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[PRIME] PAX Prime 2012 is COMPLETELY SOLD OUT!

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Posts

  • SmallLadySmallLady Registered User regular
    So, say PA decides they will hold some passes to sell at the door.


    Then say twice the number of people who up at PAX then there are passes available. What then?

    "we're just doing what smalllady told us to do" - @Heels
  • QuintiousQuintious Registered User regular
    edited May 2012
    SmallLady wrote: »
    So, say PA decides they will hold some passes to sell at the door.


    Then say twice the number of people who up at PAX then there are passes available. What then?

    Passes at the door is of most benefit to the locals. I think it would be a bad idea to travel to Seattle, get a hotel, and show up at the door without a badge in the hopes that you'll get one. That will, however, reduce demand for the badges leading up to the event, and put the scalpers in a somewhat disadvantaged position. Fact is, most PAX attendees are local. If these people don't get one, many will simply go home.

    And if that's not a tenable situation, hey, the scalpers are right there to take your money at that point :P. Wait a few hours and the price will drop dramatically. There's not much you miss out on by getting in late.

    I think a lot of you are getting caught up in trying to come up with a perfect solution, and it will never happen. Solutions that mitigate the unsavory aspect of the convention (scalping) are really the best any can hope for.

    Quintious on
  • GamingGoddessGamingGoddess Profesh Nerd Phoenix, AZRegistered User regular
    Holy moly! This almost looks like a giant Facebook argument :P a lot of you prove excellent points, and some of you are just making yourselves more miserable. Yes, PAX is selling out incredibly fast this year, but it you stop and think about it it makes sense. Reg has been down for about a week, therefore those that have been checking frequently have had about a weeks worth of time to prepare for when reg is live again. 5 hours worth of a weeks full of hopeful PAX attendees. In reality it seems about right. 3 days passes have been selling quicker each year. I think last year they sold out of 3 days in less than two weeks. So, really you've had the chance to get your ticket. I do sympathize with those who aren't able to go, but now you're just more prepared for next year.

    Time off[x] Fri-Mon Badges[x] Hotel[x] Plane tickets[x] Pre-Pax plans[TBA] Cosplay[in progress]
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  • tsrblketsrblke Registered User regular
    2spock wrote: »
    bar codes or names on the passes would virtually eliminate scalpers. if it makes the passes a little bit more expensive so be it.as well as if you have to get in line the day before to get your passes. and it is true that 1800ish tickets wouldn't give that much more time before selling out. but it would give people that actually want to go and not people just looking to make a quick buck.

    I should specify, my numbers why hypothetical. I assumed a 10% scalp rate was pretty damn high. I have no knowlege of the actual rate.

    @Quintious,
    This may affect scalping it may not. You'd need demographic data on attendees to dertmine that. If a signficant portion of people come from out of town, they may be willing to pay a scalper to ensure a ticket. If I were dead set on going to pax (and it costs me $300 in plane tickets, plus hotel) I'd be willing to spend a ton on tickets to ensure I had them lest I get out to Seattle and have bupkis but a trip to seattle I suppose. (Questions about authenticity of the ticket aside, we'll assume most scalpers aren't selling fake tickets, because if they are, no amount of tweaking the sale system will change that, you'd need other things, which important but not for this disccusion right now.)

    Similarly, more complext methods to tie badges to a single individual may just not work. I thought the same as well last year before my First PAX. Then I saw how hectic the WSCC is. There'd be no time to check badges against proper ownership, it'd just be too damn tough. (This is not the same as saying "they couldnt' check for fake badges." Different problem)

  • Xieflow2Xieflow2 Registered User regular
    This is fucked up. I can't even buy a damned pass less than a day after they go for sale? Why are they only $70? Shouldn't they be like $150 to give people who don't hover over twitter for announcements 24/7 a chance to get in?

  • lemongrenadeslemongrenades Registered User regular
    Holy moly! This almost looks like a giant Facebook argument :P a lot of you prove excellent points, and some of you are just making yourselves more miserable. Yes, PAX is selling out incredibly fast this year, but it you stop and think about it it makes sense. Reg has been down for about a week, therefore those that have been checking frequently have had about a weeks worth of time to prepare for when reg is live again. 5 hours worth of a weeks full of hopeful PAX attendees. In reality it seems about right. 3 days passes have been selling quicker each year. I think last year they sold out of 3 days in less than two weeks. So, really you've had the chance to get your ticket. I do sympathize with those who aren't able to go, but now you're just more prepared for next year.

