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 find it crazy that for the last 2 weeks there has been a thread on here speculating when passes would go on sale for a few weeks and every time even a little tidbit of info surfaced we would all talk about it, and it only got 18k views and this thread is already almost double that in a few hours.
I am by no means at all on these forums all the time but i still like to stop in and see whats going on
hyrulehero96 on
Slim, Relax, Fine Wine At The Qfc, On A Snowy Saturday Night
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.
You did. I posted this thread before the tweet went out. I posted it literally the moment that I noticed it was live on the website.
i think the whole ticket thing is crazy. i had to get a twitter account (which i hate twitter). when i got the text from twitter that they were on sale i hopped on the computer within seconds at work and waited for about 15 minutes until it was my turn to buy tickets and the 4 day passes were already sold out so i had to buy each day separately for more money. not complaining since i got mine but i think they were selling them earlier or they didn't have that many 4 day passes for sale. not complaining since this is the way tickets always are for big events (playoff games, big concerts, etc) but can pax get any bigger or crazy? we'll see next year all i know is my nephews better be thanking me for my efforts on hands and knees or i might scalp there tickets.
I signed up for twitter, made sure "push" was working... took every proactive measure I could... and when they went live I was stuck in a meeting and didn't even look at my phone. By the time I was to the front of the queue, Saturday was sold out... but I'm lucky I got something.
If they did a lottery? Then we'd all have to get lucky anjd people would still be sad and angry if left out.
They're adding move PAX's, they're adding more days... obviously there is still more demand than supply. They could try to take over whole sections of downtown and make this thing bigger... but then individual booths or exhibitions would be over crowded.
I'd like to think that this system cut down on scalping... but every single person pouncing on the early sales know these are extremely valuable and will buy extras and sell them.
It's too mainstream for that not to happen. It's not just PAX regulars and forum goers anymore.
Oh well, first time I won't be going in years. Not really upset because I wasn't even sure if I could make it to Seattle. But I will say the way they sell these things with how popular the show is now is pretty bad.
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!
If I had a zero chance at a ticket, I wouldn't have tickets, would I? I said earlier that today is literally the only day of the week that I'm anywhere near a computer during the time the tickets went live. I'm at work, with no internet, from 9 to 4 West Coast every other day of the week. It's LUCK that I got my pass. I haven't even been that diligent about checking the site. Today was the first day I'd checked in a week, and yet, there you go. Checked right after tickets went live but before the Twitter announcement. The thing about LUCK is that it it's the great equalizer. Anyone can get lucky, like I did, or not, like the unfortunate people who didn't get a pass this year.
But I've seen several posts of people who've been sitting in the queue for hours only to see all the passes sell out. That has GOT to hurt more than coming home after they've all sold and only then finding out you've missed out. And if you announce the date ahead of time, all you do is put more people in the first situation and less in the second, with the net result being the EXACT SAME NUMBER of people who wanted to go getting a pass.
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.
You did. I posted this thread before the tweet went out. I posted it literally the moment that I noticed it was live on the website.
AH, did not realize that, apologies. I just know they went on sale exactly when I got in the shower after watching the forum, so I have only myself to blame. =P
They really need to do something. I got tickets but it's beyond ridiculous that 4-days sold out in 2 minutes and so many are on eBay.
Either PA purposefully sold a severely limited amount of 4-days or people used bots and abused the bug.
Either way this year was even more of a failure than last year. And I didn't that was possible. The queue actually caused more harm than it did good by bottlenecking people and letting someone repeatedly make purchases avoiding the limits.
It's honestly time for PA to do some soul searching and figure out what they're going to do. At this point I'll be going to a different convention next year because it's becoming more and more of a cluster F with each year.
Ideally I'd like to see passes be more expensive, have unchangeable names attached to them, and a new city.
There are far too many tickets being scalped by scalpers and people trying to pay for their trip. This needs to stop and just goes against the very nature of PAX. I'd rather have a ticket I can't use than someone buying 5 and selling 4. And it's undeniable that PAX had just outgrown Seattle. There's no valid argument for keeping it in Seattle other than they like Seattle. It keeps way too many people out and encourages behavior like scalping.
Technically, I scalped a ticket three years ago. I bought a 3-Day pass for a friend and he cancelled his trip. One week before PAX 2011, I sold it on E-Bay for FACE VALUE!!!!!!
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!
If I had a zero chance at a ticket, I wouldn't have tickets, would I? I said earlier that today is literally the only day of the week that I'm anywhere near a computer during the time the tickets went live. I'm at work, with no internet, from 9 to 4 West Coast every other day of the week. It's LUCK that I got my pass. I haven't even been that diligent about checking the site. Today was the first day I'd checked in a week, and yet, there you go. Checked right after tickets went live but before the Twitter announcement. The thing about LUCK is that it it's the great equalizer. Anyone can get lucky, like I did, or not, like the unfortunate people who didn't get a pass this year.
But I've seen several posts of people who've been sitting in the queue for hours only to see all the passes sell out. That has GOT to hurt more than coming home after they've all sold and only then finding out you've missed out. And if you announce the date ahead of time, all you do is put more people in the first situation and less in the second, with the net result being the EXACT SAME NUMBER of people who wanted to go getting a pass.
