or sitting on twitter waiting for a sporadic ticket opening announcement.,when you yourself don't even go through it because you have a free pass.
Something that I feel that PA should do, but may make quite a few people angry is have a poll. With 1 question that has 2 answers-
"Should we revoke all passes for 2013, and give everybody a refund, switch to a new ticket platform, and relaunch it in about 2 weeks?"
"-Yes"
"-No"
I'm not usually this harsh, but that's a STUPID idea. Everyone who didn'tget a pass will vote yes, everyone who did will vote no. As pointed out, there are far more people who want to go to PAX than PAX can hold. So by default, all passes will always be revoked and a different set of arbitrary people get to go.
Yeah, that's like asking all the lottery losers if that week's lottery should be invalidated and run again (until they win, of course).
ummm if you got in before it was announced on twitter then it's not the only fair way to do it.
Why not? Because I checked the registration site, of my own volition, and saw tickets were up? Anyone can do that. That's what makes it fair. Arguably Twitter makes it less fair because those with a Twitter account have a better chance at getting in then those that don't.
Are there still countries where people are free to travel to Seattle but unable to sign up for Twitter?
If so, then you have a point.
If not, still fair, because everybody can choose to have Twitter. And have tweets from PAX forwarded to both email and phone.
China blocks Twitter.
Assassin's Ball, Prime '13: @CowboyVerse
TWDT '13: HufflepuffOotP
I dont understand why they dont just announce when they will sell tickets and release them in batches instead of just releasing all of them at once at an unspecified time that catches people that really want to go off guard.
Because, as has been said over and over, most of the tickets sold are STILL going to people that really want to go. Put a date on the registration and they'll sell out even faster, AND you'll have a much larger server load, resulting in even more people missing out because of site glitches.
I've said it repeatedly in this thread, this thread's cousin from last year, and the linked D&D thread:
X people want to go. Capacity is Y. X>>Y.
Nothing anybody suggests will change this. At all. Ever. Well, aside from changing the con to make X smaller I suppose, but do we want to do that? Until then, every suggestion...every last one...is for the purpose of taking passes from one fan and giving them to another. Period. Even scalped passes. Because a scalped pass is exactly what I'd be buying if I hadn't been able to get mine from the site, after fighting with the fuckawful ticket agent today.
EDIT: X>>Y. Repeat it until it sinks in, seriously. There is no solution.
True. Last year though IIRC they had enforcers available to look over badges before sales. Since they couldn't stop it, they could make it safer.
And seriously, if you think it should cost more and don't care if it's in Seattle anymore....
GO. TO. EAST.
It doesn't sell out nearly as quickly. Once it leaves Seattle, Prime is no longer Prime, it's just PAX <wherever>.
I don't believe I ever said it should cost more or that they should leave Seattle. Prices, from the PAX site, are reasonable and I want it to stay in Seattle. You're right, Prime wouldn't be Prime if it was in another city.
Since I would have to fly no matter which PAX I attended, I guess East actually is my, and other people's, best shot.
Cant afford scalper prices? Be more on the ball next year.
This is a thing that you actually said. I was on the ball, in the queue seconds after the tweet and the four day passes evaporated.
You cannot even begin to try and rationalize the agony of going through the queue, or sitting on twitter waiting for a sporadic ticket opening announcement.,when you yourself don't even go through it because you have a free pass.
@EvilBadman
I dont work the event anymore, you must have missed my announcement in the past (Took a promotion at work, cant comitt to working PAX. Infact I have to work EVERY DAY of PAX from my hotel this year, or drive to work). I bought passes just like everybody else. If you want to give me a free pass feel free :P
Also if you missed the 4day passes you could still get the singles.
ummm if you got in before it was announced on twitter then it's not the only fair way to do it.
Why not? Because I checked the registration site, of my own volition, and saw tickets were up? Anyone can do that. That's what makes it fair. Arguably Twitter makes it less fair because those with a Twitter account have a better chance at getting in then those that don't.
Are there still countries where people are free to travel to Seattle but unable to sign up for Twitter?
If so, then you have a point.
If not, still fair, because everybody can choose to have Twitter. And have tweets from PAX forwarded to both email and phone.
China blocks Twitter.
Does China freely issue visas for tourists to come to the U.S.? Honest question, not something I'm familiar with, I assumed anywhere with a government that would block twitter wouldn't necessarily allow free travel abroad.