    I think the frustration is valid. PA said they would make an announcement via the site and the official twitter when it all went live again. They weren't really loud enough about that, IMO. The first I had heard about all this was when I woke up to the news that they were already sold out. I wasn't going to be able to go this year, anyway, but my friends who had all been planning to return are all out in the cold now. PAX is made up of a lot of different types of gamers, one or more of those types being some who aren't able to check the registration website all day every day, so passes selling out in mere hours means they never really had a shot in the first place. None of my friends have a pass for that very reason and I wouldn't either, if other things weren't already in the way of my attendance.

  • MLORDMLORD Registered User regular
    Quintious wrote: »
    Quintious wrote: »
    Look, this is sort of the reality of the scenario:

    7) The only solution that there really is that's fair to everybody, doesn't exclude anybody, and which should probably be implemented is announcing, in advance, a date and time tickets will go on sale, first-come, first-serve, and letting the chips fall where they may. It's how every concert or big ticket show is done, and just putting a link up on a Twitter feed saying "come and get em!" at random is an amateurish and lousy way of doing it.


    Assuming you've done this with concerts or sporting events, you realize that this requires people to sit at their computer and push F5 repeatedly until they get access to the site? People here are already saying it isn't fair to people w/o computer access when the sale happens. The rush will be worse and more people would be even more angry.

    I think most of the griping came from the fact that people on the West Coast were at work when the tickets went on sale, and the tickets were supposedly sold out by the time they got home. I don't know if this is true or not. I live in Seattle, and I picked up 20 3 day badges pretty late in the afternoon (no, I'm not reselling, I've just got my friends' backs), but it was well before, say, 6 pm. I also have the benefit of having a dedicated 10 gig circuit by which I'm the only person on it at any given time and a lab environment that I can set up to automatically keep pushing for a page until the other side opens up a session for me, so my ability to connect is greater than that of just about anybody else in the world.

    I agree with those people that perhaps it wasn't fair to launch the ticket window at a time when they were all stuck at work and the rest of the country was already done with their day or getting close to it. A simple solution to that problem would be to start the ticket sales at, say, 7 pm PST on a given day.


    This is exactly what I was thinking about when I said limit the number of badges sold per card to ONE.... If you have a child your purchasing for, there is things the site could do to accommodate for that with enough effort for sure, ALL those over the age of 18 could obtain a debit/CC or a prepaid visa card to purchase... so with one card, one ticket, one person and a barcode on the ticket or name, we could eliminate the problem that everyone did not get the "chance" to buy a ticket... it will make your friends/ family/ co workers (etc) actually put forth the effort needed to actually go to the event and give a fair option for everyone. Also releasing during work probably was not percieved as a problem for PAX folks guys... they lasted 3 weeks last time, this time 1000% faster lol Not your guys faults but limiting the number purchased per person would have slowed down the sell out process for sure and gave ample opportunity for all to have a chance to purchase without to many complaints

    M.LORD
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  • eStalkereStalker Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    i don't see how raising the price of the tickets will do anything except make the tickets cost more and making it harder for some people with less resources to attend. i like pax and if they raise the prices i'll still be sitting on the web page waiting to pay the money and so will people who resell the tickets.

  • nearlysobernearlysober Registered User regular
    edited May 2012
    How to solve this problem? Next year will probably sell out in hours/minutes with the current system.

    A bigger venue would let more people in, and there would be more room for setup. But it'd probably have to be out of state... (Vegas!) which may limit some of the smaller companies that show up that are local. Also, it could just lead to longer lines for everything, what with more people.

    A longer event would be cool. A whole week of PAX! But, it'd be harder to get volunteers, particularly the ones manning all the company booths (I have no doubt Enforcers would show up in force). Plus, many people would just buy the whole week, causing a sell-out situation again.