What hurts most is being blindsided by the ticket sales while I'm at work. I would have loved the opportunity to lose it in the basket because it would have been an opportunity. Would it have sucked? Yeah. 1/10000000 is infinitely better than 0/1.
I don't know why I'm surprised to see so many gamers arguing that everything is fine solely because they won. After this long on the internet, at tournaments, and just around people it should really be expected. Congratulations to all who got in! You caught one of the Golden Tickets as it fluttered down to you from the air cannon they were shot out of without warning this morning... I would ask, though, that you not try to justify the mad-grab, whogivesafuck approach this year took. Yes, you won. No, it wasn't fair in the slightest.
"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.
I agree with you. Last year I had my favourite PAX experience just doing Friday and Saturday. I got to all the panels I wanted, I didn't feel worn out and tired at the end, and I still had a lot of fun wandering around Seattle on Sunday, occasionally heading downtown to soak up the PAX ambience. I think the four day schedule would work really well if it made sense for people to pick which half of the event they're going to (with the best value tickets being two day ones), so we sort of get two events back to back. Instead, it seems to be set up in a way that'll encourage people to do all four days. And it was really hard for me to guess which two days I wanted, so I foolishly spent way too long deliberating and lost my chance
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.
Same problem but in smaller doses. I say....everyone registers for a lottery. One name, one submission, one badge and the individual is billed when their name is pulled. Tossing your name in a hat over a 24 HR period with ample notice. If people keep finding a way to "game" the system..... screw it, all is lost.
Advance notice is a double-edged sword. Now there are more people clawing at the gates and greater opportunity for the system to crash. Otherwise, if the system holds up under the strain, then the queue will be bigger and the wait just that much more unbearable.
Lottery!!! With automatic billing to a credit card in your name when your number is pulled. One Name, One Credit Card, One Ticket.
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.
Same problem but in smaller doses. I say....everyone registers for a lottery. One name, one submission, one badge and the individual is billed when their name is pulled. Tossing your name in a hat over a 24 HR period with ample notice. If people keep finding a way to "game" the system..... screw it, all is lost.
Except who wants to go to Pax alone? If I wasn't able to get tickets for my friend, too, I wouldn't want to go.
I also liked someone else's idea of putting names on them, like if you are buying multiples for a group, that's fine but each ticket you buy has a line to put a name on it, no name, no sale. That way scalpers couldn't resale them, but you could still get multiples for family/friends.
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.
Same problem but in smaller doses. I say....everyone registers for a lottery. One name, one submission, one badge and the individual is billed when their name is pulled. Tossing your name in a hat over a 24 HR period with ample notice. If people keep finding a way to "game" the system..... screw it, all is lost.
Except who wants to go to Pax alone? If I wasn't able to get tickets for my friend, too, I wouldn't want to go.
I'm going by myself. There's a ton of social stuff to do and a lot of chances to meet people. At least that's what I've been told...
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.
Exactly...now its just having to go to scalpers because I didnt get a fair chance even though I'm a local here. Thats another WTF, why did tickets go out during work in the west coast.
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.
PA doesn't deserve to be blasted by anyone. PAX is still growing, and growing fast, and that will inevitably bring growing pains. They tried a queue system and it had hiccups. SDCC just started a queue system that seemed to work, for the most part, and they've been around for a lot longer than PAX. It might take a while for PA to be as happy as they can be when it comes to registrations. It's not like they're a company with hundreds of people.
They're doing their best and there may be missteps along the way, but at least they actually do care about their fans. SDCC does some things right, but they couldn't care less about anyone.
I'd say the only thing PA could have foreseen about PAX 2013 is how quickly it could sell out. Selling out fast can be good and bad. Good that it shows it's growing in popularity and could have a long and bright future. Bad in that if it grows too much, it could be the next SDCC.
If you think SDCC's queue system worked at all this year, you weren't paying attention.
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.
Same problem but in smaller doses. I say....everyone registers for a lottery. One name, one submission, one badge and the individual is billed when their name is pulled. Tossing your name in a hat over a 24 HR period with ample notice. If people keep finding a way to "game" the system..... screw it, all is lost.
Except who wants to go to Pax alone? If I wasn't able to get tickets for my friend, too, I wouldn't want to go.
I've gone to PAX 4 times, 3 times I went alone. It gives different experiences, if you go alone other people who are alone seem to want to talk to you a lot more than when your with a friend. So you have a easier chance on making new friends. But I agree overall it's still more fun to go with friends planned out but that doesn't mean going solo is bad or undesired.
I don't understand how anyone can continue to blame scalpers and the ticketing system when clearly the issue is with demand exceeding supply. There are more and more people each year that want to attend PAX. Those who have attended before are not giving up their spots either, as witnessed by the number of complaints regarding the lack of a "loyalty program." If the number of would-be attendees keeps increasing and the venue capacity stays the same, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that badges will eventually sell out stupidly fast.
