TOPIC: Electronic tickets

Jeff321 wrote: There is some info here, but certainly not all the answers: www.gencon.com/attend/e-ticketing

One thing of note which may resolve Kent's issue of the ticket being in his wife's name:

In your Gen Con account, you will be able to give individual E-Tickets to anyone on your Friends list. (Not implemented yet, so details TBD)

Marian posted this a few hours ago on the GenCon forums.

What will happen is that you, as ticket holder, will have your badge scanned for your ticket, and then for each additional ticket, your badge will be scanned and then the ticket holder will be. This can happen at different times, so they can come in sporadically, but I think it's more efficient to just wait till they are all there. There is now, no way to allocate individually.
Marian McBrine
Event Coordinator
Gen Con LLC

Harlax wrote:

Jeff Martin wrote:
What about the grind that we got in my wifes cart? She isnt going on the grind, i am.

Technically this should have never been possible because of GEN CON policy. We'll work it out somehow, but her badge will need to be there to redeem ANY tickets she bought for TG.

This will be news to a lot of people. I know some tickets were bought with a different understanding.

It looks like tickets can now be sent to folks, so this no longer applies. No worries. She could just transfer tickets. This was not possible with paper tickets -- technically.

I can foresee a lot of problems with this system, aside from the logistics aspects discussed so far. Just one example would be the system will likely have to be connected to the main Gencon database via wireless ethernet. As we have seen, wireless connections in the basement of Lucas Oil are unreliable. So how does the system handle disconnection from the main servers? There are a lot of people with a lot of money tied up in TD tickets, based on a system that hasn't even been fully designed yet, let alone fully tested, under actual conditions.

I am just saying that you will need some contingency plan for system problems, so people aren't late getting into their events.

Jeff Martin wrote:

Harlax wrote:

Jeff Martin wrote:
What about the grind that we got in my wifes cart? She isnt going on the grind, i am.

Technically this should have never been possible because of GEN CON policy. We'll work it out somehow, but her badge will need to be there to redeem ANY tickets she bought for TG.

This will be news to a lot of people. I know some tickets were bought with a different understanding.

It looks like tickets can now be sent to folks, so this no longer applies. No worries. She could just transfer tickets. This was not possible with paper tickets -- technically.

How do you transfer the tickets?

New thought:
If TD is still using wristbands, can the purchaser of a full run check in for all 10 tickets, then distribute them as people arrive?
If the answer is 'no' because of waivers, can the purchaser collect signed waivers from all 10 players and hand those over as they check in? Kinda the reverse of distributing tickets.

If 'no' because every badge needs to be scanned, then i have a different concern...
How will ghosting work? I know of two planned 5-person runs, where each player uses 2 tickets. Will the system allow us to do that?

Since ghosting is allowed, the system should support multiple tickets per badge.

If not, need to post prior to the cutoff for mailing badges so people can decide a course of action.

Cranston wrote: I can foresee a lot of problems with this system, aside from the logistics aspects discussed so far. Just one example would be the system will likely have to be connected to the main Gencon database via wireless ethernet. As we have seen, wireless connections in the basement of Lucas Oil are unreliable. So how does the system handle disconnection from the main servers? There are a lot of people with a lot of money tied up in TD tickets, based on a system that hasn't even been fully designed yet, let alone fully tested, under actual conditions.

I am just saying that you will need some contingency plan for system problems, so people aren't late getting into their events.

Here's hoping it won't be a wireless set up.

According to GenCon's e-ticketing FAQ the system is designed so it will still work offline....

Will E-ticketing work without a cell or wi-fi connection?

Yes, the Gen Con smartphone app is designed to work offline during your event. However, it needs a network connection at some point before and after your event to load and reconcile ticketing data.

Just accept that things are going to be a !#%^show and there's no amount of worrying or planning that will make it any better. This way, any deviation from complete and utter disaster will be an unexpected upside. I'm not sure I'd trust gencon to tie their own shoes correctly if it was the first time they were attempting it.

henwy wrote: Just accept that things are going to be a !#%^show and there's no amount of worrying or planning that will make it any better. This way, any deviation from complete and utter disaster will be an unexpected upside. I'm not sure I'd trust gencon to tie their own shoes correctly if it was the first time they were attempting it.

This made me laugh. Because it’s true

So just spoke with GenCon phone line about something and they said that if someone bought all 10 tickets for a run they should be able to scan just their badge and pick up everything (that is if TD allows it). Take it with a grain of salt because the person may have not known what they were talking about.

I think that Kent's idea would be great. Bring in signed waivers for all 10 people and then pick up all wrist bands and distribute.

My first volunteer job was the revamped XP desk in 2013. If the new ticketing system goes as sideways as that process did, it could be a very long Con for the customer service desk volunteers.