Here are some ideas that could help:
1. More all-days passes, fewer individual-day passes. Clearly most people want to buy passes for all days.
2. Instead of per-event all-days passes, you'd buy a "PAX 2014" pass. This is tied to your name and good for one PAX event. So for the most part, people near Seattle would go to PAX Prime and people near Boston would go to PAX East. People going to both impacts the capacity of both.
3. You must pick up tickets at will-call with the buyer's ID or the credit card purchased with. This would not prevent day-of scalpers, but would prevent the online scalping we're seeing now.
Cant afford scalper prices? Be more on the ball next year.
This is a thing that you actually said. I was on the ball, in the queue seconds after the tweet and the four day passes evaporated.
You cannot even begin to try and rationalize the agony of going through the queue, or sitting on twitter waiting for a sporadic ticket opening announcement.,when you yourself don't even go through it because you have a free pass.
Out of curiosity, why does 4 day tickets selling out quickly matter? It's a $25 difference. Would I rather have one pass just for convenience? Sure. But as far as "getting to go to the con and have a good time" is concerned, singles work just as well as 4 days. I always consider Saturday selling out to be the serious milestone.
Buttoneer, Brigadeer, and Keeper of the Book of Wil Wheaton.
Triwizard Drinking Tournament - '09 !Hufflepuff unofficial conscript, '10 !Gryffindor
Nerd blog at culturalgeekgirl.com
True. Last year though IIRC they had enforcers available to look over badges before sales. Since they couldn't stop it, they could make it safer.
And seriously, if you think it should cost more and don't care if it's in Seattle anymore....
GO. TO. EAST.
It doesn't sell out nearly as quickly. Once it leaves Seattle, Prime is no longer Prime, it's just PAX <wherever>.
I don't believe I ever said it should cost more or that they should leave Seattle. Prices, from the PAX site, are reasonable and I want it to stay in Seattle. You're right, Prime wouldn't be Prime if it was in another city.
Since I would have to fly no matter which PAX I attended, I guess East actually is my, and other people's, best shot.
EDIT: I wasn't responding to you with that then. Were you the one talking about the fake passes? If so only the first line was in reply to you. Another poster specifically said PAX needs to charge more and move.
mcdermott on
0
EvilBadmanDO NOT TRUST THIS MANRegistered Userregular
Cant afford scalper prices? Be more on the ball next year.
This is a thing that you actually said. I was on the ball, in the queue seconds after the tweet and the four day passes evaporated.
You cannot even begin to try and rationalize the agony of going through the queue, or sitting on twitter waiting for a sporadic ticket opening announcement.,when you yourself don't even go through it because you have a free pass.
I dont work the event anymore, you must have missed my announcement in the past (Took a promotion at work, cant comitt to working PAX. Infact I have to work EVERY DAY of PAX from my hotel this year, or drive to work). I bought passes just like everybody else. If you want to give me a free pass feel free :P
Also if you missed the 4day passes you could still get the singles.
Point remains that "fuck you, got mine" is a shitty attitude.
I dont understand why they dont just announce when they will sell tickets and release them in batches instead of just releasing all of them at once at an unspecified time that catches people that really want to go off guard.
Because, as has been said over and over, most of the tickets sold are STILL going to people that really want to go. Put a date on the registration and they'll sell out even faster, AND you'll have a much larger server load, resulting in even more people missing out because of site glitches.
You missed the point entirely. The batch system is not a fix for scalpers, it's a fix for the uneven distribution of tickets among buyers that happened today. The batch idea is to allow the greatest number of different people to get tickets. The way it works now the only people who got them were people who were free at 11AM on a random Tuesday. Great for them, but really? How can you possibly say that giving a weeks notice and putting them on sale a week apart in three diverse batches (Weekends, evenings, etc.) would be a bad idea? It's more work on their end, but it allows everyone a chance... Not just people free at 11AM on a random Tuesday.
Server load would decrease with each batch, and coupled with some system to check for scalpers (i.e. Personalized badges) would be a whole hell of a lot better for the customer than this slapdash bullshit.
Cant afford scalper prices? Be more on the ball next year.
This is a thing that you actually said. I was on the ball, in the queue seconds after the tweet and the four day passes evaporated.
