TOPIC: Change in Ghost Policy

Also, if GC refuses to accommodate the way the game has been played for a decade and a half, then they need to forfeit their restock fee for any and all returns, from now until the end of GC, for changing the rules this late in the game.

In fact, they owe US a 10% “sorry-not-sorry we dorked you over” fee.

Brad Mortensen wrote: @Mike - For the record, I am by no means suggesting trying to get around Jeff’s rules. We loves him. Jeff is our precious...

I’m advocating trying to get around GC’s fascist rules, that only seem to be justified by “our system can’t deal.” Fork them. Okay then, if they’re too lazy, narrow-minded, or short-sighted to fix their system, we will find a way around it. It’s what gamers do.

But I can also appreciate that if Jeff signed a paper with unknown (to us) stipulations on it, then he may not be in a position to recommend or approve any workaround his devious minions may devise.

If Jeff says don’t, then of course we’ll abide by that.

Last year I had to have a badge to get into LOS. If GenCon is trying to enforce one ticket per badge at LOS then there has to be a concern with security at LOS.

edwin wrote:

Brad Mortensen wrote: @Mike - For the record, I am by no means suggesting trying to get around Jeff’s rules. We loves him. Jeff is our precious...

I’m advocating trying to get around GC’s fascist rules, that only seem to be justified by “our system can’t deal.” Fork them. Okay then, if they’re too lazy, narrow-minded, or short-sighted to fix their system, we will find a way around it. It’s what gamers do.

But I can also appreciate that if Jeff signed a paper with unknown (to us) stipulations on it, then he may not be in a position to recommend or approve any workaround his devious minions may devise.

If Jeff says don’t, then of course we’ll abide by that.

Last year I had to have a badge to get into LOS. If GenCon is trying to enforce one ticket per badge at LOS then there has to be a concern with security at LOS.

Maybe. But if that’s their real concern, this is an inefficient and ridiculous way to try to do that. I think it’s more likely they designed a system with some pointless error check that no other event at GC will even notice, and they never even considered TD when documenting their system requirements.

I’m assuming incompetence on their part vs ill intentions.

Brad Mortensen wrote:

edwin wrote:

Brad Mortensen wrote: @Mike - For the record, I am by no means suggesting trying to get around Jeff’s rules. We loves him. Jeff is our precious...

I’m advocating trying to get around GC’s fascist rules, that only seem to be justified by “our system can’t deal.” Fork them. Okay then, if they’re too lazy, narrow-minded, or short-sighted to fix their system, we will find a way around it. It’s what gamers do.

But I can also appreciate that if Jeff signed a paper with unknown (to us) stipulations on it, then he may not be in a position to recommend or approve any workaround his devious minions may devise.

If Jeff says don’t, then of course we’ll abide by that.

Last year I had to have a badge to get into LOS. If GenCon is trying to enforce one ticket per badge at LOS then there has to be a concern with security at LOS.

Maybe. But if that’s their real concern, this is an inefficient and ridiculous way to try to do that. I think it’s more likely they designed a system with some pointless error check that no other event at GC will even notice, and they never even considered TD when documenting their system requirements.

I’m assuming incompetence on their part vs ill intentions.

Their intentions might be as simple as making sure that everyone that does an event at GENCON has a valid GENCON badge. This prevents someone from buying multiple tickets and having someone else without a valid badge use one of them.

Mike Steele wrote:

Brad Mortensen wrote:

edwin wrote:

Brad Mortensen wrote: @Mike - For the record, I am by no means suggesting trying to get around Jeff’s rules. We loves him. Jeff is our precious...

I’m advocating trying to get around GC’s fascist rules, that only seem to be justified by “our system can’t deal.” Fork them. Okay then, if they’re too lazy, narrow-minded, or short-sighted to fix their system, we will find a way around it. It’s what gamers do.

But I can also appreciate that if Jeff signed a paper with unknown (to us) stipulations on it, then he may not be in a position to recommend or approve any workaround his devious minions may devise.

If Jeff says don’t, then of course we’ll abide by that.

Last year I had to have a badge to get into LOS. If GenCon is trying to enforce one ticket per badge at LOS then there has to be a concern with security at LOS.

if i remember right, you cant even get into Lucas Oil without showing your badge

Maybe. But if that’s their real concern, this is an inefficient and ridiculous way to try to do that. I think it’s more likely they designed a system with some pointless error check that no other event at GC will even notice, and they never even considered TD when documenting their system requirements.

I’m assuming incompetence on their part vs ill intentions.

Their intentions might be as simple as making sure that everyone that does an event at GENCON has a valid GENCON badge. This prevents someone from buying multiple tickets and having someone else without a valid badge use one of them.

Mike Steele wrote: This prevents someone from buying multiple tickets and having someone else without a valid badge use one of them.

That’s what all those guards at the doors are for. They shouldn’t punish us because they hire incompetent security.

I feel fairly certain Gen Con cares about its customers and fairly certain that their intentions were to implement a new ticketing process that would benefit them and their customers.

However, they either failed to discuss the new system and how it works with the event organizers, thus identifying exceptions they needed to account for.

Or, they did the above and didn't think those exceptions were very important or that the changes needed to be communicated to customers in advance of sales.