    A bigger venue & longer event would suffer the same problems as the above two points, but would be cool :)

    A third PAX... but as we've seen with PAX East, some people will go to both and PAX East hasn't really alleviated the problem of sell-outs at PAX Prime. It's getting faster each year. Unless they could implement some sort of registration system that prevented people from attending multiple PAXs (but any such thing would have potentially easy bypasses)

    Maybe some sort of lottery selection rather than first come, first serve. Would be more fair for people who couldn't get online to buy in the opening hours, but will still leave a lot of disappointed people. Plus, makes group travel difficult if you don't know if your buddies are getting selected.

    Make tickets more expensive. Not a good idea, goes against the spirit of PAX.

    Prevent scalping. Yet to be seen how big of a problem it will be this year. A lot of the scalping last year was fake badges. Additional security/checkpoints (especially at an 'open' venue like WSCC) will cause headaches & lines.

    So, I guess what I'm saying is... most solutions have their pros & cons, not any one is perfect. I can only hope the whole PA office has their thinking caps on because I don't want this to turn into another Blizzcon type madhouse.

    nearlysober on
  • zerzhulzerzhul Registered User, Moderator mod
    Holy moly! This almost looks like a giant Facebook argument :P a lot of you prove excellent points, and some of you are just making yourselves more miserable. Yes, PAX is selling out incredibly fast this year, but it you stop and think about it it makes sense. Reg has been down for about a week, therefore those that have been checking frequently have had about a weeks worth of time to prepare for when reg is live again. 5 hours worth of a weeks full of hopeful PAX attendees. In reality it seems about right. 3 days passes have been selling quicker each year. I think last year they sold out of 3 days in less than two weeks. So, really you've had the chance to get your ticket. I do sympathize with those who aren't able to go, but now you're just more prepared for next year.

    I think the frustration is valid. PA said they would make an announcement via the site and the official twitter when it all went live again. They weren't really loud enough about that, IMO. The first I had heard about all this was when I woke up to the news that they were already sold out. I wasn't going to be able to go this year, anyway, but my friends who had all been planning to return are all out in the cold now. PAX is made up of a lot of different types of gamers, one or more of those types being some who aren't able to check the registration website all day every day, so passes selling out in mere hours means they never really had a shot in the first place. None of my friends have a pass for that very reason and I wouldn't either, if other things weren't already in the way of my attendance.

    Except they /did/ make an announcement on the main site and the official twitter when it went live again. They did exactly what they said they were going to do. Also, a huge amount of people on twitter were RTing it all over the place. Twitter was ABLAZE with activity. Saying it wasn't loud is just plain wrong.

  • SenicksSenicks Registered User regular
    edited May 2012
    If it's anything that will cheer to guys up.

    As many of you are feeling as well. I am completely shocked to see the passes go so fast compared to the previous years. People tend to sell off their badges the week of the event, the prices then won't be ridiculously gouged as of right now but rather more reasonable. In addition, SD Comic-Con is alot faster in terms of how fast it sells out.

    Senicks on
  • Disco11Disco11 Registered User regular
    By site I think most people thought they meant the actual PA site not the pax prime site. I don't think has mentioned PAX prime in his news posts yet.

    I got mine and most of my buddies that are road tripping down there did also except for 1 guy that delayed 3 hours and had to buy singles for 40$ more. Most of us don't "tweet". We do all read penny arcade religiously and come to this website during the day.

    PSN: Canadian_llama
  • millislimmillislim Black Sheep Sacramento, CARegistered User regular
    Couple of things...While the average purchase amount was 1.75 tickets it doesn't mean there weren't some big fish out there gobbling up large amounts of tickets. Not sure how many 3 day passes were made so...it IS a possibility especially since the scalpers are starting so early on ebay.

    I got super lucky and was able to get two 3-day passes. While PAX is growing exponentially I think the sudden sell out had alot to do with the first crash. It brought a whole lot of attention to the site and people panicked..."what if the server crashes again? What if people try to repurchase tickets after the initial crash?" So folks like me and folks like you hunkered down and wore out our F5s. Next year may be just as bad but I believe it'll be because of what happened here...We'll freak and think about how thousands of passes sold out in less than 48 hours. I do like the idea of names on the badges. I think it's a small risk to take to ensure passes are going to Pax goers.

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  • CronusCronus Registered User regular
    zerzhul wrote: »
    ...

