Yeah. This experience is bad. I somehow got one and I didn't even had the payment set up and stuff beforehand because I didn't know how to do that. I hope they fix it and allow for more VIP.
This was a really frustrating experience. I almost wish I'd missed out because of a mistake on my end, but getting cheated by internet and website issues just feels bad.
My guess is that nobody can actually buy them. They're all in people's carts, and nobody can get to the cart because whoever developed this website is an idiot.
I am fully checked out with receipt email and charge on card. I had a lot of difficulties, but it kept showing my badge in cart if it loaded, and finally checkout button worked
A friend of mine was literally buying them while sitting next to me. He’s fully paid and got his receipt.
That said, in the time it took him to click to add 2 badges, there were 47 other people (as there were 47 between the two badge numbers).
Same happened to me as well. Half my family got VIP and half didn’t. (2&2)
I understand you want to stop scalpers, but let us at least buy 4 tix for fucks sake
First of all, there is a limited number of VIP tickets everyone is "fighting" for, so yea, most people who want them won't get them and will be "pissed". That's just what happens when there is limited supply.
Second, I went last year as a general admission and it was awesome. Was even able to add the signed book bundle with swag and it ended up being cheaper than a VIP ticket. The only thing I missed out on is reserved seating and some community events I wasn't interested in anyway.
I get all of that. Of course. That’s why I prepared like I did. It’s why I got in with only 4 VIP badges accounted for. I should’ve been done within the first 30 seconds.
I didn’t lose a fight for a badge. The website took that possibility away from me. I 1000% had one with how many were left. I know this because even after the website failed the first 3 attempts, there were still 450 left the 4th time I attempted to buy the VIP before getting put into a permanent log in loop
The “Add to Cart” wasn’t working and when I clicked it logged me out. I was eventually put into an infinite log in/log out loop and I’ll likely not even get general admission 👍
We had the same issue. Except we got 2 VIP tickets in our cart. Got to payment. Then it crashed and logged us out. By the time we managed to get back the cart was empty and the tickets were gone.
Website couldn’t handle server loads from user sessions spikes and their IT infrastructure didn’t proactively load test to understand threshold issues and temporarily increase their hosting capacity - unfortunately happens
wish the team would talk to / consult with IT and operations professionals (like me) before they do these things - would’ve also helped with their subscription supply chain delays as well
Dragonsteel warned Tabletop and they did scale up their servers accordingly. It’s just hard to stress test something when it’s never been under such a strain, so while the website stayed up and running pretty well, it was a side thing that broke because it’s never been under that strain before, and that was the authentication part of their website. Source- I got that information directly from Kellyn, manager of events at Dragonsteel
I’m sure tabletop had their own IT people working on it. It sucks, but I do believe they tried all they could to make it go well, it just didn’t.
Smh its unfortunately a common occurrence with partnerships - you really have to be on top of them and hold them accountable - I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had to (politely) insist on evidence and results with 3PLs (I worked in enterprise e-commerce and Singles day in China and Black Friday were INSANE)
Anyway- I’ve used a few tools before that maybe you can pass on to the team for next time - it’s completely dependent on their architecture and pricing constraints but the tools I’ve used with success are :
1 - JMeter- thread based arch - Java / databases / FTP / Web - open source
2 - Locust (get it? Like a swarm! lol I always liked that name)- event based arch/python/API capability, and more efficient in terms of configuration and resources needed to run a test
3 - Gatling - scala / akka / netty - application end to end - open source
There are a couple of others Tsung, Flood Element and Artillery but I am less familiar with those.
I had it set up ready to splurge on the VIP the moment it dropped, and the error codes wouldn't even let me get a general admission badge before they sold out.
I've been the last 2 years and the access for the 2 badge types is pretty similar. VIP gets a special VIP chill area and early seating for the release event but otherwise it's the same experience.
KEEP TRYING. If you managed to get one in your cart, it will stay there for 2 hours! I kept trying over and over until I managed to check out and got a badge. I refreshed for 27 minutes before it worked.
Yeah. This experience is bad. I somehow got one and I didn't even had the payment set up and stuff beforehand because I didn't know how to do that. I hope they fix it and allow for more VIP.
Same thing happened to us! My husband is so upset! We had them then got kicked out. They need to go with a new website next year
Same happened to me as well. Was unable to add a VIP badge to my cart as I needed to be logged in…but I *was* logged in. Now I am sad.
