@karma_cat - sorry if my post came off as condescending, but it's difficult to take such a lengthy rant that's essentially pre-failed a system that hasn't done its thing yet. The initial test run went incredibly well, and so far the main sale has been doing the same. We'll have a much better
idea on how well the system works on Tuesday/Wednesday when the drawing takes place. Where the system seems to fail you is that
it's not magic. It can't magically make sure that there are enough tickets for everybody. It can't magically limit the number of people who register. If you look at the multitude of info on the site posted since November, it's clear that it was impossible to predict with any kind of accuracy how much demand there would be for tickets in January. Because of last year's sellout, there was not only the risk of professional scalpers, but the very real risk of very significant hoarding. Artists who might want to grab a few extra tickets for fundraising purposes. Camps that might want to do the same. And burners who have campmates that are great people who never seem to get their act together until the last minute. The number of new burners, while generally a pretty steady growth kind of number, is still something of a wildcard - one viral video and those numbers can shoot right through the roof. The whole
idea of registration and a drawing was designed as way to deal with excessive demand, as well as a way to limit scalpers. Those who were bent on hoarding always had the option of getting friends/family/campmates to register for more than they needed. Unfortunately since there are only so many tickets to be had that comes at the expense of other burners, but people have a tendency to think 'fuck you, me first' in times of scarcity. Going the route of fc/fs would eliminate the panic-driven hoarding (ppl who double register to make sure they get at least what they need), but it doesn't prevent all the rest of the hoarding and it has zero in the way of protection against the scalperbots and proxies. The registration/drawing route does a fairly solid job of blocking scalpers, but leaves the door open for panic-driven hoarding (IMO, I'd much rather block the pro scalpers). Avoiding a repeat of first day server issues (as we've seen in past years) was only a side benefit, the system was re-worked and designed to deal with the environment of scarcity. It's doing what it was designed to do.
@vargaso - well said. Crashes, while a pain in the ass, wasn't the big issue. Sure, even the guys at Ticketmaster/LiveNation have server problems when big events go on sale, and if you've ever experienced a kick-out on a fast
selling event it SUCKS… but server issues are fairly addressable with technology (ie cloud computing). As for tiered prices, they reduced the number of tiers this year and I expect they'll eventually go away completely - we'll see how things go for next year.
@Jennifersteppat - we don't yet know just how many people were doubling up (or worse) on registrations. Yes, the average was for 1.7 tickets per registrant, and the suspicion is there's a lot of hoarding… but we don't yet know how things will break down. Remember, there was a massively awesome video about the event going completely viral during registration. It put the event in the hearts and minds of veterans and virgins alike. But hopefully you get good news in the week ahead
@socks - those who plan…burn. You enter the main sale and hopefully get tickets (not everybody who registered for tickets will get them, but there will be 40K tickets awarded). If that doesn't happen, you look into the secure
ticket exchange thing or go for the secondary sale. I don't think that people who sell extra tickets at or below face value are stupid at all, I think they're good people.
@burntjburn - well said with regards to having the extras in the community rather than in the hands of scalpers. Unfortunately, once the
ticket has been sold the state of Nevada (whose laws govern the event) says scalping's legal. There'd be a lot of other technical/logistical issues with that plan too, but the legal one is a showstopper.
@mofessor - I believe there are different types of hoarder…. those covering for campmates or an art project, profiteering, and panic-buying. The first two aren't going to even consider the
ticket exchange, they had other plans for those tickets from the start. The third group was worried about not being able to get tickets, so they doubled up (some even boasted of tripling up) their chances. The
ticket exchange, IMO, gives people who end up with extra tickets (whether it's because of panic buying or somebody just couldn't go after all) an easy way to do the right thing. I also think that the registration process does a fair job of blocking scalpers. Will it block everything? Most likely not, but it throws a massive wrench into the works of the bots and proxies, which in itself makes a registration/drawing system worthwhile over a first come, first serve system.
@The Bruce - there was a reduction in the number of tiers this year, and we may very well see no more tiers in 2013. The cap, however, will not likely be dropped anytime soon. As others mentioned, it's a road capacity thing. Hopefully over the next few years either the great state of Nevada sees fit to widen it, or some gracious benefactor offers to pick up the tab.