    Except they /did/ make an announcement on the main site and the official twitter when it went live again. They did exactly what they said they were going to do. Also, a huge amount of people on twitter were RTing it all over the place. Twitter was ABLAZE with activity. Saying it wasn't loud is just plain wrong.

    By official site he probably means penny-arcade.com and it wasn't posted on there.

    camo_sig.png
    "Read twice, post once. It's almost like 'measure twice, cut once' only with reading." - MetaverseNomad
  • zerzhulzerzhul Registered User, Moderator mod
    Disco11 wrote: »
    By site I think most people thought they meant the actual PA site not the pax prime site. I don't think has mentioned PAX prime in his news posts yet.

    I got mine and most of my buddies that are road tripping down there did also except for 1 guy that delayed 3 hours and had to buy singles for 40$ more. Most of us don't "tweet". We do all read penny arcade religiously and come to this website during the day.

    The percentage of people that go to PAX that have no clue what Penny Arcade is (as a webcomic) is growing steadily.

    Twitter is just a reality these days for quick communication. If you want to be notified about something quickly, you subscribe to that "something's" twitter account. Breaking news usually hits twitter faster than anywhere else. You don't have to actively tweet in order to follow things on twitter, and you can set things up as text notifications to your phone.

  • PatrickKanePatrickKane I'm a doctor Registered User regular
    It does seem like the crash sort of made this year a real big clustermess to get a pass. Luckily my buddy managed to get our passes during the first surge so we are good to roll out.

    Sucks to see passes already on eBay however...

  • lemongrenadeslemongrenades Registered User regular
    zerzhul wrote: »
    Holy moly! This almost looks like a giant Facebook argument :P a lot of you prove excellent points, and some of you are just making yourselves more miserable. Yes, PAX is selling out incredibly fast this year, but it you stop and think about it it makes sense. Reg has been down for about a week, therefore those that have been checking frequently have had about a weeks worth of time to prepare for when reg is live again. 5 hours worth of a weeks full of hopeful PAX attendees. In reality it seems about right. 3 days passes have been selling quicker each year. I think last year they sold out of 3 days in less than two weeks. So, really you've had the chance to get your ticket. I do sympathize with those who aren't able to go, but now you're just more prepared for next year.

    I think the frustration is valid. PA said they would make an announcement via the site and the official twitter when it all went live again. They weren't really loud enough about that, IMO. The first I had heard about all this was when I woke up to the news that they were already sold out. I wasn't going to be able to go this year, anyway, but my friends who had all been planning to return are all out in the cold now. PAX is made up of a lot of different types of gamers, one or more of those types being some who aren't able to check the registration website all day every day, so passes selling out in mere hours means they never really had a shot in the first place. None of my friends have a pass for that very reason and I wouldn't either, if other things weren't already in the way of my attendance.

    Except they /did/ make an announcement on the main site and the official twitter when it went live again. They did exactly what they said they were going to do. Also, a huge amount of people on twitter were RTing it all over the place. Twitter was ABLAZE with activity. Saying it wasn't loud is just plain wrong.

    I realize they made the announcement they promised and didn't mean to imply otherwise. What I'm saying is, after your systems have been down for a week, maybe you need to approach the announcement of open registration in a different way. Given a few days to buy tickets after the way they chose to announce it, everything probably would have been fine. If you expect at all that your tickets may sell out in a manner of hours, you have to handle this situation another way. I work 11 hour shifts at my job and have odd hours. I am certainly not the only PAX-goer who is not near enough a computer I can use to purchase tickets at all hours. Even if I had seen the tweet from my phone, I couldn't have responded quick enough to buy tickets regardless. I wasn't even at work, but was just playing Pathfinder with my PAX-attending friends when all this happened. Things in life keep me from my computer for more than five hours and that is true of everyone. Zerzhul, if you have a pass, you should feel lucky and recognize that others who don't have passes are allowed to feel upset that they aren't.

  • KjeldorKjeldor Registered User, ClubPA regular
    For those saying that renaming PAX Prime to PAX West would encourage more people to attend PAX East rather than Prime, you are outta your minds. Being closer to the east coast, I attended East it's first year, and since then did Prime the following years. Seattle in later summer > Boston in late winter. Costs are about the same either way, so I'm going to take the option with better weather.