You cannot even begin to try and rationalize the agony of going through the queue, or sitting on twitter waiting for a sporadic ticket opening announcement.,when you yourself don't even go through it because you have a free pass.
I dont work the event anymore, you must have missed my announcement in the past (Took a promotion at work, cant comitt to working PAX. Infact I have to work EVERY DAY of PAX from my hotel this year, or drive to work). I bought passes just like everybody else. If you want to give me a free pass feel free :P
Also if you missed the 4day passes you could still get the singles.
Point remains that "fuck you, got mine" is a shitty attitude.
Hey I am now free to have a shitty attitude if I so choose cause my words are my own, but in reality I didnt say "Fuck you, got mine", I was offering a valid suggestion to those who didnt get passes. The street market is still there for passes. Once they ship out to everybody (also close to the event when people decide they cant go) the price plummets to about 1.25x face value. paying an extra $50 or so is better than not going and is not that much in the grand scheme of things (plane, hotel, food)
ummm if you got in before it was announced on twitter then it's not the only fair way to do it.
Why not? Because I checked the registration site, of my own volition, and saw tickets were up? Anyone can do that. That's what makes it fair. Arguably Twitter makes it less fair because those with a Twitter account have a better chance at getting in then those that don't.
Are there still countries where people are free to travel to Seattle but unable to sign up for Twitter?
If so, then you have a point.
If not, still fair, because everybody can choose to have Twitter. And have tweets from PAX forwarded to both email and phone.
China blocks Twitter.
Does China freely issue visas for tourists to come to the U.S.? Honest question, not something I'm familiar with, I assumed anywhere with a government that would block twitter wouldn't necessarily allow free travel abroad.
To be honest, I'm not entirely sure. Depends on what your definition of "free issue" is I suppose. I have heard that they involve a long wait, but they don't seem difficult to obtain for short stays. I know of a couple instances where friends of my parents would come to the U.S. to visit and do some sightseeing, but don't really know the details. I do know that their trip was completely recreational.
In fact, after doing some quick Googling, it looks like there are ways to access Twitter in China, but you can get in serious trouble for it...
kemikal on
Assassin's Ball, Prime '13: @CowboyVerse
TWDT '13: HufflepuffOotP
This may as well be the "oh no!" thread. And maybe the passive aggressive jealousy thread, but I don't condone that sort of thing.
I am heartbroken. I have been checking the site several times a day for the past month and was so excited to go. My brother had just started college up in Seattle, and I wanted to visit him...Planned to go to the Willows Inn on Lummi Island...Was going to add a sweet watercooling set-up to my Bitfenix Proditgy for BYOC...Heck, my band was even going to play a show with some of our singer's best friends up in Seattle.
Alas, on this Seventeeth Day of April, Year of our Lord Two Thousand and Thirteen, I was stuck in a deposition all day and missed my opportunity. What the heck, life!?
True. Last year though IIRC they had enforcers available to look over badges before sales. Since they couldn't stop it, they could make it safer.
And seriously, if you think it should cost more and don't care if it's in Seattle anymore....
GO. TO. EAST.
It doesn't sell out nearly as quickly. Once it leaves Seattle, Prime is no longer Prime, it's just PAX <wherever>.
I don't believe I ever said it should cost more or that they should leave Seattle. Prices, from the PAX site, are reasonable and I want it to stay in Seattle. You're right, Prime wouldn't be Prime if it was in another city.
Since I would have to fly no matter which PAX I attended, I guess East actually is my, and other people's, best shot.
EDIT: I wasn't responding to you with that then. Were you the one talking about the fake passes? If so only the first line was in reply to you. Another poster specifically said PAX needs to charge more and move.
I did mention the possibility of buying fake passes on the street, but not that they should move or charge more. The only thing I said about a different city was that if they wanted a larger venue, they would have to move, but that I didn't want that to happen.
I dont understand why they dont just announce when they will sell tickets and release them in batches instead of just releasing all of them at once at an unspecified time that catches people that really want to go off guard.
Because, as has been said over and over, most of the tickets sold are STILL going to people that really want to go. Put a date on the registration and they'll sell out even faster, AND you'll have a much larger server load, resulting in even more people missing out because of site glitches.
I've said it repeatedly in this thread, this thread's cousin from last year, and the linked D&D thread:
X people want to go. Capacity is Y. X>>Y.
