I have written this post in the attempt to shed some light and make others realize what it takes to bring Minecon to Minecraft fans. I DID NOT write this to belittle, shame, offend or be mean to anyone. I just want to give some perspective to Minecon and how much effort is made to make it happen...
I have read lots of people complaining about Mojang not being fair with ticket sales, not enough tickets, why can't they add more people to the convention, etc etc etc... so let's get down to the whole picture of a convention.
Minecon 2013 is being held at a convention center where 7500 people are attending. There are such things called "building codes" 7500 people in one room need to be evacuated safely and efficiently IF something goes wrong i.e. a fire, and God forbid any such thing would happen but that's why we have building codes and laws. Minecon has at least been planned ahead of time at least a whole year in advance. I guarantee you they will NOT be selling any additional ticket unless they change the venue which is highly doubtful because like I said it take a lot of time to plan conferences this large.
Secondly, so let's say if they did decide to sell tickets at the door who's to say they won't sell out at the door too? SO the thousands of people that didn't get their ticket show up in Orlando from all over the world and then some find out while standing in line at the convention center that yet again they sell out? Not only some will not get in at that point but they lost out on time , travel , and money from booking a trip to Orlando.
Ticket prices are way too high! Well, It's a two day convention in an air conditioned building that they rent. Venues charge a fee for events, Mojang hires consultants and organizers to make Minecon happen, production teams have to set up for the event, etc etc etc... Have you taken a look at ticket prices at nearby attraction in Orlando? Look at Disney World's Magic Kingdom, SeaWorld and Universal Studios per day ticket prices. Mojang is about the same price if not lower per day than they admission to some of those theme parks.
Everyone needs to take a step back and look at the entire picture. Sure it sounds easy to sell a ticket but there are many many other factors involved on why Mojang or any other convention has limitations on how many people can attend an event. Mojang has lots of logistical things they need to figure out and not all expectations can be met, They have to figure out what they can sell tickets at for the lowest amount for their fans and not drain their budget. They have to find out a city that can actually host 7500 people with hotel accommodations , food , transportation, security, and so on. Orlando has a large population already and you have to remember 7500+ will put a load on to an already heavily tourist area. Oh, and did you know Minecon isn't the only event going on at the Orange County Convent Center that weekend? There's another convention and a school's graduation on that Saturday as well and they're both in West Hall which is the same hall Minecon is in.
Those are just some of the things I can think of when it comes to planning and hosting such a huge event. There are plenty more factors on why Mojang has decided on the pricing and number of tickets being sold. This is how the real world works folks and everyone needs to realize how hard and how much effort people make to host any event of this nature. So, before someone else decides to complain in a new post about everything that has or not happened for Minecon imagine being in their shoes and trying to plan an event like Minecon within reason.
BTW, even though no one from Mojang will probably read this post but thanks for working on bringing Minecon to thousands of fans. Thanks to everyone who had a role in planning and making it possible. There will be people that will curse and be a mad at you all but remember there will be many many others who appreciate what you do.
Agreed. I feel a bit bad for the organizers that their hard work and good intentions have been met with quite a bit of anger this time around. It's important to point out what you have to keep things in perspective.
That said, I hope a few things can be learned.
- The ticketing site was terrible at maintaining a true line which awarded tickets to who came first. It was more of a random lottery because the site was easily gamed and overloaded. At the very least a CAPTCHA system could have been implemented...that's quick and easy. Then it wouldn't have been possible to easily create bots to purchase the tickets.
- If Mojang is serious about only allowing the original purchaser into the event and is truely going to ID everyone anyway why not hold all the tickets at will call? That would have prevented all of the current ebay sales and scalping. Now people who bought tickets for friends and family are completely confused by Mojangs policies regarding entry into this event.
- It was an overall fustrating experiance for people. Tickets went on sale the day they were announced so some people missed out on the first Friday sale. "Sold Out" didn't appear for over an hour with Batch 1, 45 minutes with batch 2 and 30 minutes with Batch 3. That meant a lot of time hitting refresh trying to get a ticket. For most, it didn't pay off. I've never had such a frustrating experiance with any other ticket site as the queued lines don't usually error out if the servers can handle the load.
Agreed. I feel a bit bad for the organizers that their hard work and good intentions have been met with quite a bit of anger this time around. It's important to point out what you have to keep things in perspective.
That said, I hope a few things can be learned.
- The ticketing site was terrible at maintaining a true line which awarded tickets to who came first. It was more of a random lottery because the site was easily gamed and overloaded. At the very least a CAPTCHA system could have been implemented...that's quick and easy. Then it wouldn't have been possible to easily create bots to purchase the tickets.
- If Mojang is serious about only allowing the original purchaser into the event and is truely going to ID everyone anyway why not hold all the tickets at will call? That would have prevented all of the current ebay sales and scalping. Now people who bought tickets for friends and family are completely confused by Mojangs policies regarding entry into this event.
- It was an overall fustrating experiance for people. Tickets went on sale the day they were announced so some people missed out on the first Friday sale. "Sold Out" didn't appear for over an hour with Batch 1, 45 minutes with batch 2 and 30 minutes with Batch 3. That meant a lot of time hitting refresh trying to get a ticket. For most, it didn't pay off. I've never had such a frustrating experiance with any other ticket site as the queued lines don't usually error out if the servers can handle the load.
