GenCon 2015 and the 6th Annual RPPR Fan Meet-up: The Edition Wars Edition

[Tadanori Oyama]

Just bought my badge.

Cost plus shipping and taxes come to $100.00 so be prepared for that (slightly less if you do will call).

Remember: you must have a badge to register for housing on Sunday.

[Marik]

Just got my badge as well.

I currently have three rooms reserved that I can cancel. Two at the Sheraton and one at the embassy suites. I'm hoping to get a couple through the block. If anyone strikes out I may be able to help them with a room though.

I did the same thing last year and managed to pass off an extra room to Noah. This is the most stressful part of the Con.

The meetup is still going to be a friday night event this year? I'm not having anything scheduled that night this year. Hated to cut out early last year.

Marik/Josh

[BeyondSandrock]

It will probably be either Thursday or Friday depending on everyones schedules. Once we get closer to July and the events are locked in we'll lock in a day.

[Tadanori Oyama]

Normally the meet-up is done on Thursday night but as Ross and Caleb often have meetings during the convention we sometimes have to change it around. Last year it worked out pretty well.

Once things firm up, especially after final Event Registration, then we'll have firmer times for the meet-up and related activities. I'll post updates anytime that something significant happens and I'm sure we'll also have notices on the RPPR facebook group and messages in the group chat when we get closer to the day.

[clockworkjoe]

Run events for Arc Dream and get free product: http://arcdream.com/home/2015/01/volunteer-with-arc-dream-at-gencon-2015/

[Tadanori Oyama]

Boom, locked in at the Holiday Inn south of the convention hall! I'm back downtown bitches! Ain't never gonna stop this party, NEVER!

[Graywalker]

I had to wait an hour and 23 minutes before I could try and make a reservation. By that time, all but two hotels in downtown were available. Luckily I'm rooming with Tad so that isn't a major issue but while this method is cool and all, it really limits a persons options should someone have to wait that long in line for a reservation.

[FuzzyDan]

Bill and I secured a room at the JW.  I will now bask in your envy.

[Marik]

I got a 19 minute wait time and then the errors started. Got them for almost 2 hours and by the time I got in all the downtown hotels were sold. This was a pretty common thing according to the gencon forums.

Also there is a rumour that those who bought thier badges after 12 noon today were not queued and could log in and out of housing at thier leisure.

I had other hotels booked downtown outside the block just in case. Looks like I'll be paying for a more expensive room this year .

Marik

[FuzzyDan]

I had to wait an hour and 23 minutes before I could try and make a reservation. By that time, all but two hotels in downtown were available. Luckily I'm rooming with Tad so that isn't a major issue but while this method is cool and all, it really limits a persons options should someone have to wait that long in line for a reservation.

I think each block of times also has a block of open rooms assigned to it.  Took us awhile to find a room that could accept 4 people, but when it went away, by the time the next housing block opened there was more.

Overall I think it amounts to the same wait and need for luck, it just doesn't crash the poor servers trying to accommodate so many nerds at once.

[FuzzyDan]

Soooo.... after most of a day of looking at Forum posts crying out in anguish over the problems with the random housing system (because once I see an internet arguement, it's difficult for me to turn away...)  I had this thought:

GenCon moves to a randomized system to make housing more fair and evenly distributed, and there are people that are complaining they didn't get the room they wanted because their virtual dice didn't give them a better time.

RNJesus has finally found a way to hate gamers IRL.

[Tadanori Oyama]

Ouch. Honestly I'd have been screwed if I hadn't gone in as a group with some other guys, we got a really lucky draw. But since last year everything fell apart as well I don't see this as being any more of a problem.

[Marik]

GenCon moves to a randomized system to make housing more fair and evenly distributed, and there are people that are complaining they didn't get the room they wanted because their virtual dice didn't give them a better time.

RNJesus has finally found a way to hate gamers IRL.

I wouldn't have a problem with any of that. I've gotten rooms the last two years with the system without too many problems. This year the three in our group had the following times. I had 19 mins, my friends had 1 hour 48mins,  and 3 hours 30 minutes.

I should have been able to snag a downtown hotel based on my position in the queue. Unfortunately myself and several others were getting error messages when we tried to connect. I hit refresh for 1 hour and 29 minutes until my friend got in on his slot and told me there were no more downtown hotels available.

I wouldn't have complained if I was just given a late time. The problem is them giving me a primo registration time and then saying "yoinK" you can't use this because our system has bugs. That's a little bit of a kick in the teeth.

Luckily I was prepared and have three rooms booked in the downtown core outside the block. So the problem won't stop my vacation or anything it will just hit me in the pocket book for 6 nights hotel outside the block, at a difference in rate of $70 a night. So all in all I should have been able to save $420 but couldn't.

Lastly they messed things up and allowed folks who bought thier badges after the housing block had opened to not need a queue position. So yesterday if you bought your badge at 12:01 you could have skipped the queue times and logged into housing and booked ahead of everybody else who were following instructions.

Anyways thats my vent. It's done with and I'll still have a great time and I won't complain about it anymore. I did put my name in the for a VIG badge today, because the money I would spend on VIG would be approximately cancelled out by the amount I would save by being able to book through the VIG housing block.

[FuzzyDan]

My wait time was around an hour and 19, got in late (had to call my finance and have her log in and try to find something), made multiple calls as different hotels became available/lost availability to co-ordinate options, and finally agreed to just eat the cost of not being able to share a room, having to stay a mile away.

Then Bam, on a whim I searched for 1 room, 4 adults, and the JW showed up again.  At hour 2.  and I got it.  As this is the first year I had to mess with the GenCon housing block directly, and hearing the horror stories of years past, it did not seem that bad.  After reading the complaints, I realized how lucky I was that A)  I had no errors when people before and after me did, B) The line jumpers did not seem to ROFLpwnt the system hard enough to cause too much damage, which suggests a small oversight that was fixed, and C) By sheer stubborn refusal I got a room I wanted despite my sub-optimal (but still not horrible) place in line and so many factors that are being blamed as to why they can't get a room.

In Call of Ctuthulu this would be seen as a series of luck rolls modified by a behind-the-screen Computer Use roll.  Next year my dice will probably be not so lucky.

[Tadanori Oyama]

What Marik is describing is more or less what I felt last year when I registered: cheated. It's one thing to have a bad draw or to be late for registration, it's something else entirely for the system to break and cause you to fail.