Nothing anybody suggests will change this. At all. Ever. Well, aside from changing the con to make X smaller I suppose, but do we want to do that? Until then, every suggestion...every last one...is for the purpose of taking passes from one fan and giving them to another. Period. Even scalped passes. Because a scalped pass is exactly what I'd be buying if I hadn't been able to get mine from the site, after fighting with the fuckawful ticket agent today.
EDIT: X>>Y. Repeat it until it sinks in, seriously. There is no solution.
No one is talking about eliminating the problems, we're talking about spreading tickets out. We're talking about reducing the number of scalpers. Throwing your hands up and saying "Oye, what are you gonna do!" is a telling response. Even if you hadn't mentioned it I would have bet all the money in my wallet that you had gotten a ticket.
Order. Rules. Regulations. These things exist to make things more fair, not to eliminate the problem that some people will still go without. Clearly the only way to fix that is to up the supply (an impossibility here), but no one is saying that. You don't think things should be changed because you won and that's that. What reason do you have to care? Enjoy yourself at PAX, but please, please, please... don't try and keep things the way they are. It's broken, and what you're saying is completely useless in any effort to fix it.
I dont understand why they dont just announce when they will sell tickets and release them in batches instead of just releasing all of them at once at an unspecified time that catches people that really want to go off guard.
Because, as has been said over and over, most of the tickets sold are STILL going to people that really want to go. Put a date on the registration and they'll sell out even faster, AND you'll have a much larger server load, resulting in even more people missing out because of site glitches.
You missed the point entirely. The batch system is not a fix for scalpers, it's a fix for the uneven distribution of tickets among buyers that happened today. The batch idea is to allow the greatest number of different people to get tickets. The way it works now the only people who got them were people who were free at 11AM on a random Tuesday. Great for them, but really? How can you possibly say that giving a weeks notice and putting them on sale a week apart in three diverse batches (Weekends, evenings, etc.) would be a bad idea? It's more work on their end, but it allows everyone a chance... Not just people free at 11AM on a random Tuesday.
Server load would decrease with each batch, and coupled with some system to check for scalpers (i.e. Personalized badges) would be a whole hell of a lot better for the customer than this slapdash bullshit.
I don't know about you, but I'd rather come home from work to find tickets are sold out then be at my computer when sales go live, and still miss out because there are too many people buying tickets and they sell out before I can even type in my card info.
ummm if you got in before it was announced on twitter then it's not the only fair way to do it.
Why not? Because I checked the registration site, of my own volition, and saw tickets were up? Anyone can do that. That's what makes it fair. Arguably Twitter makes it less fair because those with a Twitter account have a better chance at getting in then those that don't.
because we are talking about fair. Not everyone got the same fair chance as you. Many were waiting for the twitter announcement which on the Pax Prime website it says check our twitter feed for the announcement.
That's how I scored our 3-day passes last year. I had a feeling it was coming and stalked paxsite.com like a mad person. I didn't even know about the Twitter SMS thing last year until after I had secured my passes. I don't see how this is not fair. As soon as they go live on the site it's fair no matter how you find out about it.
again if the site said that they would announce the sales of tickets on twitter and the site was selling them BEFORE they announced it's not fair.
If they had said CHECK BACK ON THIS SITE for when we are selling them yes then it would be fair.
ok just heard that there was a bug that people who bought tickets could go back and skip the queue and buy again. Some people bought 20+ tickets. Is this true?
ok just heard that there was a bug that people who bought tickets could go back and skip the queue and buy again. Some people bought 20+ tickets. Is this true?
Folks who did that are being investigated, but yes. Some of that did occur.
Here are some ideas that could help:
1. More all-days passes, fewer individual-day passes. Clearly most people want to buy passes for all days.
2. Instead of per-event all-days passes, you'd buy a "PAX 2014" pass. This is tied to your name and good for one PAX event. So for the most part, people near Seattle would go to PAX Prime and people near Boston would go to PAX East. People going to both impacts the capacity of both.
3. You must pick up tickets at will-call with the buyer's ID or the credit card purchased with. This would not prevent day-of scalpers, but would prevent the online scalping we're seeing now.