It's quite simple: Because of the token issue of the vendor they chose to sell the tickets through this weekend, the scalpers, quite literally, got to sit at the front of the line and buy as many badges as they wanted. It took TWENTY MINUTES for the 4 day badges to sell out, yet hours more for the less-desirable individual day badges to sell out. What does that tell you? Scalpers bought early, bought often, got what they wanted, and then the bigger ones left when the 4 day badges were gone, leaving honest buyers and some straggler scalper wannabes to get the scraps. PA not only didn't combat scalpers this year - they ACTIVELY HELPED THEM. Unintentionally, I'm sure, but actively. Because the average person didn't get to the front, buy their badges, and then log in again so 8 of their buddies could buy, as well.
All of the ideas and reasonings presented here for changing the nature of how we get tickets is probably born mostly out of frustration.
I'm really sorry for everyone that wanted to get tickets, but was unable.
I was equal parts fortunate and prepared, I started months in advance (hey, we're nerds, its our nature)
I was prepared in that I set up a twitter account expressly to use sms push notifications to my cell phone.
I was lucky in that I had my phone on my nightstand while I slept (I work nights). I was able to wake up to the mms alert, stumble into the computer room (knocking over a variety of household objects and furniture) and groggily browse to the pax reg. site. The queue was pretty short for me, i was able to snag 4 sets of single day passes for my group.
Every single ticket will be used. Its not like stopping a scalper will allow additional fans to go, it just moves the distribution around. For you out of towners, considering the face value of the tickets is a relatively small allocation of your expenses for the long weekend, you will likely be able to find scalped tickets for 1.5-2x face value. This doesn't seem outlandish to me.
If you really want it, you can still go.
Thank god for scalpers.
You submit you name and credit card number over a 24HR period on a predetermined date.
-> One submission per name with a valid credit card number.
-> Names are drawn at random.
-> Credit Card is billed immediately.
Everyone has a fair chance (even the low-life D-Bag scalpers). If you want to organize twenty people willing to give you their credit card number or get twenty new credit cards.... you really want them badges. And dont tell me it cant be done with the amount of BS contests everyone does.
Here's the deal. Many people have pointed out that the queue didn't work that well and that it was painful to be waiting to buy passes and not know what you're going to get. I agree. However, I think this system worked a lot better than last year where the whole dang server got shut down, then reopened, what, a week or so later?
PA had people buy tickets in the order they clicked "Register now," gave everyone the same amount of time to process their transaction, and had a limit on the number of badges you could by. How was this system any different than waiting outside a Ticketmaster office back in the day?
And there's no way to avoid scalping. It's going to happen. Some people just don't abide by Wheaton's Law like the rest of us, but the amount of scalped tickets to the amount of tickets bought by people actually going to the expo is extremely low.
the key would be to stop the scalpers. As much as it would suck make everyone have to pick their passes up with the same credit card they used to purchase the tickets.
I didn't even get a chance to get in queue as I was busy hosting an after school review for my AP Physics students.
There are better ways to do this and the first part is stopping the scalpers. Right now I see 51 results on Ebay. Some of those results are for multiple sets of tickets.
I had a great time at Pax East and was eagerly awaiting Pax Prime. But it seems that isn't going to happen due to greedy scalpers.
Do you really think that will help or even if PA Gives a shit? 50 tickets? really? You know there are TENS OF THOUSANDS of passes sold (something around 35k but thats a guess).
YEAH GUYS! AN EXTRA 51 WILL MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE!
Do you really think there are only 51? I guarantee you that, come Labour Day weekend, there's gonna be an old lady outside of Sullivan's wearing a bathrobe and holding a sign that says "I need tickets"....and she's going to have at least five hundred of them in her robe. And she's going to be one of at least 20 such scalpers within a 2 block radius of the Convention Centre. How do I know? She was there last year. And at ECCC. And a number of other events.
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.
Same problem but in smaller doses. I say....everyone registers for a lottery. One name, one submission, one badge and the individual is billed when their name is pulled. Tossing your name in a hat over a 24 HR period with ample notice. If people keep finding a way to "game" the system..... screw it, all is lost.
Except who wants to go to Pax alone? If I wasn't able to get tickets for my friend, too, I wouldn't want to go.
I've gone to PAX 4 times, 3 times I went alone. It gives different experiences, if you go alone other people who are alone seem to want to talk to you a lot more than when your with a friend. So you have a easier chance on making new friends. But I agree overall it's still more fun to go with friends planned out but that doesn't mean going solo is bad or undesired.
I met plenty of people last year. It's not like you're glued to the hip with the people you go with. He goes and waits for Borderlands, I sit and talk Uncharted with some guys in the Last of Us line.
But I should've phrased it better. Pax is an excuse to hang out and talk video games all weekend, and I prefer doing that with friends. Especially since it's one of the few times I meet up with the guys I went to high school with. And I know plenty of people bring their kids along. So a lottery is out of the question since it's very nature breaks up groups of people.
Advance notice is a double-edged sword. Now there are more people clawing at the gates and greater opportunity for the system to crash. Otherwise, if the system holds up under the strain, then the queue will be bigger and the wait just that much more unbearable.
Lottery!!! With automatic billing to a credit card in your name when your number is pulled. One Name, One Credit Card, One Ticket.
