Gen Con LLC Community

 Y'all should thank the programmer ninjas, 'cause they worked all night to wrap up a present for y'all all nice-like: the event registration system is up and ready to be hammered by our attendees.

You can't buy tickets yet (obviously, since that doesn't open until tomorrow) but you can browse around, search for events and generally get a feel for what the system will work like. You can even look at the Buy Tickets by Game ID page.

To check it out, just go to http://www.genconreg.com and sign into your account.

Some things to note/remember:

This is a Beta Preview

This is a preview of the registration system so that y'all have a chance to get used to it before the rush tomorrow. It's not necessarily 100% finished and it's certainly not fully polished, so please keep that in mind.

If you find a potential problem or have any questions, please let us know ASAP - but please also remember that we get plenty of hate mail already, so at least be polite if something bothers you. We're working on trying to make the best system we can, but there's only so much we can do right now - and you don't want to make Tina and Rachel in customer service cry, do you?

Tickets shouldn't go on sale until tomorrow. If anyone finds some place where it looks like something is available for purchase, let em know ASAP so I can fix it. Don't try to exploit it, 'cause when we find out about we're gonna stomp it and take your tickets away anyway. And then everyone will know you're a jerk.

Buy Tickets by Game IDs

This is the big one for a lot of you on the forums, so here's a quick explanation of how it's gonna work (it helps if you go to the page itself and follow along at home).

First of all, make sure that anyone you want to buy tickets for is your friend. Otherwise they won't show up here.

Once you've got your friends sorted out and you have the list of game IDs you want to buy for, go to this form and put all the IDs in.

• If you want a ticket for yourself, click on the checkbox at the left.
• if you want a second ticket for yourself, click on "(Click here to buy more tickets to this event.)" and you'll see an option for "Add another ticket for myself." Check that and you'll get a second ticket (assuming the event allows for you to buy 2).
• If you want to buy a ticket for someone else, click on "(Click here to buy more tickets to this event.)" and check off their name.
• If you want to buy more than 2 tickets to an event at once, enter it's game ID and make the appropriate selections as many times as necessary. Again, remember the limits that you can only buy so many tickets for yourself (as determined by the event organizers) and that you can only ever buy your friend 1 ticket to an event.

Once you've made the selections you want, click "Add Selected Tickets to Cart" and they go into your cart.

Other Ways to Buy Tickets

You can also buy tickets from search results and event detail pages.

Once event registration is actually open, all the search results pages will have a checkbox next to each event you can buy a ticket for. You can select multiple events from that list and then click on "buy tickets" to get a confirmation page that is very similar to the Buy Tickets by Game IDs page where you select how many tickets you want to each event and which friends you want to buy for.

Once event registration is actually open, you can also buy tickets straight from the event details page. There will be checkboxes at the right where you can select who to get tickets for.

In both cases, there will be an appropriate number of "add another ticket for myself" options if the event allows you to buy multiple ticets (for example, True Dungeon will list that 7 times - if you want to buy the whole slot on your account, you click "Myself" and then all the "Add another ticket for myself" options).

 

 

I think that's about it for right now. There are lots more tweaks and features we're trying to get up and running (or working more smoothly), but I think that answers the fundamental navigation questions people have.

If you have a question or think you see a problem, please let me know - just keep the discussion here nice and friendly, ok?

Oooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Pretty.  Thank you for the preview!

Derek-

  Oh, that is nice!  Thanks to everyone responsible for setting up a "dry run."

 This is such a great idea - thanks!

Thank you programmer ninjas!

Thank you thank you thank you! This is so very much appreciated and will help all of us feel so much better about tomorrow. 

I seriously hope you all get lots of drinks purchased for you this august.

 

Derek,

Thank everyone who made it possible for getting this online for us to play with tonight.

When looking at event descriptions on RUBI, all of the events that I went to are listed as being a tournament.  This includes SPA, SEM, and other categories.

I like the feature that will allow us to put events on a watchlist. If we add an event to that list tonight, will it be reset before event registration goes live?

The buy tickets by game ID should help my group with the transition to this new registration system.  I can potentially see some people getting frustrated if they forget to check the box on the left.  And thank you for giving us advanced notice on the forums that we need to check that box.  It might be nice if the box auto-checks when you type in an event ID.  Maybe for this Sunday, have a notice on that page for people to remind them that they must check the box to register for the event.

Thank you!

<edit>

I'm not seeing how to buy more than 2 for True Dungeon Events though?

 Currently, when I put in a True Dungeon Run ID it doesn't give me the option to buy a ticket 7 times. It only gives me the option to buy an extra ticket for myself and one for all of my friend accounts.

Is this a problem?

Thank you, ninjas! As a programmer myself (at least by training, if not by trade at the present), I really appreciate the beauty of system that works. The buy by Game ID's is perfect for my needs, but I can see the search result and event detail purchasing options being great for "grazers". Thanks for all the hard work.