The problem with idea #1 here is that you also have people buying the all-days passes who are actually only attending two or three out of the four days for convenience or to save $10 or isn't available those other days or whatever. This means someone who wanted to go all four days but doesn't have the option of an all-days pass because someone who isn't going to fully utilize it ends up paying more or only gets to go two or three days because they can't afford all those single-day passes. The all-days passes are a great deal, and it sucks that they sell out so fast. But they do cause (however small the number may actually be) badge slots to be taken up without putting an attendee in those slots, which means less folks get to go overall.
I dont understand why they dont just announce when they will sell tickets and release them in batches instead of just releasing all of them at once at an unspecified time that catches people that really want to go off guard.
Because, as has been said over and over, most of the tickets sold are STILL going to people that really want to go. Put a date on the registration and they'll sell out even faster, AND you'll have a much larger server load, resulting in even more people missing out because of site glitches.
You missed the point entirely. The batch system is not a fix for scalpers, it's a fix for the uneven distribution of tickets among buyers that happened today. The batch idea is to allow the greatest number of different people to get tickets. The way it works now the only people who got them were people who were free at 11AM on a random Tuesday. Great for them, but really? How can you possibly say that giving a weeks notice and putting them on sale a week apart in three diverse batches (Weekends, evenings, etc.) would be a bad idea? It's more work on their end, but it allows everyone a chance... Not just people free at 11AM on a random Tuesday.
Server load would decrease with each batch, and coupled with some system to check for scalpers (i.e. Personalized badges) would be a whole hell of a lot better for the customer than this slapdash bullshit.
I don't know about you, but I'd rather come home from work to find tickets are sold out then be at my computer when sales go live, and still miss out because there are too many people buying tickets and they sell out before I can even type in my card info.
You didn't read what I wrote, did you?
Since you clearly don't want to talk about the topic at hand, I'll go with whatever you're saying. You'd rather have zero chance at a ticket than some chance? Somehow I don't believe you. Again, as is clear with most posts like this in this thread, you've clearly got yours. Congrats!
0
CuvisTheConquerorThey always say "yee haw" but they never ask "haw yee?" Registered Userregular
You mean other than the ticket-per-order limit, and Khoo flat out saying that all duplicate orders are going to be investigated, and implying that any duplicate orders over a certain quantity are flat out going to be cancelled?
Oh my... Yes, yes that's exactly what I'm talking about. One scalper who doesn't game gets four tickets to sell for as much as he pleases. Voila! No checks!
Four whole tickets? Certainly, this scalper is a big-time problem that is preventing a ton of people from going to PAX.
And how would you prevent this scalper who doesn't game from buying tickets without also taking away flexibility from someone who, say, fully intends to go but ends up having to skip the trip, or someone who buys tickets for himself and three of his friends only to have two of his friends say "No thanks"?
And "investigation"? That's nice that you believe that, but how exactly will that go? At most a phone call that ends with "No I'm not a scalper, bye." And even if they went to these people's houses and somehow managed to prove that they really didn't need their tickets... What, are they going to revoke the tickets and put them up one at a time back online? Good god. If you can't tell when someone is lying to make people feel better, you gotta look into that. It's an important skill.
If you think the PA guys are a bunch of liars, then why do you want to go to PAX in the first place?
Look, I get how it is here. You missed out, you're upset, and you want to blame anybody and everybody. Believe me, I was there last year. But there's no conspiracy here. You missed out, plain and simple.
Unless anybody can show evidence that significant portions of tickets are initially bought by scalpers (like, more than 5%) then this is all just deflection from the real problem...to many nerds, not enough space, and nerds will be nerds and nerd as hard as they can to get tickets.
Do I need to graph my response time to tickets going on sale from 2009 to 2013? From five months to one minute. Srsly.
You are competing against me, and every other nerd that wants to go, not scalpers.
every little bit helps. Even if it's just 1,000 more tickets that's a 1,000 more people who want to go that can.
1,000 more people will still go.
Did you not see my posts?
I was glad at the idea of scalpers, because as the ticket vendor repeatedly timed out and I stared at a rapidly draining battery on my phone, I knew that if nothing else I could get one for more than face eventually.
Somebody else will make some money, and somebody else will pay more, but 1,000 more people will still go. I may well have been one of them, if things had worked out differently. So again, any suggestion is just taking tickets out of another fan's hands and putting them into yours.