  • QuintiousQuintious Registered User regular
    MLORD wrote: »


    This is exactly what I was thinking about when I said limit the number of badges sold per card to ONE.... If you have a child your purchasing for, there is things the site could do to accommodate for that with enough effort for sure, ALL those over the age of 18 could obtain a debit/CC or a prepaid visa card to purchase... so with one card, one ticket, one person and a barcode on the ticket or name, we could eliminate the problem that everyone did not get the "chance" to buy a ticket... it will make your friends/ family/ co workers (etc) actually put forth the effort needed to actually go to the event and give a fair option for everyone. Also releasing during work probably was not percieved as a problem for PAX folks guys... they lasted 3 weeks last time, this time 1000% faster lol Not your guys faults but limiting the number purchased per person would have slowed down the sell out process for sure and gave ample opportunity for all to have a chance to purchase without to many complaints


    And your idea completely screws over any couple/family that has a joint bank account and no credit cards, only one debit card. It also effectively does nothing to a person such as myself, who has 13 personal credit cards and 2 more corporate cards I can use and just reimburse my company on.

  • dgooddgood Registered User new member
    I hope they have given thought to going to a larger venue. I believe the Oregon convention center in Portland is over 2x the size of the Washington state convention and trade center. Living in Seattle I like it there but I'd rather take a train and have more people able to go than not be able to go myself because I didn't register same day. (I did get my 3day pass luckily).

  • ptriz21_teamkillptriz21_teamkill Registered User regular
    eStalker wrote: »
    i don't see how raising the price of the tickets will do anything except make the tickets cost more and making it harder for some people with less resources to attend. i like pax and if they raise the prices i'll still be sitting on the web page waiting to pay the money and so will people who resell the tickets.

    People who say this are saying it would be useful to stop scalpers. They also assume that scalpers are the reason it sold out.

    Let's say I'm only willing to pay a maximum of $165. Right now, a scalper can buy all the passes, and as long as I'm willing to pay $165, they will make a $100 profit. If the prices go up to say, $135, I'm willing to pay the $165 still, but scalpers get less profit, $30. Eventually you find the point where the profit gained is not worth the time and effort for the scalpers.

    3DS: 3325-2059-2105
  • KlingonKlingon Registered User regular
    edited May 2012
    I have been going for 7 years and did get a 3 day pass yesterday. Last year the passes took a very long time to sell out compared to this year and somehow the sour grapes comments are the same, take a look....

    forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/140560/all-passes-are-now-sold-out-anticipation-for-badges-starts-now/p1

    Klingon on
  • PatrickKanePatrickKane I'm a doctor Registered User regular
    I don't think the problem is really with PAX. Its the fact that video games are huge and in the US we have what, 2 major game cons open to the public that arent just branded torwards a specific company or game?

  • zerzhulzerzhul Registered User, Moderator mod
    dgood wrote: »
    I hope they have given thought to going to a larger venue. I believe the Oregon convention center in Portland is over 2x the size of the Washington state convention and trade center. Living in Seattle I like it there but I'd rather take a train and have more people able to go than not be able to go myself because I didn't register same day. (I did get my 3day pass luckily).

    According to the oregoncc.org website, it's a tad larger than the WSCC, but the size difference is negligible.

  • mossey3535mossey3535 Registered User regular
    Oh, and there was no 1k tweet for Saturday badges. My group is pretty much done. I should have trusted my gut and just got some, but if you say you're going to do something, I sort of expect you to stay true to your word.

  • ptriz21_teamkillptriz21_teamkill Registered User regular
    edited May 2012
    Making an announcement ahead of time for when registration is posted will cause the passes to sell out faster.

    The system is fair. PAX is popular.

    ptriz21_teamkill on
    3DS: 3325-2059-2105
  • QuintiousQuintious Registered User regular
    dgood wrote: »
    I hope they have given thought to going to a larger venue. I believe the Oregon convention center in Portland is over 2x the size of the Washington state convention and trade center. Living in Seattle I like it there but I'd rather take a train and have more people able to go than not be able to go myself because I didn't register same day. (I did get my 3day pass luckily).

    Except for the fact that Portland sucks, the hotels can't handle the amount of people that Seattle can, and Portland has nowhere near the built-in population that would attend the event that Seattle does.

