Registration Experience (Good or bad?)

[buzz]

Should they really be expected to pay thousands of dollars more to accomodate a peak load that only lasts a day or 3 out of the year?

Yes. Given that it's a registration system, I don't see it as unreasonable to expect that, yes, it will work when people try to register.

GenCon sees about 25,000 attendees. Since we know that not all of these people register for events, and not all of these people register in the first three days (much less the first three hours), we can estimate that the number of people hitting the server when registration opens is less than this number. As many of the IT folk who frequent gaming sites can tell you, building a system that can handle this load wihtout grinding to a halt every year is well within GenCon, LLC's budget. If ENWorld can be functional with over 2000 users on at the same time, surely an organization that's actually operating at a profit can set up a registration databse that won't hose itself the minute registration opens.

It's not a money issue. It's a competency issue.

Saying, essentially, that GenCon attendees --most of whom take on travel, lodging, and eating expenses to attend-- should just get used to it becasue GenCon, LLC can't be expected to bother improving the system is something that I, honestly, find sort of insulting.

 

[Mark]

Should they really be expected to pay thousands of dollars more to accomodate a peak load that only lasts a day or 3 out of the year?

Should umbrellas be waterproof?

 

[devilish]

My issue is not with load times and crashes : I went through that last year and
while frustrating, it felt good when you finally got on and registered.

I think the software/process they're using this year is a major step backward from
last -- they designed the system to be less of a load on the system (no more
spot searches -- just download the spreadsheet) and it *still* underpeforms.

 

[DonTadow]

Yes. Given that it's a registration system, I don't see it as unreasonable to expect that, yes, it will work when people try to register.

GenCon sees about 25,000 attendees. Since we know that not all of these people register for events, and not all of these people register in the first three days (much less the first three hours), we can estimate that the number of people hitting the server when registration opens is less than this number. As many of the IT folk who frequent gaming sites can tell you, building a system that can handle this load wihtout grinding to a halt every year is well within GenCon, LLC's budget. If ENWorld can be functional with over 2000 users on at the same time, surely an organization that's actually operating at a profit can set up a registration databse that won't hose itself the minute registration opens.

It's not a money issue. It's a competency issue.

Saying, essentially, that GenCon attendees --most of whom take on travel, lodging, and eating expenses to attend-- should just get used to it becasue GenCon, LLC can't be expected to bother improving the system is something that I, honestly, find sort of insulting.

I don't know. This is my field and it is not an easy task to ask for stability and accuracy. I think its the accuracy part that slows down he process. Also, Gencon allows you to put a virtual something in a bag and hold it, reducing the invetory and it needed to program in a way to be able to put that something back. I still thing that they are trying the best they can. I can't think of one other company that does it. Someone mentioned Ticketmaster earlier but even there system has a "cushion" in case of error. Gencon doesnt have that luxury.

 

[buzz]

I don't know. This is my field and it is not an easy task to ask for stability and accuracy. I think its the accuracy part that slows down he process. Also, Gencon allows you to put a virtual something in a bag and hold it, reducing the invetory and it needed to program in a way to be able to put that something back. I still thing that they are trying the best they can. I can't think of one other company that does it. Someone mentioned Ticketmaster earlier but even there system has a "cushion" in case of error. Gencon doesnt have that luxury.

Well, Ticketmaster is on a whole 'nother level from GenCon, so I don't know how apt a comparison that is, but I see what you're saying. I'm not trying to imply that what GenCon needs to do is easy. I'm saying that I think it's within their grasp, and they owe it to their customers. I also work in the Web arena, and I know that it's doable (or that, at least, there is ample room for improvement).

The "it's only three days a year so why should they have to bother" idea is the main thing I have an issue with.

 

[kigmatzomat]

I think the problem is that since they have never seen it *work* under peak load they have no idea how big they need it to be. Since they are at >100% load they can't record enough requests or be sure how many unique users they have pounding on them. Each time they upgrade their system enough to hit the next limit.