Available passes are an issue of maximum occupancy. The Convention Center can only hold so many people. Passes are sold under the consideration that every single pass has a body attached to it in the facility at the same time. This number includes Convention Center Staff, Exhibitors, VIP's, Enforcers, 4-day Passes, and Single Day passes.
It would be nice if us forumers would get a heads up before the twitter post is released, that way us 'dedicated fans' here on the site can actually get a better chance.
I am just disappointed by the timing. This is a convention held in PST, so why put the tickets on sale during the middle of the work day for your "locals"? Sure you can have your phone, but all that does is let you know that you are missing out, since a fair number of people can't just sit staring at their phone or comp when they are being paid to do a job. At least show a little love to your West coast patrons.
This. I was at work when they went on sale and A friend told me to try and get online and get tickets. By the time I was able to actually get to a computer everything was gone. I feel like the west coast really got the shaft with the way that the badges were sold this year because now my only option is to fork over $350 to a person who was able to sit at a computer and buy X amount of passes just to sell them for a profit and not even go. Sucks that I my not be able to go this year.
Honestly, I think they should do lots of tickets over a 4-5 week period. So it's not "be on our site at 10:40am while you are at work/meeting/school etc and hope you can buy them in 10 mins, or sit in a queue for 2 1/2 hours". Lots would be: so they have 60k tickets to sell per day, each day they pick they sell 10k for each day and 10k 4 days, send out a twitter about it, and then when they sell out of that lot, registration is closed till the next time they announce it. Have the sales at various times of day. That way people (scalpers) can't estimate oh we are 2-3 weeks from pax east being over, usually they go on sale the last week or two in april, and then buy out all the tickets in one go, with no other chances of getting tickets. Or if you miss the first sale you have the ability to maybe catch the next one.
I managed to get my group of 6 enough tickets by buying singles, but that was having 6 people watching the site, texting each other and buying for each other if one or two of them were in inconvenient places or sitting in the queue for 2 1/2 hours wondering if they will sell out before they see daylight.
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EvilBadmanDO NOT TRUST THIS MANRegistered Userregular
It would be nice if us forumers would get a heads up before the twitter post is released, that way us 'dedicated fans' here on the site can actually get a better chance.
This argument comes up yearly, and there is no logical reason to segment the attendance by their dedication to PA. We do not need to alienate people who want to come just because they are not stalwarts. Additionally, as soon as the forumers would be warned, the internet.
Pretty sure even East coasters were probably at work... It was only 2pm their time (approximately) when they went on sale. I was at work, too, but had the Twitter feed being sent to my phone. I was about 5 minutes late so I missed out on 4-day passes but at least I was able to secure single days (Fri/Sat). I think that ideas are fantastic but do you really think we're writing out ideas that PA staff hasn't thought of?
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You sir, are a silly goose if you think they're going to refund the over 1.5 million dollars they made in the last 5 hours.
Hufflepuff: Death Eaters / Head of House
Probably should quadruple that.
It's labor day...
I think what would help out a lot is to release the schedule before selling tickets. Personally I'll probably only attend 2 days. But I bought all 4 days because I have no clue what or when panels will be shown. If I knew which days I want to go, I'd buy JUST those days.
Are there still countries where people are free to travel to Seattle but unable to sign up for Twitter?
If so, then you have a point.
If not, still fair, because everybody can choose to have Twitter. And have tweets from PAX forwarded to both email and phone.
This has become not fun, guys. Step up your game. There's more ill will about the lottery of getting in, than there is good will for attending what can be a really fun event.
I won't be trying to buy tickets any time in the future, it's just not worth it.
I wrote my letter, and I hope I get a reply.
It has gotten to be too much of the Expo Hall, but I still love it (and I am a swag wh*re, even if it is crappy swag!) I like the sights/sounds, but it is too much.
Plus with this year being the launch of the PS4/Xbox next, it is going to be crazy with video game stuff.
This is a thing that you actually said. I was on the ball, in the queue seconds after the tweet and the four day passes evaporated.
You cannot even begin to try and rationalize the agony of going through the queue, or sitting on twitter waiting for a sporadic ticket opening announcement.,when you yourself don't even go through it because you have a free pass.
I'm not usually this harsh, but that's a STUPID idea. Everyone who didn'tget a pass will vote yes, everyone who did will vote no. As pointed out, there are far more people who want to go to PAX than PAX can hold. So by default, all passes will always be revoked and a different set of arbitrary people get to go.