  • QuintiousQuintious Registered User regular
    eStalker wrote: »
    i don't see how raising the price of the tickets will do anything except make the tickets cost more and making it harder for some people with less resources to attend. i like pax and if they raise the prices i'll still be sitting on the web page waiting to pay the money and so will people who resell the tickets.

    People who say this are saying it would be useful to stop scalpers. They also assume that scalpers are the reason it sold out.

    Let's say I'm only willing to pay a maximum of $165. Right now, a scalper can buy all the passes, and as long as I'm willing to pay $165, they will make a $100 profit. If the prices go up to say, $135, I'm willing to pay the $165 still, but scalpers get less profit, $30. Eventually you find the point where the profit gained is not worth the time and effort for the scalpers.

    But the scalpers will still sell the $135 ticket for $250, and somebody would still buy it.

  • L1ONHEARTL1ONHEART zZzZzZz USARegistered User regular
    edited May 2012
    eStalker wrote: »
    i don't see how raising the price of the tickets will do anything except make the tickets cost more and making it harder for some people with less resources to attend. i like pax and if they raise the prices i'll still be sitting on the web page waiting to pay the money and so will people who resell the tickets.

    People who say this are saying it would be useful to stop scalpers. They also assume that scalpers are the reason it sold out.

    Let's say I'm only willing to pay a maximum of $165. Right now, a scalper can buy all the passes, and as long as I'm willing to pay $165, they will make a $100 profit. If the prices go up to say, $135, I'm willing to pay the $165 still, but scalpers get less profit, $30. Eventually you find the point where the profit gained is not worth the time and effort for the scalpers.

    Your view ignores the larger picture--making tickets more expensive doesn't change the fact that they sell out, nor will it decrease scalping. All it will do is make going to PAX prohibitively expensive for people not located in that region (e.g - West Coast for PAX Prime). You do realize that, for someone from the Midwest to go in a non-huge group, this trip is almost $1,000, not including merchandise purchases or other Seattle activities? And you want to raise the price? That's ridiculous... not everyone has a large wallet for this type of thing...

    L1ONHEART on
  • mcdermottmcdermott Registered User regular
    Kjeldor wrote: »
    For those saying that renaming PAX Prime to PAX West would encourage more people to attend PAX East rather than Prime, you are outta your minds. Being closer to the east coast, I attended East it's first year, and since then did Prime the following years. Seattle in later summer > Boston in late winter. Costs are about the same either way, so I'm going to take the option with better weather.

    Also downtown Seattle is awesome.

    And seriously, don't have a twitter? Get a twitter. There's zero reason not to, except hipster elitism or neckbeards privacy paranoia. In which case have fun not going to PAX.

    This is your hint. Don't wait until next April, just go get on the twitters. Now. It's how shit works now. Complaining about it won't get you into PAX.

  • ptriz21_teamkillptriz21_teamkill Registered User regular
    Quintious wrote: »
    dgood wrote: »
    I hope they have given thought to going to a larger venue. I believe the Oregon convention center in Portland is over 2x the size of the Washington state convention and trade center. Living in Seattle I like it there but I'd rather take a train and have more people able to go than not be able to go myself because I didn't register same day. (I did get my 3day pass luckily).

    Except for the fact that Portland sucks, the hotels can't handle the amount of people that Seattle can, and Portland has nowhere near the built-in population that would attend the event that Seattle does.

    A: Portland doesn't suck, thanks

    B: I think you might be right about hotels in the immediate area of the Portland Convention Center.

    C. You act like PAX won't sell out regardless of the "built-in population" whatever that means.

    3DS: 3325-2059-2105
  • UnknownSaintUnknownSaint Kasyn Registered User regular
    The whole idea of raising the price to address this problem is a very bad one for a number of reasons.

    1) It's very difficult to determine where the magic number is that wards off scalpers by cutting into their profit margins.

    2) You're pricing normal people out of the event a hell of a lot sooner than scalpers. They sell their shit to desperate people - people that are typically willing to spend a lot more on passes than your average attendee.

    I don't see an issue with having to input a name for each pass you buy, and then check IDs alongside passes. That way you can buy passes for friends so long as you know their names, and scalpers wouldn't have anyone to sell to unless that person somehow made a fake ID on the spot. Only problem is having to deny people with no ID on the spot, but that can be mitigated with advanced warning.