Ooooooh, shiny!

Glory:

 Currently, when I put in a True Dungeon Run ID it doesn't give me the option to buy a ticket 7 times. It only gives me the option to buy an extra ticket for myself and one for all of my friend accounts.

Is this a problem?

You would need to add it to that list 4 times if you want the full run.  The text on that page is being updated to make that clear.

 

Magicalgamer:

I like the feature that will allow us to put events on a watchlist. If we add an event to that list tonight, will it be reset before event registration goes live?

The buy tickets by game ID should help my group with the transition to this new registration system.  I can potentially see some people getting frustrated if they forget to check the box on the left.  And thank you for giving us advanced notice on the forums that we need to check that box.  It might be nice if the box auto-checks when you type in an event ID.  Maybe for this Sunday, have a notice on that page for people to remind them that they must check the box to register for the event.

The watch list shouldn't reset when we update for tomorrow - so far no data has been lost in any updates to new builds. I'll double-check, but you can always always print out your watch list or just save the html if you're really worried.

And I just confirmed a feature in the next update that the checkboxes automatically get checked when you click on them to start typing.

 

Braewe:

I'm not seeing how to buy more than 2 for True Dungeon Events though?

On the "buy tickets by game ID" page, you enter the ID multiple times. On the event details/confirmation page, it'll automatically display how many you can buy.

Buy Tickets by Game IDs

This is the big one for a lot of you on the forums, so here's a quick explanation of how it's gonna work (it helps if you go to the page itself and follow along at home).

First of all, make sure that anyone you want to buy tickets for is your friend. Otherwise they won't show up here.

Once you've got your friends sorted out and you have the list of game IDs you want to buy for, go to this form and put all the IDs in.

• If you want a ticket for yourself, click on the checkbox at the left.
• if you want a second ticket for yourself, click on "(Click here to buy more tickets to this event.)" and you'll see an option for "Add another ticket for myself." Check that and you'll get a second ticket (assuming the event allows for you to buy 2).
• If you want to buy a ticket for someone else, click on "(Click here to buy more tickets to this event.)" and check off their name.
• If you want to buy more than 2 tickets to an event at once, enter it's game ID and make the appropriate selections as many times as necessary. Again, remember the limits that you can only buy so many tickets for yourself (as determined by the event organizers) and that you can only ever buy your friend 1 ticket to an event.

Once you've made the selections you want, click "Add Selected Tickets to Cart" and they go into your cart.

Other Ways to Buy Tickets

You can also buy tickets from search results and event detail pages.

Once event registration is actually open, all the search results pages will have a checkbox next to each event you can buy a ticket for. You can select multiple events from that list and then click on "buy tickets" to get a confirmation page that is very similar to the Buy Tickets by Game IDs page where you select how many tickets you want to each event and which friends you want to buy for.

Once event registration is actually open, you can also buy tickets straight from the event details page. There will be checkboxes at the right where you can select who to get tickets for.

In both cases, there will be an appropriate number of "add another ticket for myself" options if the event allows you to buy multiple ticets (for example, True Dungeon will list that 7 times - if you want to buy the whole slot on your account, you click "Myself" and then all the "Add another ticket for myself" options).

 

marimacc:

Glory:

 Currently, when I put in a True Dungeon Run ID it doesn't give me the option to buy a ticket 7 times. It only gives me the option to buy an extra ticket for myself and one for all of my friend accounts.

Is this a problem?

You would need to add it to that list 4 times if you want the full run.  The text on that page is being updated to make that clear.

 

Could I enter the event 8 times? Instead of entering it 4 times, and then having to click "Click here to buy more tickets" and then check another box? Would that work? I can ctrl+c faster than I can copy, click, click. 

That's fine, it would just take up more of your event submission blanks is all.

Ahh... thanks Mari. I just played around with that WatchList feature and if you choose "Buy Events" from your WatchList you can select Add Another Ticket 7 different times. That will be nice for tomorrow since I can put all of my runs in there (and the back ups). Although, it would be even better if there was a "Buy Max Tickets" button along with it. 

The Watch List is a very nice feature though! 

Thank you to all the programmers who have been working (and are currently working) on this to make it work. 

 That window you get from the Watch List is the same you'll get if you selecet events from any search resulst page as well - check boxes will show up for search results once the individual events open up for registration and you can click 'em and pick "buy tickets" to get to that same window where you can select how many tickets and for whom.

Derek,

When I type I search for an event and then choose "Buy Tickets" I do not get that dialogue. Instead I get a blank table that looks like this:

 

Is that what is supposed to look like? There is nothing to add to my cart?  

Will any watch lists we make tonight be around in the morning?

 

Balroc:

Will any watch lists we make tonight be around in the morning?

Derek Guder:

The watch list shouldn't reset when we update for tomorrow - so far no data has been lost in any updates to new builds. I'll double-check, but you can always always print out your watch list or just save the html if you're really worried.