Yeah, that's like asking all the lottery losers if that week's lottery should be invalidated and run again (until they win, of course).
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China blocks Twitter.
TWDT '13: Hufflepuff OotP
I've said it repeatedly in this thread, this thread's cousin from last year, and the linked D&D thread:
X people want to go. Capacity is Y. X>>Y.
Nothing anybody suggests will change this. At all. Ever. Well, aside from changing the con to make X smaller I suppose, but do we want to do that? Until then, every suggestion...every last one...is for the purpose of taking passes from one fan and giving them to another. Period. Even scalped passes. Because a scalped pass is exactly what I'd be buying if I hadn't been able to get mine from the site, after fighting with the fuckawful ticket agent today.
EDIT: X>>Y. Repeat it until it sinks in, seriously. There is no solution.
I did not realize that, I rescind that statement
I don't believe I ever said it should cost more or that they should leave Seattle. Prices, from the PAX site, are reasonable and I want it to stay in Seattle. You're right, Prime wouldn't be Prime if it was in another city.
Since I would have to fly no matter which PAX I attended, I guess East actually is my, and other people's, best shot.
@EvilBadman
I dont work the event anymore, you must have missed my announcement in the past (Took a promotion at work, cant comitt to working PAX. Infact I have to work EVERY DAY of PAX from my hotel this year, or drive to work). I bought passes just like everybody else. If you want to give me a free pass feel free :P
Also if you missed the 4day passes you could still get the singles.
Does China freely issue visas for tourists to come to the U.S.? Honest question, not something I'm familiar with, I assumed anywhere with a government that would block twitter wouldn't necessarily allow free travel abroad.
1. More all-days passes, fewer individual-day passes. Clearly most people want to buy passes for all days.
2. Instead of per-event all-days passes, you'd buy a "PAX 2014" pass. This is tied to your name and good for one PAX event. So for the most part, people near Seattle would go to PAX Prime and people near Boston would go to PAX East. People going to both impacts the capacity of both.
3. You must pick up tickets at will-call with the buyer's ID or the credit card purchased with. This would not prevent day-of scalpers, but would prevent the online scalping we're seeing now.
Out of curiosity, why does 4 day tickets selling out quickly matter? It's a $25 difference. Would I rather have one pass just for convenience? Sure. But as far as "getting to go to the con and have a good time" is concerned, singles work just as well as 4 days. I always consider Saturday selling out to be the serious milestone.
Triwizard Drinking Tournament - '09 !Hufflepuff unofficial conscript, '10 !Gryffindor
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EDIT: I wasn't responding to you with that then. Were you the one talking about the fake passes? If so only the first line was in reply to you. Another poster specifically said PAX needs to charge more and move.
Point remains that "fuck you, got mine" is a shitty attitude.
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You missed the point entirely. The batch system is not a fix for scalpers, it's a fix for the uneven distribution of tickets among buyers that happened today. The batch idea is to allow the greatest number of different people to get tickets. The way it works now the only people who got them were people who were free at 11AM on a random Tuesday. Great for them, but really? How can you possibly say that giving a weeks notice and putting them on sale a week apart in three diverse batches (Weekends, evenings, etc.) would be a bad idea? It's more work on their end, but it allows everyone a chance... Not just people free at 11AM on a random Tuesday.
Server load would decrease with each batch, and coupled with some system to check for scalpers (i.e. Personalized badges) would be a whole hell of a lot better for the customer than this slapdash bullshit.
Hey I am now free to have a shitty attitude if I so choose cause my words are my own, but in reality I didnt say "Fuck you, got mine", I was offering a valid suggestion to those who didnt get passes. The street market is still there for passes. Once they ship out to everybody (also close to the event when people decide they cant go) the price plummets to about 1.25x face value. paying an extra $50 or so is better than not going and is not that much in the grand scheme of things (plane, hotel, food)
To be honest, I'm not entirely sure. Depends on what your definition of "free issue" is I suppose. I have heard that they involve a long wait, but they don't seem difficult to obtain for short stays. I know of a couple instances where friends of my parents would come to the U.S. to visit and do some sightseeing, but don't really know the details. I do know that their trip was completely recreational.
In fact, after doing some quick Googling, it looks like there are ways to access Twitter in China, but you can get in serious trouble for it...