A lottery will hurt legitimate buyers more than hurting potential scalpers or alleviating the issue of selling out and it could cause even more uproar. Last year, I went as a group of 3. A lottery system could cause only 1 of the 3 to get tickets, even if we all had already booked flights and hotels and requested time off work. What if it's a family and only half got tickets? What about parents buying for themselves and their kids who don't have credit cards? A lottery system would cause more problems than it would solve.
The way things are might be what we have to accept, for the time being. Perhaps they'll try different methods, perhaps not.
PA had people buy tickets in the order they clicked "Register now," gave everyone the same amount of time to process their transaction, and had a limit on the number of badges you could by. How was this system any different than waiting outside a Ticketmaster office back in the day?
But the system was screwy in that some people getting into queue got to purchase passes before people who got in queue before them. It didn't make any sense in what place you were put in line. I waited nearly 2 hours before having to leave for work, and was fortunate to have a friend get my passes as they were able to skip the line after they bought theirs.
I don't know why I'm surprised to see so many gamers arguing that everything is fine solely because they won. After this long on the internet, at tournaments, and just around people it should really be expected. Congratulations to all who got in! You caught one of the Golden Tickets as it fluttered down to you from the air cannon they were shot out of without warning this morning... I would ask, though, that you not try to justify the mad-grab, whogivesafuck approach this year took. Yes, you won. No, it wasn't fair in the slightest.
You know, everything about PAX is a game, on a meta and micro level. So the fact that they turn the ticket selling process into a game--when's it going live???? Can I even get one?--turns it into a game, and fellow forumers into competition. I am quite bitter at the winners, but rather than attack them (I mean, rule Nazis, by definition, tend to win) I will call the game for what it is: shit. It's a shitty game, the process of purchasing tickets, because it turns you all into my competition--like Diplomacy; what's more, I lost, so now I begrudge your victory in a shitty game. The one friend who I know got tickets only got them because he was able to retype the address after his connection timed out--again, rule Nazi, after a fashion. And I begrudge him.
To everyone condoning the way tickets are sold now, please consider the above, from the perspective of someone who didn't get a ticket--you wait a whole year to play a game, you don't know when exactly, but then you find out you missed your turn and therefore lost and can't play again for 365 more days.... So scale up the last time you lost a game by about a factor of 365, and multiply that by the tens of thousands of regulars who can't go this year, and imagine that pain. It's as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.
PA (khoo) already stated (on twitter) that they are looking into multiple purchases with the same shipping address/CC#/IP Address and will contact each of them to make sure they are legit.
So your "fact" of ZERO whatever has ZERO merit.
I am sure they care more than ZERO about this problem and have worked on it quite a bit over the past year.
And you really think that's gonna work? Scalpers use pre-paid credit cards and multiple PO Boxes. IP addresses? Supposing they're even given the IP logs (unlikely), there's the issue that most IP addresses are actually NAT'd and untraceable by any but the ISP. And even at that, there are proxy servers. I myself (who am not a scalper) have access to over ten thousand unique public addresses.
PA had people buy tickets in the order they clicked "Register now," gave everyone the same amount of time to process their transaction, and had a limit on the number of badges you could by. How was this system any different than waiting outside a Ticketmaster office back in the day?
But the system was screwy in that some people getting into queue got to purchase passes before people who got in queue before them. It didn't make any sense in what place you were put in line. I waited nearly 2 hours before having to leave for work, and was fortunate to have a friend get my passes as they were able to skip the line after they bought theirs.
I'm sure there was something more going on with the queue. Like browser-refresh issues putting people back at the end of the line, for example. Though the fact that once you made it through, you could go back again and again was messed up and should've been fixed a lot faster than it was.
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.
PA doesn't deserve to be blasted by anyone. PAX is still growing, and growing fast, and that will inevitably bring growing pains. They tried a queue system and it had hiccups. SDCC just started a queue system that seemed to work, for the most part, and they've been around for a lot longer than PAX. It might take a while for PA to be as happy as they can be when it comes to registrations. It's not like they're a company with hundreds of people.
They're doing their best and there may be missteps along the way, but at least they actually do care about their fans. SDCC does some things right, but they couldn't care less about anyone.
I'd say the only thing PA could have foreseen about PAX 2013 is how quickly it could sell out. Selling out fast can be good and bad. Good that it shows it's growing in popularity and could have a long and bright future. Bad in that if it grows too much, it could be the next SDCC.
If you think SDCC's queue system worked at all this year, you weren't paying attention.
I didn't say it worked, I said it worked, for the most part. Which means, I got in line, it showed me my place number and allowed purchases, but it still had flaws. I didn't get all the tickets I wanted for SDCC since the queue was massive after only a few minutes and some people said there was a page loading issue that could lock you out permanently. There were problems.
My point, that you might have missed, was that SDCC, who has been around for 40+ years, has 130,000+ attendees and has the resources to keep up with tech just started a queue system. PAX has been around for only 10 years and has significantly fewer employees and is already trying a queue system. Neither worked perfectly, but that's the potential nature of a digital queue.