  • PatrickKanePatrickKane I'm a doctor Registered User regular
    Or just do what I did and literally check the website every day from the end of Pax East

    Before you throw the can't access a computer etc at me, I'm currently overseas in the mid. east with the military :P

  • dgooddgood Registered User new member
    zerzhul wrote: »
    dgood wrote: »
    I hope they have given thought to going to a larger venue. I believe the Oregon convention center in Portland is over 2x the size of the Washington state convention and trade center. Living in Seattle I like it there but I'd rather take a train and have more people able to go than not be able to go myself because I didn't register same day. (I did get my 3day pass luckily).

    According to the oregoncc.org website, it's a tad larger than the WSCC, but the size difference is negligible.

    Yeah, I misread the sizes. It is not a lot bigger. So it goes.

  • ptriz21_teamkillptriz21_teamkill Registered User regular
    edited May 2012
    L1ONHEART wrote: »
    eStalker wrote: »
    i don't see how raising the price of the tickets will do anything except make the tickets cost more and making it harder for some people with less resources to attend. i like pax and if they raise the prices i'll still be sitting on the web page waiting to pay the money and so will people who resell the tickets.

    People who say this are saying it would be useful to stop scalpers. They also assume that scalpers are the reason it sold out.

    Let's say I'm only willing to pay a maximum of $165. Right now, a scalper can buy all the passes, and as long as I'm willing to pay $165, they will make a $100 profit. If the prices go up to say, $135, I'm willing to pay the $165 still, but scalpers get less profit, $30. Eventually you find the point where the profit gained is not worth the time and effort for the scalpers.

    Your view ignores the larger picture--making tickets more expensive doesn't change the fact that they sell out, nor will it decrease scalping. All it will do is make going to PAX prohibitively expensive for people not located in that region (e.g - West Coast for PAX Prime). You do realize that, for someone from the Midwest to go in a non-huge group, this trip is almost $1,000, not including merchandise purchases or other Seattle activities? And you want to raise the price? That's ridiculous... not everyone has a large wallet for this type of thing...

    Heeeeeey, it's not my view. I said "people think" and "they assume." I was just explaining.

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  • Disco11Disco11 Registered User regular
    Dudes. It took 22 days last time. This year it took less than a day. people have the right to be a bit miffed. People expected it would take 10-15 days to sell out, not hours. If you where in classes or where working you where out of luck.

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  • mcdermottmcdermott Registered User regular
    Also, any con center size comparisons should include the offsite spaces....the Sheraton, paramount, etc.

  • altmannaltmann Registered User regular
    You guys realize that if there's one person on this planet who can come up with a solution or some sort of workable system for PAX in the future, given it's exponential and unprecedented growth, it's our Mr. Robert Khoo.

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  • alegriaalegria Registered User regular
    mossey3535 wrote: »
    Oh, and there was no 1k tweet for Saturday badges. My group is pretty much done. I should have trusted my gut and just got some, but if you say you're going to do something, I sort of expect you to stay true to your word.

    I don't believe that the PAX organizers said that they would tweet about quantities this year (if they did, what I'm saying obviously doesn't apply). It's been said multiple times now - do not base your plans for this year based on what happened last year. It's entirely possible and likely that the PAX staff were completely flabbergasted that the 3-Day passes sold out in 4.5 hours on Tuesday - based on last year's rates, someone was probably going to check inventory after 6-8 hours and post about it then, but obviously things went faster than even that expectation. I'm sure they will learn from it and improve for next year. :)

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  • zerzhulzerzhul Registered User, Moderator mod
    Disco11 wrote: »
    Dudes. It took 22 days last time. This year it took less than a day. people have the right to be a bit miffed. People expected it would take 10-15 days to sell out, not hours. If you where in classes or where working you where out of luck.

    They thought wrong. Every year there are people who say "BUT IT SOLD OUT AT X TIME LAST YEAR, I DIDN'T GET A BADGE!" Yes it's worse this year, but there's ALWAYS complaining about how it's selling out faster and faster each year. Anyone that thinks they know how long it will take to sell out a popular event is ALREADY WRONG.

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