TWDT '13: Hufflepuff OotP
I am heartbroken. I have been checking the site several times a day for the past month and was so excited to go. My brother had just started college up in Seattle, and I wanted to visit him...Planned to go to the Willows Inn on Lummi Island...Was going to add a sweet watercooling set-up to my Bitfenix Proditgy for BYOC...Heck, my band was even going to play a show with some of our singer's best friends up in Seattle.
Alas, on this Seventeeth Day of April, Year of our Lord Two Thousand and Thirteen, I was stuck in a deposition all day and missed my opportunity. What the heck, life!?
What's y'all's sob story?
I did mention the possibility of buying fake passes on the street, but not that they should move or charge more. The only thing I said about a different city was that if they wanted a larger venue, they would have to move, but that I didn't want that to happen.
No one is talking about eliminating the problems, we're talking about spreading tickets out. We're talking about reducing the number of scalpers. Throwing your hands up and saying "Oye, what are you gonna do!" is a telling response. Even if you hadn't mentioned it I would have bet all the money in my wallet that you had gotten a ticket.
Order. Rules. Regulations. These things exist to make things more fair, not to eliminate the problem that some people will still go without. Clearly the only way to fix that is to up the supply (an impossibility here), but no one is saying that. You don't think things should be changed because you won and that's that. What reason do you have to care? Enjoy yourself at PAX, but please, please, please... don't try and keep things the way they are. It's broken, and what you're saying is completely useless in any effort to fix it.
I don't know about you, but I'd rather come home from work to find tickets are sold out then be at my computer when sales go live, and still miss out because there are too many people buying tickets and they sell out before I can even type in my card info.
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If they had said CHECK BACK ON THIS SITE for when we are selling them yes then it would be fair.
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The problem with idea #1 here is that you also have people buying the all-days passes who are actually only attending two or three out of the four days for convenience or to save $10 or isn't available those other days or whatever. This means someone who wanted to go all four days but doesn't have the option of an all-days pass because someone who isn't going to fully utilize it ends up paying more or only gets to go two or three days because they can't afford all those single-day passes. The all-days passes are a great deal, and it sucks that they sell out so fast. But they do cause (however small the number may actually be) badge slots to be taken up without putting an attendee in those slots, which means less folks get to go overall.
PAX Prime attendance: '07, '08, '09, '10, '11, '12, '13, '14, '15, '16
You didn't read what I wrote, did you?
Since you clearly don't want to talk about the topic at hand, I'll go with whatever you're saying. You'd rather have zero chance at a ticket than some chance? Somehow I don't believe you. Again, as is clear with most posts like this in this thread, you've clearly got yours. Congrats!
Four whole tickets? Certainly, this scalper is a big-time problem that is preventing a ton of people from going to PAX.
And how would you prevent this scalper who doesn't game from buying tickets without also taking away flexibility from someone who, say, fully intends to go but ends up having to skip the trip, or someone who buys tickets for himself and three of his friends only to have two of his friends say "No thanks"?
If you think the PA guys are a bunch of liars, then why do you want to go to PAX in the first place?
Look, I get how it is here. You missed out, you're upset, and you want to blame anybody and everybody. Believe me, I was there last year. But there's no conspiracy here. You missed out, plain and simple.
Available passes are an issue of maximum occupancy. The Convention Center can only hold so many people. Passes are sold under the consideration that every single pass has a body attached to it in the facility at the same time. This number includes Convention Center Staff, Exhibitors, VIP's, Enforcers, 4-day Passes, and Single Day passes.
This. I was at work when they went on sale and A friend told me to try and get online and get tickets. By the time I was able to actually get to a computer everything was gone. I feel like the west coast really got the shaft with the way that the badges were sold this year because now my only option is to fork over $350 to a person who was able to sit at a computer and buy X amount of passes just to sell them for a profit and not even go. Sucks that I my not be able to go this year.
I managed to get my group of 6 enough tickets by buying singles, but that was having 6 people watching the site, texting each other and buying for each other if one or two of them were in inconvenient places or sitting in the queue for 2 1/2 hours wondering if they will sell out before they see daylight.
This argument comes up yearly, and there is no logical reason to segment the attendance by their dedication to PA. We do not need to alienate people who want to come just because they are not stalwarts. Additionally, as soon as the forumers would be warned, the internet.