This morning was Returning Registration for Comic-Con 2023. To qualify for Returning Registration, one had to have been a paid attendee of Comic-Con 2022 and/or Comic-Con Special Edition 2021. I have been to every Comic-Con in San Diego in the summer and have never been a paid attendee of any of them. Still, I hear a lot of complaints about the process so I decided to peek in this morning and learn a little about what it involves.
An "online waiting room" was supposed to open at 8 AM and then at 9 AM, sales were to commence. Something went wrong, the waiting room didn't open as scheduled but not long after the appointed time, the con tweeted that a glitch had been fixed and that the waiting room would open at 9:30 and the sale would begin at 10 AM. These are all Pacific Times I'm giving you here.
The waiting room did indeed open at 9:30 and at 10 AM, all of us in the waiting room were "admitted" to…another waiting room. The computer randomizes everyone in this second room and then assigns each person an expected wait time. Mine, as you can see below, was over an hour. That didn't bother me a whole lot because I wasn't there to buy anything…just to see how the system works. It might bother me if this was my only or best way to get myself and maybe a couple of loved ones into the con.
All this time, about 1700 of us were being guided through the process by the folks who operate The San Diego Comic-Con Unofficial Blog. This is operated by a group of dedicated attendees who have no actual connection with the con but who provide valuable advice and insight year round. They began blogcasting live on YouTube early this morning, answering questions and providing helpful hints for folks tackling the registration process. Most of all, they gave us, as we all waited in the waiting room, the feeling of not being alone.
Around 10:20, folks in the chat who'd been admitted to the purchase area were reporting that Preview Night (Wednesday night) was sold out for today's sale. But others were reporting they'd gotten in and purchased it and other days. Others were reporting that "Your estimated wait time is more than hour" had changed to a lower number of minutes but mine didn't then and wouldn't for quite a while.
At 10:42, the convention tweeted "Preview Night badges have sold out for this sale. Badges for other single days of Comic-Con 2023 are still available!" A minute later, they tweeted "Saturday inventory is running low. You may not be able to purchase a Saturday badge if you are selected for a registration session." At a later date to be announced, there will be an Open Registration sale and if you didn't get what you wanted today, you may be able to get it then. Only a portion of all the badges are up for sale today.
At 11:00, my estimated wait time was still more than an hour. All this time in the chat room for the Unofficial Folks' podcast, various people were reporting they were able to purchase most or all of the badges they sought.
At 11:01, there was this tweet from the con: "Friday inventory is running low. You may not be able to purchase a Friday badge if you are selected for a registration session." Folks in chat were saying that in past years of this sale, Saturdays and Fridays had sold out by this point. That may mean fewer people vying for tickets this year but I suspect it's more likely a matter of how swiftly the computer program was admitting shoppers and processing their orders.
At 11:10, my expected wait time changed to 50 minutes. One minute later, it was 43 minutes. People in the chat were still reporting they snagged all four days but not Preview Night.
At 11:11 came this tweet: "Saturday badges have sold out. Badges for other single days of Comic-Con 2023 are still available!" Again, this is all Saturday badges for this sale. There will be more Saturday badges up for grabs in Open Registration. Same with Preview Night.
At 11:16, my expected wait time was 36 minutes. A minute later, it was 28. A minute after that, it was 29. Three minutes later, 21. The latest tweet said "Friday badges have sold out. Thursday and Sunday badges are still available."
At 11:33, my computer played a little fanfare like the Pearly Gates were opening to welcome me in…and I was admitted to the portion of the site where I could purchase badges. There, I was offered Thursday and/or Sunday. At the same time, I was seeing folks in the chat room saying that they were in and that Sunday passes were gone. At 11:36, the con tweeted "Sunday badges have sold out. Badges for Thursday of Comic-Con 2023 are still available!" One minute later, they tweeted "Thursday badges have sold out."
So that was the end of today's sale. I think I could have scored Thursday and Sunday but I was just there to observe, not to buy.
I absolutely understand why the process frustrates so many folks. I started around 8:30 this morning and three hours later, got the chance to buy passes for but two of the four days…and Preview Night was even farther out of reach. For now.
I don't know how many people didn't get in at all…probably a lot. At the same time, I also have absolutely no concept for any better system. If you do, don't send it to me. Send it to the folks who run the convention…and keep in mind that there is a maximum capacity for that event and that the number of human beings who wish to attend each year far exceeds that maximum capacity. There is no way to make them all happy.
In fact, I think if somehow, the San Diego Convention Center could magically be made ten times as large and admit ten times as many people, they'd still have to use some registration process like the current one because ten times as many people would want to attend. And just imagine the joy of trying to get a hotel room then.