Well, it’s been almost a week since Comic-Con tickets were released to the public and as usual, the air is full of mixed feelings. Those who got tickets are basking in relief while those who didn’t are striving to find a way into the convention. Of course, due to area restrictions, many people are left out each year. However, Comic-Con International does its best to make the process fair...right?
In recent years, Comic-Con has had the problem of crashes on the day of the opening ticket sales. This year, they devised a brilliant plan to stop these crashes. Just as lines are made in buildings to prevent trampling and chaos, they devised a virtual line in order to restrict the amount of buyers on the site at the same time. It worked brilliantly...well...at least in the sense that their servers didn’t crash. However, with that issue resolved, another arose. Each person could buy tickets for five other people at the same time as their own.
“But what’s wrong with that? Doesn’t it just make the whole thing more efficient?” Sure, it greatly reduced the risk of a crash and it made things go a lot faster. Let me explain the problem by using an example of a physical line. Imagine waiting in line in real life to get Comic-Con tickets. You see someone pulling up one of his buddies from the back of the line to the front, as commonly happens in real life. You may get a bit peeved, but it does not make that big of a difference since you are the fiftieth in line and there are one hundred tickets left. Now imagine that each of the people in front of you calls up five of their friends to cut in front of them. You just got pushed back beyond any hope of getting a ticket. This is exactly what thousands upon thousands of people experienced last Saturday.
Comic-Con has much to learn from the way last Saturday turned out. However, there are simply too many people wanting to attend for everyone to be satisfied...at least until the San Diego Convention Center receives major expansions. It seems like the only way to be sure to get 2013 Comic-Con tickets is through preordering.
-Shen
In recent years, Comic-Con has had the problem of crashes on the day of the opening ticket sales. This year, they devised a brilliant plan to stop these crashes. Just as lines are made in buildings to prevent trampling and chaos, they devised a virtual line in order to restrict the amount of buyers on the site at the same time. It worked brilliantly...well...at least in the sense that their servers didn’t crash. However, with that issue resolved, another arose. Each person could buy tickets for five other people at the same time as their own.
“But what’s wrong with that? Doesn’t it just make the whole thing more efficient?” Sure, it greatly reduced the risk of a crash and it made things go a lot faster. Let me explain the problem by using an example of a physical line. Imagine waiting in line in real life to get Comic-Con tickets. You see someone pulling up one of his buddies from the back of the line to the front, as commonly happens in real life. You may get a bit peeved, but it does not make that big of a difference since you are the fiftieth in line and there are one hundred tickets left. Now imagine that each of the people in front of you calls up five of their friends to cut in front of them. You just got pushed back beyond any hope of getting a ticket. This is exactly what thousands upon thousands of people experienced last Saturday.
Comic-Con has much to learn from the way last Saturday turned out. However, there are simply too many people wanting to attend for everyone to be satisfied...at least until the San Diego Convention Center receives major expansions. It seems like the only way to be sure to get 2013 Comic-Con tickets is through preordering.
-Shen