Advance notice is a double-edged sword. Now there are more people clawing at the gates and greater opportunity for the system to crash. Otherwise, if the system holds up under the strain, then the queue will be bigger and the wait just that much more unbearable.
Lottery!!! With automatic billing to a credit card in your name when your number is pulled. One Name, One Credit Card, One Ticket.
No. As already said in this thread, most of the "solutions" suggested in this thread would only take passes from those who already bought them, and give them to someone else. My belief is that luck favors the prepared. I've been camping the site for the past week, and as it so happens, registration opened immediately after I got out of the shower, about 15 minutes before I would have left my dorm to go to class, and I managed to get my 4-day pass. Had passes go on sale a little bit later, I would have been without that, and If I was lucky, I would maybe have had Sunday/Monday passes.
I was ready at a moment's notice, and those that are should have first priority. Yeah it sucks if you are unable to be there when sales open, but no matter what, someone would have left disappointed.
I go to PAX Prime every year and one of the things I love about it is for one glorious weekend it's a celebration of geekery where one person can yell a meme from across a crowded room and 90+% of the people within earshot get the joke, so reading the fallout here and elsewhere on the net about how fair or unfair or not it is.. I feel like flailing my arms and yelling at everyone to stop fighting over whether or not it's fair.
Queue glitches aside, the problem is there are more warm bodies than space/available passes so the most fair thing to do would be expanding the venue so they can sell more tickets. No matter how it's done - lottery, early reg for long time attendees, same as what we did this time, batches over longer periods, announcing in advance, etc - no matter what, the same number of people will be left out and the haves will claim fair and the have nots will claim otherwise. I waited two hours for my turn in the queue to come up and by then Saturday was sold out. Two anxious hours, wondering if everything would be gone by the time it was my turn, or if the page had glitched without notifying me, or what if Comcast (as it is wont to do) decides to stop working for no reason... It gave me time to make peace with the process. That, no matter what awaited me between then and the final ticket sale, that it's as fair as it can be without expanding the venue given the limited passes. That is, if it's to be assumed that everyone who bought a pass or passes did so with the intent of using them and not selling them off on ebay at thrice the price... but with a larger venue and more passes to go around, I'd hope that the scalping would decline.
Just curious. Does it matter if i made a typo on my email on the payment page?
yes, it means you probably won't get a confirmation email. If you wrote down your conf #, you should email [email protected] to try to get it handled and fixed.
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.
Thank you!
Yeah, I'm currently checking with friends but my hopes are low. There's already so many badges on sale on Craigslist for crazy prices; it's ridiculous!
(I'm a Seattle local too. This must be how San Diego natives feel in regards to SDCC...)
Gotta try and stay positive though (as it is, I don't think this day could get any worse, ha). Maybe I'll get lucky somehow.
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.
You did. I posted this thread before the tweet went out. I posted it literally the moment that I noticed it was live on the website.
That's exactly how I got my tickets. I popped into the forum this morning to check out the registration anticipation thread and saw that it was closed. I was a bit disappointed and checked out the tread to see what sort of silliness caused it to get closed. Not seeing anything scandalous, I went back to the main Prime forum and saw this thread up with no comments and only 1 view (perhaps I was the very first person to see it?). I freaked out a little, clicked on the registration link, grabbed my credit card and scored some 4-day passes. The twitter alert went off on my phone as I was filling out my CC info and shipping address.
Nothing but stupid crazy good luck on my part. This was literally my only day off of work this week and I just happened to look at the forum at the absolute perfect time.
Thanks a ton, Zerzhul! I and the 3 other friends I got passes for owe you a drink!
Guys, every single year, the day they sell out there have been tons of high price scalper/scams on Ebay. The best thing you can do is report those guys... (in the report, specify that they're selling tickets that won't actually exist until July or August. It's against the rules to sell things more than 30 days before you can send them out.)
As the date in question approaches, real people find they can't go, because LIFE. When it gets to about July, when it starts to be legal to sell them, prices are usually rarely over 2x face. When it gets to 1-2 weeks before, you can find a few passes for face value, and a bunch for about 2x face value.
Increased demand might drive those prices up a bit, but there has never once been a PAX when the "Ticket sale day" Ebay prices weren't significantly higher than the "week/month prior" prices.
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No. As already said in this thread, most of the "solutions" suggested in this thread would only take passes from those who already bought them, and give them to someone else. My belief is that luck favors the prepared. I've been camping the site for the past week, and as it so happens, registration opened immediately after I got out of the shower, about 15 minutes before I would have left my dorm to go to class, and I managed to get my 4-day pass. Had passes go on sale a little bit later, I would have been without that, and If I was lucky, I would maybe have had Sunday/Monday passes.
I was ready at a moment's notice, and those that are should have first priority. Yeah it sucks if you are unable to be there when sales open, but no matter what, someone would have left disappointed.
The real issue is there is no better way to distribute these tickets. You're absolutely right - someone will always be left disappointed and without a pass. But no other Con has really figured it out. Mostly, they do the queue system, but unlike PAX, they announce the launch time.
I didn't mind the queue. What I didn't like were the servers going down.