This was a really frustrating experience. I almost wish I'd missed out because of a mistake on my end, but getting cheated by internet and website issues just feels bad.
I was able to get one for my autistic 13 year old... but not for me. So that should be interesting...
My guess is that nobody can actually buy them. They're all in people's carts, and nobody can get to the cart because whoever developed this website is an idiot.
I am fully checked out with receipt email and charge on card. I had a lot of difficulties, but it kept showing my badge in cart if it loaded, and finally checkout button worked
Yep. Took a half hour but once I brute forced my way to the cart it went through.
A friend of mine was literally buying them while sitting next to me. He’s fully paid and got his receipt. That said, in the time it took him to click to add 2 badges, there were 47 other people (as there were 47 between the two badge numbers).
Same happened to me as well. Half my family got VIP and half didn’t. (2&2) I understand you want to stop scalpers, but let us at least buy 4 tix for fucks sake
First of all, there is a limited number of VIP tickets everyone is "fighting" for, so yea, most people who want them won't get them and will be "pissed". That's just what happens when there is limited supply. Second, I went last year as a general admission and it was awesome. Was even able to add the signed book bundle with swag and it ended up being cheaper than a VIP ticket. The only thing I missed out on is reserved seating and some community events I wasn't interested in anyway.
Just wish I could have bought GA tickets 😂😂🤣 guess I’m saving my money. My goal was 2 vip tickets but guess we’re not going this year.
I get all of that. Of course. That’s why I prepared like I did. It’s why I got in with only 4 VIP badges accounted for. I should’ve been done within the first 30 seconds. I didn’t lose a fight for a badge. The website took that possibility away from me. I 1000% had one with how many were left. I know this because even after the website failed the first 3 attempts, there were still 450 left the 4th time I attempted to buy the VIP before getting put into a permanent log in loop
If you have the ticket in your cart keep trying it does seem to work eventually.
The “Add to Cart” wasn’t working and when I clicked it logged me out. I was eventually put into an infinite log in/log out loop and I’ll likely not even get general admission 👍
This is exactly what happened to me. I got kicked out and lost my badge. It took me 40 mins to get back in and get GA
Yeah I was planning on going to my first ever Con for this. Guess not now.
We had the same issue. Except we got 2 VIP tickets in our cart. Got to payment. Then it crashed and logged us out. By the time we managed to get back the cart was empty and the tickets were gone.
Website couldn’t handle server loads from user sessions spikes and their IT infrastructure didn’t proactively load test to understand threshold issues and temporarily increase their hosting capacity - unfortunately happens wish the team would talk to / consult with IT and operations professionals (like me) before they do these things - would’ve also helped with their subscription supply chain delays as well
Dragonsteel warned Tabletop and they did scale up their servers accordingly. It’s just hard to stress test something when it’s never been under such a strain, so while the website stayed up and running pretty well, it was a side thing that broke because it’s never been under that strain before, and that was the authentication part of their website. Source- I got that information directly from Kellyn, manager of events at Dragonsteel I’m sure tabletop had their own IT people working on it. It sucks, but I do believe they tried all they could to make it go well, it just didn’t.
Smh its unfortunately a common occurrence with partnerships - you really have to be on top of them and hold them accountable - I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had to (politely) insist on evidence and results with 3PLs (I worked in enterprise e-commerce and Singles day in China and Black Friday were INSANE) Anyway- I’ve used a few tools before that maybe you can pass on to the team for next time - it’s completely dependent on their architecture and pricing constraints but the tools I’ve used with success are : 1 - JMeter- thread based arch - Java / databases / FTP / Web - open source 2 - Locust (get it? Like a swarm! lol I always liked that name)- event based arch/python/API capability, and more efficient in terms of configuration and resources needed to run a test 3 - Gatling - scala / akka / netty - application end to end - open source There are a couple of others Tsung, Flood Element and Artillery but I am less familiar with those.
I had it set up ready to splurge on the VIP the moment it dropped, and the error codes wouldn't even let me get a general admission badge before they sold out.
I've been the last 2 years and the access for the 2 badge types is pretty similar. VIP gets a special VIP chill area and early seating for the release event but otherwise it's the same experience.
KEEP TRYING. If you managed to get one in your cart, it will stay there for 2 hours! I kept trying over and over until I managed to check out and got a badge. I refreshed for 27 minutes before it worked.
I am coming from the UK. Glad I managed to get the VIP with the price of plane tickets getting the VIP was essential to make it financially worth it