Either way, it appears like a bad decision. Now they can either decide to go back and figure out how to accommodate those exceptions or they can move forward and live with the inevitable backlash.

Dave wrote: I feel fairly certain Gen Con cares about its customers and fairly certain that their intentions were to implement a new ticketing process that would benefit them and their customers.

However, they either failed to discuss the new system and how it works with the event organizers, thus identifying exceptions they needed to account for.

Or, they did the above and didn't think those exceptions were very important or that the changes needed to be communicated to customers in advance of sales.

Either way, it appears like a bad decision. Now they can either decide to go back and figure out how to accommodate those exceptions or they can move forward and live with the inevitable backlash.

Do you think there is any backlash from this from anyone other than True Dungeon players that want to run Ghost Players? I'm not sure how much impact this has on non-True Dungeon events. From the GENCON point of view, this system might be accommodating the vast majority of their customers.

Mike Steele wrote:

Dave wrote: I feel fairly certain Gen Con cares about its customers and fairly certain that their intentions were to implement a new ticketing process that would benefit them and their customers.

However, they either failed to discuss the new system and how it works with the event organizers, thus identifying exceptions they needed to account for.

Or, they did the above and didn't think those exceptions were very important or that the changes needed to be communicated to customers in advance of sales.

Either way, it appears like a bad decision. Now they can either decide to go back and figure out how to accommodate those exceptions or they can move forward and live with the inevitable backlash.

Do you think there is any backlash from this from anyone other than True Dungeon players that want to run Ghost Players? I'm not sure how much impact this has on non-True Dungeon events. From the GENCON point of view, this system might be accommodating the vast majority of their customers.

You make a valid point. If fits my definition of an "exception" and because it only applies to TD and only to a limited number of players they may not have deemed it important enough to address.

Someone suggested earlier that they were glad they were coaching and not working the check in desk.

Any disruption/delay at check in is going to have downstream effects on coaching, training and possibly even room 1 of the dungeon.

Dave wrote:

Mike Steele wrote:

Dave wrote: I feel fairly certain Gen Con cares about its customers and fairly certain that their intentions were to implement a new ticketing process that would benefit them and their customers.

However, they either failed to discuss the new system and how it works with the event organizers, thus identifying exceptions they needed to account for.

Or, they did the above and didn't think those exceptions were very important or that the changes needed to be communicated to customers in advance of sales.

Either way, it appears like a bad decision. Now they can either decide to go back and figure out how to accommodate those exceptions or they can move forward and live with the inevitable backlash.

Do you think there is any backlash from this from anyone other than True Dungeon players that want to run Ghost Players? I'm not sure how much impact this has on non-True Dungeon events. From the GENCON point of view, this system might be accommodating the vast majority of their customers.

You make a valid point. If fits my definition of an "exception" and because it only applies to TD and only to a limited number of players they may not have deemed it important enough to address.

Yes their system addresses the vast majority of customers. But it doesn’t address the minority which comprise GenCon’s premier event, with arguably the highest number of tickets and highest gross sales by dollar.

And to answer your question, I do not plan to ghost at GC but I’m furious about this situation. It’s the people who DON’T plan to ghost but have to at the last minute who are going to be impacted the most.

Eat a $2 ticket? Sucks but I’ll get over it. Make me pay $8 to turn it back in? Bite me. Eat multiple $78 tickets? Insert Hulk noises. All because too ignorant to plan for this, or too lazy to fix it? Arrogant and unforgivable.

I’m not maligning them for how we got here. But if they think the situation is okay, so they don’t have to address it, they are very wrong.

I’m done.

Brad Mortensen wrote:

Dave wrote:

Mike Steele wrote:

Dave wrote: I feel fairly certain Gen Con cares about its customers and fairly certain that their intentions were to implement a new ticketing process that would benefit them and their customers.

However, they either failed to discuss the new system and how it works with the event organizers, thus identifying exceptions they needed to account for.

Or, they did the above and didn't think those exceptions were very important or that the changes needed to be communicated to customers in advance of sales.

Either way, it appears like a bad decision. Now they can either decide to go back and figure out how to accommodate those exceptions or they can move forward and live with the inevitable backlash.

Do you think there is any backlash from this from anyone other than True Dungeon players that want to run Ghost Players? I'm not sure how much impact this has on non-True Dungeon events. From the GENCON point of view, this system might be accommodating the vast majority of their customers.

You make a valid point. If fits my definition of an "exception" and because it only applies to TD and only to a limited number of players they may not have deemed it important enough to address.

Yes their system addresses the vast majority of customers. But it doesn’t address the minority which comprise GenCon’s premier event, with arguably the highest number of tickets and highest gross sales by dollar.

And to answer your question, I do not plan to ghost at GC but I’m furious about this situation. It’s the people who DON’T plan to ghost but have to at the last minute who are going to be impacted the most.

Eat a $2 ticket? Sucks but I’ll get over it. Make me pay $8 to turn it back in? Bite me. Eat multiple $78 tickets? Insert Hulk noises. All because too ignorant to plan for this, or too lazy to fix it? Arrogant and unforgivable.

I’m not maligning them for how we got here. But if they think the situation is okay, so they don’t have to address it, they are very wrong.

I’m done.

There certainly is no indication of understanding or inclination to fix being displayed over on the GenCon official forums.