We also have no idea how much they inherited from TSR. Were there any multi-year contracts that GenCon LLC can't afford to break? How much hardware came with the Gencon purchase that was too expensive to abandon no matter how ill suited it is?

The important thing to me is that I'm not wasting my con-time in line getting into games. I'm much happier knowing that I'm going to get to Indy with my badge, room, and event tickets already in hand so come 8am I can dive into a game, dealer room, or what have you.

 

[Nareth]

I had no real problem getting into the registration, seeing as I waited until Tuesday. Of course, by then a lot of the games I was looking at were booked. But, I did get into a few, including one of the True Dungeon late night events, and I was able to get all the seminars I wanted with no trouble.

 

[DonTadow]

I think the problem is that since they have never seen it *work* under peak load they have no idea how big they need it to be. Since they are at >100% load they can't record enough requests or be sure how many unique users they have pounding on them. Each time they upgrade their system enough to hit the next limit.

We also have no idea how much they inherited from TSR. Were there any multi-year contracts that GenCon LLC can't afford to break? How much hardware came with the Gencon purchase that was too expensive to abandon no matter how ill suited it is?

The important thing to me is that I'm not wasting my con-time in line getting into games. I'm much happier knowing that I'm going to get to Indy with my badge, room, and event tickets already in hand so come 8am I can dive into a game, dealer room, or what have you.

We're making a lot of assumptions. Unless they are the complete idiots others have said, I can't see them doing a stress test before going live.

But you are correct there's alot we don't know. I just don't buy the money hoarding theory. But, in order for the system to be what some want, you'd probably need a system as sophicasted as ticket masters but, more advanced because you don't have a cushion. This is the fourth year that tickets have been online and it is a vast improvement from ,feeling out a form and mailing it in and hoping that you got something that you wanted.

I can't see a good argument to support event singup at the venue. I don't think its a great vacation to spend the first day in lines. Plus, if any of you remember, the lines (though shorter each year) are still atocisous WITH event signup. Just imagine the lines if everyone had to register at the event and people sat and corrected form after form because of sellouts.

My only fault with the system, is them not addressing the issues. I"m sure they can be explained and i hate that they don't feel the need to explain. True, it is a few people working there but still.

 

[Mixmaster]

<SNIP> Why not register next week?

.

It's as simple as this. I wanted to play:

LG Special (main event)
Hackmaster World Championships
True Dungeon
Dungeon Crawl Classics

All of these are multiple table, multiple time, multiple day events.

If I waited a week, I would have gotten..... NONE OF THEM!!

THAT. IS. WHY.

The lottery idea makes some sense (a lot of sense IMHO), but people who complain about it also. The reason people are so frustrated is GenCon LLC "attitude" about this. Go on the GenCon forums and read their replies after last year's event registration and this year's badge registration SNAFU's. Read the posts about the issues that Fathead brought up and the nonchalance(sp?) that their tech guy gave in return. Then come back and bring your points.

Furthermore, If they knew it only supports 1000 users at a time, and bothered not to let us know or set something up smacks of (pick one).

Burying your head in the sand and hoping
Ignorance
Incompetence
Arrogance
Other (I'm willing to listen)

 

[Mixmaster]

Well, Ticketmaster is on a whole 'nother level from GenCon, so I don't know how apt a comparison that is, but I see what you're saying. I'm not trying to imply that what GenCon needs to do is easy. I'm saying that I think it's within their grasp, and they owe it to their customers. I also work in the Web arena, and I know that it's doable (or that, at least, there is ample room for improvement).

The "it's only three days a year so why should they have to bother" idea is the main thing I have an issue with.

We have GenCon's system (a couple thousand allegedly) and Ticketmaster (a few hundred thousand). What, there's nothing in between? I do wonder if they're using Andon's old system. Andon did this for GenCon the year or two before Hasbro/GenCon LLC.