When I first logged into the site 4 day passes where still available, as I was about to check out I got an error... 4 day passes had been sold out.
"Oh well" I said to myself, "I'll just get 3 single day passes." So I did and the loading took FOREVER. This in combination the 4 day passes being sold and having to start again left me with very little time. I completed the payment information at record speed and submitted my charge... more loading... it took so long that I actually ran out of time. Even though I had completed everything, I got kicked out. I had to start again. So I started again and the servers crashed. I tried for a 4th time, I was in queue for a while and was finally able to purchase my single day passes.
I know it is impossible to predict when the servers will crash and I'm okay if they do. I'm okay with a queue, if this warrants having a relatively painless transaction later. What I would suggest is maybe giving people a little more time to complete the transaction, especially if the process is so sluggish. As people have suggested a bigger venue might solve some of these problems.
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We decided to skip going home to Seattle and avoid the mess, sad to miss PAX and seeing friends/family but my sanity can't take the stress!
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I signed up for twitter, made sure "push" was working... took every proactive measure I could... and when they went live I was stuck in a meeting and didn't even look at my phone. By the time I was to the front of the queue, Saturday was sold out... but I'm lucky I got something.
If they did a lottery? Then we'd all have to get lucky anjd people would still be sad and angry if left out.
They're adding move PAX's, they're adding more days... obviously there is still more demand than supply. They could try to take over whole sections of downtown and make this thing bigger... but then individual booths or exhibitions would be over crowded.
I'd like to think that this system cut down on scalping... but every single person pouncing on the early sales know these are extremely valuable and will buy extras and sell them.
It's too mainstream for that not to happen. It's not just PAX regulars and forum goers anymore.
If I had a zero chance at a ticket, I wouldn't have tickets, would I? I said earlier that today is literally the only day of the week that I'm anywhere near a computer during the time the tickets went live. I'm at work, with no internet, from 9 to 4 West Coast every other day of the week. It's LUCK that I got my pass. I haven't even been that diligent about checking the site. Today was the first day I'd checked in a week, and yet, there you go. Checked right after tickets went live but before the Twitter announcement. The thing about LUCK is that it it's the great equalizer. Anyone can get lucky, like I did, or not, like the unfortunate people who didn't get a pass this year.
But I've seen several posts of people who've been sitting in the queue for hours only to see all the passes sell out. That has GOT to hurt more than coming home after they've all sold and only then finding out you've missed out. And if you announce the date ahead of time, all you do is put more people in the first situation and less in the second, with the net result being the EXACT SAME NUMBER of people who wanted to go getting a pass.
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AH, did not realize that, apologies. I just know they went on sale exactly when I got in the shower after watching the forum, so I have only myself to blame. =P
Thanks though! =D
Technically, I scalped a ticket three years ago. I bought a 3-Day pass for a friend and he cancelled his trip. One week before PAX 2011, I sold it on E-Bay for FACE VALUE!!!!!!
What hurts most is being blindsided by the ticket sales while I'm at work. I would have loved the opportunity to lose it in the basket because it would have been an opportunity. Would it have sucked? Yeah. 1/10000000 is infinitely better than 0/1.
I don't know why I'm surprised to see so many gamers arguing that everything is fine solely because they won. After this long on the internet, at tournaments, and just around people it should really be expected. Congratulations to all who got in! You caught one of the Golden Tickets as it fluttered down to you from the air cannon they were shot out of without warning this morning... I would ask, though, that you not try to justify the mad-grab, whogivesafuck approach this year took. Yes, you won. No, it wasn't fair in the slightest.
I agree with you. Last year I had my favourite PAX experience just doing Friday and Saturday. I got to all the panels I wanted, I didn't feel worn out and tired at the end, and I still had a lot of fun wandering around Seattle on Sunday, occasionally heading downtown to soak up the PAX ambience. I think the four day schedule would work really well if it made sense for people to pick which half of the event they're going to (with the best value tickets being two day ones), so we sort of get two events back to back. Instead, it seems to be set up in a way that'll encourage people to do all four days. And it was really hard for me to guess which two days I wanted, so I foolishly spent way too long deliberating and lost my chance
Same problem but in smaller doses. I say....everyone registers for a lottery. One name, one submission, one badge and the individual is billed when their name is pulled. Tossing your name in a hat over a 24 HR period with ample notice. If people keep finding a way to "game" the system..... screw it, all is lost.
Lottery!!! With automatic billing to a credit card in your name when your number is pulled. One Name, One Credit Card, One Ticket.
Except who wants to go to Pax alone? If I wasn't able to get tickets for my friend, too, I wouldn't want to go.
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I'm going by myself. There's a ton of social stuff to do and a lot of chances to meet people. At least that's what I've been told...
Exactly...now its just having to go to scalpers because I didnt get a fair chance even though I'm a local here. Thats another WTF, why did tickets go out during work in the west coast.
If you think SDCC's queue system worked at all this year, you weren't paying attention.
I've gone to PAX 4 times, 3 times I went alone. It gives different experiences, if you go alone other people who are alone seem to want to talk to you a lot more than when your with a friend. So you have a easier chance on making new friends. But I agree overall it's still more fun to go with friends planned out but that doesn't mean going solo is bad or undesired.