Ah yes, EventBrite didn't have a captcha word challenge in order to buy the tickets from what I recall. I got my ticket on the first batch and I had to refresh for 30 minutes before being able to actually buy a ticket. They could have used ticket vendors to sell their tickets like Ticket Master or Live Nation but then again who knows how much of a difference cost would have been for them to use those other vendors over EventBrite.
Hope everything goes good at the Lobby and we wont have a Kiddy Riot because somebody bought a fake or an resold Ticket
Imagine a family who paid ebay prices + flights + hotel showing up to the convention with thier kids, whose dream it was to attend minecon, getting denied entrance?
My guess is that if the barcode is not already used they will be getting in regardless of who originally bought the ticket. If not, it will make for some interesting YouTube videos.
I have read lots of people complaining about Mojang not being fair with ticket sales, not enough tickets, why can't they add more people to the convention, etc etc etc... so let's get down to the whole picture of a convention.
Minecon 2013 is being held at a convention center where 7500 people are attending. There are such things called "building codes" 7500 people in one room need to be evacuated safely and efficiently IF something goes wrong i.e. a fire, and God forbid any such thing would happen but that's why we have building codes and laws. Minecon has at least been planned ahead of time at least a whole year in advance. I guarantee you they will NOT be selling any additional ticket unless they change the venue which is highly doubtful because like I said it take a lot of time to plan conferences this large.
Secondly, so let's say if they did decide to sell tickets at the door who's to say they won't sell out at the door too? SO the thousands of people that didn't get their ticket show up in Orlando from all over the world and then some find out while standing in line at the convention center that yet again they sell out? Not only some will not get in at that point but they lost out on time , travel , and money from booking a trip to Orlando.
Ticket prices are way too high! Well, It's a two day convention in an air conditioned building that they rent. Venues charge a fee for events, Mojang hires consultants and organizers to make Minecon happen, production teams have to set up for the event, etc etc etc... Have you taken a look at ticket prices at nearby attraction in Orlando? Look at Disney World's Magic Kingdom, SeaWorld and Universal Studios per day ticket prices. Mojang is about the same price if not lower per day than they admission to some of those theme parks.
Everyone needs to take a step back and look at the entire picture. Sure it sounds easy to sell a ticket but there are many many other factors involved on why Mojang or any other convention has limitations on how many people can attend an event. Mojang has lots of logistical things they need to figure out and not all expectations can be met, They have to figure out what they can sell tickets at for the lowest amount for their fans and not drain their budget. They have to find out a city that can actually host 7500 people with hotel accommodations , food , transportation, security, and so on. Orlando has a large population already and you have to remember 7500+ will put a load on to an already heavily tourist area. Oh, and did you know Minecon isn't the only event going on at the Orange County Convent Center that weekend? There's another convention and a school's graduation on that Saturday as well and they're both in West Hall which is the same hall Minecon is in.
Those are just some of the things I can think of when it comes to planning and hosting such a huge event. There are plenty more factors on why Mojang has decided on the pricing and number of tickets being sold. This is how the real world works folks and everyone needs to realize how hard and how much effort people make to host any event of this nature. So, before someone else decides to complain in a new post about everything that has or not happened for Minecon imagine being in their shoes and trying to plan an event like Minecon within reason.
BTW, even though no one from Mojang will probably read this post but thanks for working on bringing Minecon to thousands of fans. Thanks to everyone who had a role in planning and making it possible. There will be people that will curse and be a mad at you all but remember there will be many many others who appreciate what you do.
-Viet
That said, I hope a few things can be learned.
- The ticketing site was terrible at maintaining a true line which awarded tickets to who came first. It was more of a random lottery because the site was easily gamed and overloaded. At the very least a CAPTCHA system could have been implemented...that's quick and easy. Then it wouldn't have been possible to easily create bots to purchase the tickets.
- If Mojang is serious about only allowing the original purchaser into the event and is truely going to ID everyone anyway why not hold all the tickets at will call? That would have prevented all of the current ebay sales and scalping. Now people who bought tickets for friends and family are completely confused by Mojangs policies regarding entry into this event.
- It was an overall fustrating experiance for people. Tickets went on sale the day they were announced so some people missed out on the first Friday sale. "Sold Out" didn't appear for over an hour with Batch 1, 45 minutes with batch 2 and 30 minutes with Batch 3. That meant a lot of time hitting refresh trying to get a ticket. For most, it didn't pay off. I've never had such a frustrating experiance with any other ticket site as the queued lines don't usually error out if the servers can handle the load.
Ah yes, EventBrite didn't have a captcha word challenge in order to buy the tickets from what I recall. I got my ticket on the first batch and I had to refresh for 30 minutes before being able to actually buy a ticket. They could have used ticket vendors to sell their tickets like Ticket Master or Live Nation but then again who knows how much of a difference cost would have been for them to use those other vendors over EventBrite.
Thanks for reminding me to bring my camera to catch that on video if it happens!
Imagine a family who paid ebay prices + flights + hotel showing up to the convention with thier kids, whose dream it was to attend minecon, getting denied entrance?
My guess is that if the barcode is not already used they will be getting in regardless of who originally bought the ticket. If not, it will make for some interesting YouTube videos.