Huge Queue for Wishlist Processing
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Posted by austicke jedijawa74

jedijawa74 wrote:Why is anyone still processing wishlists the day after registration?  Just add them to your cart.

It was a bug.

Posted by austicke

The has now bug been fixed.

Posted by okkult jedijawa74

jedijawa74 wrote:
Why is anyone still processing wishlists the day after registration?  Just add them to your cart.

I tried that this morning but it said I couldn't because Wish Lists were still being processed. I added a ticket directly to my cart last night with no problem.

Posted by lanogironu hannman

hannman wrote:
I'm a Software Engineer and this has me thinking.  Not to make the process more complex, but I would prefer to see that the system took everyone that submitted events within the first 30 seconds into a queue then prioritized everyone's #1 event first.  Then process everyone's #2 event.  With the current system, you have like 10,000+ people hitting submit all within the first second at exactly noon CST.  Then if you're lucky enough to get a decent position, you get most of your events.  If you're someone who's at the back of the line, you're lucky to get anything.  Also if you hosted this on a platform like Azure or AWS, you can pay for a lot of processing power for just 1 day of the year which isn't bad cost wise.  The rest of the year, you could host the site for practically nothing.

They should definitely look at better hosting. 

The method I thought of would be doing it like the hotels where a wish list has to be submitted prior to midnight EST the day before; and instead of simple priority ranks the early submissions are allowed a points assigning system to award points (like 500 points to distribute) for events which the system uses for ranked choice awarding of events for people who submitted a wish list on time. Then they can carry on as usual Sunday with the queues.

But there's probably no good answer that's fair and balanced and doesn't require people to sit there for 10 hours while the system goes through pick by pick.
 

Posted by hannman

I just don’t like that everyone clicks submit within the same second, but some people get everything they want while other people get nothing.  We need a better way to spread the events out.

Posted by triad1

Funny enough, even with all the extra processing time...  I didn't mind the wish list processing this year at all by the end of it. 

I actually somehow got a decent schedule of stuff -- which usually hasn't happened in past years that I've picked stuff that low in the queue.  I think I started off around 7500ish on the list... if I remember correctly.  I was expecting to get skunked for a lot of my events, but was pleasantly surprised.  I got some of what I really wanted in high demand events, and a lot of reasonable runner-up events.  I literally ended up with a completely workable schedule after the first round, with only one addition immediately after the fact. 

So I'm not sure if anything changed in the way of processing the wish lists for the better, but it very much seemed like it from my point of view.  Something in the results of the processing seemed more fair.  ...Not sure how, but somehow it did for me.  ...So if Gen Con did do some change in the calculating algorithm,  I give them a very hearty thumbs up for whatever they did!

I actually don't mind the current system of processing the wish lists by hitting the button at noon.  I personally prefer it this way than actually doing a lottery.  It's much more engaging.

Posted by adcjones

This year's registration wishlist processing was the worst I've ever seen it.  I waited an hour and a half before I got selected for my group's 4 events out of 6 wished for.  I think I was like 2000.  I timed it, and they were doing 50 every 15/20 minutes or so.  There's got to be a better way to do this.  Maybe offer a way to automatically accept the processing and auto pay instead of having to wait around until the servers completed their toil.

We basically have nothing to do on Friday now because nearly all the RPG events are booked up completely; we are heavy Pathfinder players and Paizo doesn't run any Pathfinder Friday evenings, unfortunately, and Friday being so popular other RPGs just get swiped up.

Posted by irdaland

Lots of new rpg added yesterday.

As for pathfinder only 1st edition seems available 

Seems like they should have less 1st edition and more 2nd edition since it is more popular by ticket sales

Posted by hannman adcjones

adcjones wrote:
This year's registration wishlist processing was the worst I've ever seen it.  I waited an hour and a half before I got selected for my group's 4 events out of 6 wished for.  I think I was like 2000.  I timed it, and they were doing 50 every 15/20 minutes or so.  There's got to be a better way to do this.  Maybe offer a way to automatically accept the processing and auto pay instead of having to wait around until the servers completed their toil.
We basically have nothing to do on Friday now because nearly all the RPG events are booked up completely; we are heavy Pathfinder players and Paizo doesn't run any Pathfinder Friday evenings, unfortunately, and Friday being so popular other RPGs just get swiped up.

Since everyone in my group was around 10,000, we currently have nothing scheduled for Friday or Saturday.

Posted by llenlleawg irdaland

irdaland wrote:
Lots of new rpg added yesterday.
As for pathfinder only 1st edition seems available 
Seems like they should have less 1st edition and more 2nd edition since it is more popular by ticket sales

To be fair, the 1st edition games are being run by a different group from Paizo, who is running the 2nd edition games.

Posted by jedijawa74

Keep track of returned tickets here so you can look for things that open up on Friday (or any other day).

https://gencon.eventdb.us/changeList.php

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