Housing lottery
Posted by robochgostef

I have been attending Gen Con since 1990.  My husband has attended since 1982 approximately.   I find it outrageous that we always end up with crap housing slots when we register immediately for our badges.   Your system might seem "fair" but there is absolutely no reward for loyalty to the people who made this convention so popular.   You don't even bring in any big name stars anymore yet your prices go up constantly and you block out rooms for your staff at all the closest hotels.  
go back to a first come first serve system or have it based off badge ID or whoever registered their badges first.  That would truly be fair.
 

Posted by donaldbain

Feel better?

Posted by squirecam robochgostef

robochgostef wrote:
I have been attending Gen Con since 1990.  My husband has attended since 1982 approximately.   I find it outrageous that we always end up with crap housing slots when we register immediately for our badges.   Your system might seem "fair" but there is absolutely no reward for loyalty to the people who made this convention so popular.   You don't even bring in any big name stars anymore yet your prices go up constantly and you block out rooms for your staff at all the closest hotels.  
go back to a first come first serve system or have it based off badge ID or whoever registered their badges first.  That would truly be fair.
 
they will never go back to that

Posted by funny-shaped dice

Hmmm....where did I put suburbaknght’s annual housing lottery sucks thread...

Oh! Here it is: https://www.gencon.com/forums/43-travel-housing-and-dining-2019/topics/14514-annual-make-housing-fair-discussion-summary

Can we *not* have this discussion now?

Good luck everyone!  Keep in mind that downtown rooms open up throughout the year.  You can score a downtown room later in the year by watching the housing portal.  I scored 2 of them last year that way by just checking into the portal frequently.

Posted by matthias9

Yep, that.

And, I cannot understand how anyone around that long could advocate for "first come, first serve" with a straight face.  Do they not remember spamming that portal the minute it went live and the ensuing frustration and complaints? (aka the scheduled DDOS attack on their server)
 

Posted by grognard262

Prices should be allowed to float until supply and demand is in balance.  Currently, it operates like a Soviet-era bread line -- a limited supply of artificially cheap bread and too many people standing in line for it.

Posted by matthias9 grognard262

chaoticneutral262 wrote:
Prices should be allowed to float until supply and demand is in balance.  Currently, it operates like a Soviet-era bread line -- a limited supply of artificially cheap bread and too many people standing in line for it.

You just described the rooms that are available right now outside the Gen Con block.  Go to town.

Meanwhile, there is a separate negotiation taking place between Gen Con, Indy, and these hotels as pertains to the rooms in-block, which Gen Con has an incentive to keep costs down for.  It is the reason the Convention moved to this city, after all.

Don't worry, the Soviets aren't about to take over...

Posted by robochgostef matthias9

matthias9 wrote:
Yep, that.
And, I cannot understand how anyone around that long could advocate for "first come, first serve" with a straight face.  Do they not remember spamming that portal the minute it went live and the ensuing frustration and complaints? (aka the scheduled DDOS attack on their server)
 
Valid points and you are correct about everyone thinking their way is the fair way.   It would be nice to at least once get an early time slot to book at a hotel we actually want as opposed to left over garbage.   Doesn't everyone let out a rant or complaint from time to time.  For the record, this is my first, in all these years.

Posted by funny-shaped dice robochgostef

robochgostef wrote:It would be nice to at least once get an early time slot to book at a hotel we actually want as opposed to left over garbage.   Doesn't everyone let out a rant or complaint from time to time.  For the record, this is my first, in all these years.

Everyone wants an early time slot - but it is flatly false that the hotels outside of downtown are “left over garbage”.  That’s the problem.  Those hotels are fine places - I’ve stayed at a number of them - and casting them as “garbage” gives attendees the wrong impression and contributes to the entire problem of “downtown-hotel-or-die!!!”

For the record, my wife and I got timeslots that preclude downtown hotels on the first pass.  We’ll keep our eyes out and keep checking the portal until we either get a DT hotel or decide it is no longer worth our time to keep checking the portal.  Regardless, we’ll go to Gen Con and I’m sure we’ll have a great time...and I’m sure you will as well, otherwise you wouldn’t keep coming back.

Posted by weirdpinkpill

Firstly, going to a seniority system would automatically lock out any newcomers to the convention. This is a really shitty business model for anyone wanting to grow. Any friends you invite to come will be automated to the bottom of a huge list? That's not very enticing. Why would they come? What is the draw for a new generation of gamers if they can't have the same chance as everyone else? At least in the dash-and-grab model, anyone with an internet connection was fighting with each other, so you would be competing anyway. Then there are options like the VIG badge, with seniority systems in place that allow for people who go often, and go every year, to get early access to housing. Maybe you should go for the VIG lottery if attendance and a downtown stay is a make-or-break deal. 

Secondly, you can't have a convention without staff to run it. Consider hiring people to do a job (for free) for hundreds of thousands of people, and have them commute in every day? Wouldn't fly. Those people make YOUR convention happen. They rightfully should have a place at a nearby hotel. Please don't shit on the people here to help you have a good time. 