It's quite simple: Because of the token issue of the vendor they chose to sell the tickets through this weekend, the scalpers, quite literally, got to sit at the front of the line and buy as many badges as they wanted. It took TWENTY MINUTES for the 4 day badges to sell out, yet hours more for the less-desirable individual day badges to sell out. What does that tell you? Scalpers bought early, bought often, got what they wanted, and then the bigger ones left when the 4 day badges were gone, leaving honest buyers and some straggler scalper wannabes to get the scraps. PA not only didn't combat scalpers this year - they ACTIVELY HELPED THEM. Unintentionally, I'm sure, but actively. Because the average person didn't get to the front, buy their badges, and then log in again so 8 of their buddies could buy, as well.
I'm really sorry for everyone that wanted to get tickets, but was unable.
I was equal parts fortunate and prepared, I started months in advance (hey, we're nerds, its our nature)
I was prepared in that I set up a twitter account expressly to use sms push notifications to my cell phone.
I was lucky in that I had my phone on my nightstand while I slept (I work nights). I was able to wake up to the mms alert, stumble into the computer room (knocking over a variety of household objects and furniture) and groggily browse to the pax reg. site. The queue was pretty short for me, i was able to snag 4 sets of single day passes for my group.
Every single ticket will be used. Its not like stopping a scalper will allow additional fans to go, it just moves the distribution around. For you out of towners, considering the face value of the tickets is a relatively small allocation of your expenses for the long weekend, you will likely be able to find scalped tickets for 1.5-2x face value. This doesn't seem outlandish to me.
If you really want it, you can still go.
Thank god for scalpers.
-> One submission per name with a valid credit card number.
-> Names are drawn at random.
-> Credit Card is billed immediately.
Everyone has a fair chance (even the low-life D-Bag scalpers). If you want to organize twenty people willing to give you their credit card number or get twenty new credit cards.... you really want them badges. And dont tell me it cant be done with the amount of BS contests everyone does.
PA had people buy tickets in the order they clicked "Register now," gave everyone the same amount of time to process their transaction, and had a limit on the number of badges you could by. How was this system any different than waiting outside a Ticketmaster office back in the day?
And there's no way to avoid scalping. It's going to happen. Some people just don't abide by Wheaton's Law like the rest of us, but the amount of scalped tickets to the amount of tickets bought by people actually going to the expo is extremely low.
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Do you really think there are only 51? I guarantee you that, come Labour Day weekend, there's gonna be an old lady outside of Sullivan's wearing a bathrobe and holding a sign that says "I need tickets"....and she's going to have at least five hundred of them in her robe. And she's going to be one of at least 20 such scalpers within a 2 block radius of the Convention Centre. How do I know? She was there last year. And at ECCC. And a number of other events.
I met plenty of people last year. It's not like you're glued to the hip with the people you go with. He goes and waits for Borderlands, I sit and talk Uncharted with some guys in the Last of Us line.
But I should've phrased it better. Pax is an excuse to hang out and talk video games all weekend, and I prefer doing that with friends. Especially since it's one of the few times I meet up with the guys I went to high school with. And I know plenty of people bring their kids along. So a lottery is out of the question since it's very nature breaks up groups of people.
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A lottery will hurt legitimate buyers more than hurting potential scalpers or alleviating the issue of selling out and it could cause even more uproar. Last year, I went as a group of 3. A lottery system could cause only 1 of the 3 to get tickets, even if we all had already booked flights and hotels and requested time off work. What if it's a family and only half got tickets? What about parents buying for themselves and their kids who don't have credit cards? A lottery system would cause more problems than it would solve.
The way things are might be what we have to accept, for the time being. Perhaps they'll try different methods, perhaps not.
But the system was screwy in that some people getting into queue got to purchase passes before people who got in queue before them. It didn't make any sense in what place you were put in line. I waited nearly 2 hours before having to leave for work, and was fortunate to have a friend get my passes as they were able to skip the line after they bought theirs.
You know, everything about PAX is a game, on a meta and micro level. So the fact that they turn the ticket selling process into a game--when's it going live???? Can I even get one?--turns it into a game, and fellow forumers into competition. I am quite bitter at the winners, but rather than attack them (I mean, rule Nazis, by definition, tend to win) I will call the game for what it is: shit. It's a shitty game, the process of purchasing tickets, because it turns you all into my competition--like Diplomacy; what's more, I lost, so now I begrudge your victory in a shitty game. The one friend who I know got tickets only got them because he was able to retype the address after his connection timed out--again, rule Nazi, after a fashion. And I begrudge him.
To everyone condoning the way tickets are sold now, please consider the above, from the perspective of someone who didn't get a ticket--you wait a whole year to play a game, you don't know when exactly, but then you find out you missed your turn and therefore lost and can't play again for 365 more days.... So scale up the last time you lost a game by about a factor of 365, and multiply that by the tens of thousands of regulars who can't go this year, and imagine that pain. It's as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.