Third, every time i've not scored a downtown hotel i've managed to trade for one down the line. They are available. People drop rooms. Companies book too many for their volunteers. Keep an eye on the facebook group and forums, and you can likely get a room before July. It takes effort, and that's annoying, but I've picked up rooms and suites like this a lot. 

And lastly, it's really no use complaining about wanting things like they used to be. The fact of the matter is that Gen Con has changed. Gen Con has grown. You can't expect it to be the same, even if YOU personally haven't grown or changed, the convention has. You have to adapt and grow with it, or you're just going to be mad about it forever. It was really nice being able to have my personal pick of hotels. I used to make lists of my top choices, now I'm just happy to get something at all.  Reminiscing about how it used to be when it was small isn't helpful or relevant. It's not that way any more. 

Posted by rich

Been attending no misses since 1984. Might be a bit much to ask for premium housing,
though it would be nice to get some kind of perk. Hell, I'd settle for a cheap pin, lol.
 

Posted by weirdpinkpill

Another con I attend gives away enamel pins for years of attendance. It's kind of a cool badge of honour. 

Posted by raidkillsbugsded

If they reduced the number of available badges to just 20,000, downtown housing wouldn’t be an issue.  To make it fair as to who gets to buy badges first, they could set up some sort of randomized lottery system...

Posted by brotherbock

Another 30+ year attendee here. The problem with putting me near the front of the line is that the company currently running Gencon has no record of who attended back in 1984. What you would have would be some sort of priority system going back to the early 2000s, and then just taking people's word on it that they were attending before that?

It would also be rather problematic for all attendees if the people running the show weren't housed near the show. Man, we'd like this particular event to run as scheduled, but the event staff are housed at the airport. So instead of having some of the attendees take more time to get to the con, we have the entire con impacted. Shorter staff hours, booths staffed for less time, event staff less available when we need them. It's like asking a store owner and delivery people take the bus to their store so they can free up nearby parking spaces.

Posted by brotherbock raidkillsbugsded

raidkillsbugsded wrote:
If they reduced the number of available badges to just 20,000, downtown housing wouldn’t be an issue.  To make it fair as to who gets to buy badges first, they could set up some sort of randomized lottery system...

Now THIS is my dream. I love Gencon. But it was at its absolute best, for me, at 25,000 to 30,000 people. My games still filled, plenty of games I wanted to play, and when it moved to Indy, plenty of hotel space. The con is in no way more enjoyable an experience for me with attendance higher than 30k, and is in many ways more frustrating.

Posted by squirecam brotherbock

brotherbock wrote:
raidkillsbugsded wrote:
If they reduced the number of available badges to just 20,000, downtown housing wouldn’t be an issue.  To make it fair as to who gets to buy badges first, they could set up some sort of randomized lottery system...

Now THIS is my dream. I love Gencon. But it was at its absolute best, for me, at 25,000 to 30,000 people. My games still filled, plenty of games I wanted to play, and when it moved to Indy, plenty of hotel space. The con is in no way more enjoyable an experience for me with attendance higher than 30k, and is in many ways more frustrating.

Then go to Origins.

Posted by brotherbock squirecam

squirecam wrote:
brotherbock wrote:
raidkillsbugsded wrote:
If they reduced the number of available badges to just 20,000, downtown housing wouldn’t be an issue.  To make it fair as to who gets to buy badges first, they could set up some sort of randomized lottery system...

Now THIS is my dream. I love Gencon. But it was at its absolute best, for me, at 25,000 to 30,000 people. My games still filled, plenty of games I wanted to play, and when it moved to Indy, plenty of hotel space. The con is in no way more enjoyable an experience for me with attendance higher than 30k, and is in many ways more frustrating.

Then go to Origins.

No.

Posted by lehane raidkillsbugsded

raidkillsbugsded wrote:
If they reduced the number of available badges to just 20,000, downtown housing wouldn’t be an issue.  To make it fair as to who gets to buy badges first, they could set up some sort of randomized lottery system...

At this point we just move from people complaining about not getting a downtown hotel room to people complaining about not getting to attend Gencon period. 

Reducing the amount Badges is a terrible idea. No one in the city will welcome a decision to eliminate 30,000 or so visitors and their money even if Gencon wanted to toss said money away. 

Posted by grognard262

Maybe they could open the housing portal first for people who attended the previous year.  That way the regulars would be rewarded with a better chance at a downtown room, and staying further out your first time would become a rite of passage for the noobs, or a slight penalty for those with a spotty attendance record.

Posted by funny-shaped dice lehane

lehane wrote:
raidkillsbugsded wrote:
If they reduced the number of available badges to just 20,000, downtown housing wouldn’t be an issue.  To make it fair as to who gets to buy badges first, they could set up some sort of randomized lottery system...

At this point we just move from people complaining about not getting a downtown hotel room to people complaining about not getting to attend Gencon period. Reducing the amount Badges is a terrible idea. No one in the city will welcome a decision to eliminate 30,000 or so visitors and their money even if Gencon wanted to toss said money away. 

Uhhhh...did you not get the joke?

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