And you really think that's gonna work? Scalpers use pre-paid credit cards and multiple PO Boxes. IP addresses? Supposing they're even given the IP logs (unlikely), there's the issue that most IP addresses are actually NAT'd and untraceable by any but the ISP. And even at that, there are proxy servers. I myself (who am not a scalper) have access to over ten thousand unique public addresses.
I'm sure there was something more going on with the queue. Like browser-refresh issues putting people back at the end of the line, for example. Though the fact that once you made it through, you could go back again and again was messed up and should've been fixed a lot faster than it was.
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I didn't say it worked, I said it worked, for the most part. Which means, I got in line, it showed me my place number and allowed purchases, but it still had flaws. I didn't get all the tickets I wanted for SDCC since the queue was massive after only a few minutes and some people said there was a page loading issue that could lock you out permanently. There were problems.
My point, that you might have missed, was that SDCC, who has been around for 40+ years, has 130,000+ attendees and has the resources to keep up with tech just started a queue system. PAX has been around for only 10 years and has significantly fewer employees and is already trying a queue system. Neither worked perfectly, but that's the potential nature of a digital queue.
No. As already said in this thread, most of the "solutions" suggested in this thread would only take passes from those who already bought them, and give them to someone else. My belief is that luck favors the prepared. I've been camping the site for the past week, and as it so happens, registration opened immediately after I got out of the shower, about 15 minutes before I would have left my dorm to go to class, and I managed to get my 4-day pass. Had passes go on sale a little bit later, I would have been without that, and If I was lucky, I would maybe have had Sunday/Monday passes.
I was ready at a moment's notice, and those that are should have first priority. Yeah it sucks if you are unable to be there when sales open, but no matter what, someone would have left disappointed.
Queue glitches aside, the problem is there are more warm bodies than space/available passes so the most fair thing to do would be expanding the venue so they can sell more tickets. No matter how it's done - lottery, early reg for long time attendees, same as what we did this time, batches over longer periods, announcing in advance, etc - no matter what, the same number of people will be left out and the haves will claim fair and the have nots will claim otherwise. I waited two hours for my turn in the queue to come up and by then Saturday was sold out. Two anxious hours, wondering if everything would be gone by the time it was my turn, or if the page had glitched without notifying me, or what if Comcast (as it is wont to do) decides to stop working for no reason... It gave me time to make peace with the process. That, no matter what awaited me between then and the final ticket sale, that it's as fair as it can be without expanding the venue given the limited passes. That is, if it's to be assumed that everyone who bought a pass or passes did so with the intent of using them and not selling them off on ebay at thrice the price... but with a larger venue and more passes to go around, I'd hope that the scalping would decline.
Thank you!
Yeah, I'm currently checking with friends but my hopes are low. There's already so many badges on sale on Craigslist for crazy prices; it's ridiculous!
(I'm a Seattle local too. This must be how San Diego natives feel in regards to SDCC...)
Gotta try and stay positive though (as it is, I don't think this day could get any worse, ha). Maybe I'll get lucky somehow.
That's exactly how I got my tickets. I popped into the forum this morning to check out the registration anticipation thread and saw that it was closed. I was a bit disappointed and checked out the tread to see what sort of silliness caused it to get closed. Not seeing anything scandalous, I went back to the main Prime forum and saw this thread up with no comments and only 1 view (perhaps I was the very first person to see it?). I freaked out a little, clicked on the registration link, grabbed my credit card and scored some 4-day passes. The twitter alert went off on my phone as I was filling out my CC info and shipping address.
Nothing but stupid crazy good luck on my part. This was literally my only day off of work this week and I just happened to look at the forum at the absolute perfect time.
Thanks a ton, Zerzhul! I and the 3 other friends I got passes for owe you a drink!
As the date in question approaches, real people find they can't go, because LIFE. When it gets to about July, when it starts to be legal to sell them, prices are usually rarely over 2x face. When it gets to 1-2 weeks before, you can find a few passes for face value, and a bunch for about 2x face value.
Increased demand might drive those prices up a bit, but there has never once been a PAX when the "Ticket sale day" Ebay prices weren't significantly higher than the "week/month prior" prices.
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The real issue is there is no better way to distribute these tickets. You're absolutely right - someone will always be left disappointed and without a pass. But no other Con has really figured it out. Mostly, they do the queue system, but unlike PAX, they announce the launch time.
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When I first logged into the site 4 day passes where still available, as I was about to check out I got an error... 4 day passes had been sold out.
"Oh well" I said to myself, "I'll just get 3 single day passes." So I did and the loading took FOREVER. This in combination the 4 day passes being sold and having to start again left me with very little time. I completed the payment information at record speed and submitted my charge... more loading... it took so long that I actually ran out of time. Even though I had completed everything, I got kicked out. I had to start again. So I started again and the servers crashed. I tried for a 4th time, I was in queue for a while and was finally able to purchase my single day passes.
I know it is impossible to predict when the servers will crash and I'm okay if they do. I'm okay with a queue, if this warrants having a relatively painless transaction later. What I would suggest is maybe giving people a little more time to complete the transaction, especially if the process is so sluggish. As people have suggested a bigger venue might solve some of these problems.