E-Ticket Experience from 2022
Posted by rong

As a small group EO (26 RPG events/156 tickets), it was nice to not have to play the yellow envelope game. That was nice.

However we did have a fair amount of difficulty scanning badges, to the point where at one point we had to stop trying to scan the badges as we were eating into game time, getting only 10 of 18 badges to properly scan. I spoke with the HQ table the following day and got a few tips on scanning that helped, though did not completely alleviate the trouble we had.

What we liked:


  • No envelope stuffing
  • Able to sell tickets at the point of sale
  • We had more walk-ups/last minute tickets, attributed to not having to wait in the will-call line for paper tickets (from the players)
  • Immediate ability to see event attendance (minus the scanning issues noted below)

Challenges:


  • Poor Internet Connection (Marriott): This was corrected Day 2 when Gen Con provided a wi-fi network and pw for scanning badges in the Marriott
  • Reflectivity of Badges: the combination of shiny badges and room lighting made it tricky to get a clean scan of the badge without glare (based on a tip from HQ, we found that shining a second phone's light on the badge did help, though did not completely alleviate the problem)
  • Badge Label Quality: The name labels affixed to the badges were not holding up well. We had several badges that were worn, faded, and scratched, even the first day
  • "Ticket Not Found": We got this error more than we got a good scan.
  • App Log-in: Having to log in to the app every single time was a bit annoying, especially as one of the work-arounds to getting the badges to scan was to close and reopen the app between every scan.

In summary, when it was working, the e-tickets were great! When it wasn't, it slowed us down considerably and took away from game time.

 

Posted by quarex

Every e-ticket game my friend or I attended had issues where the gamemaster could not get at least a few badges to scan at all, despite seeing the players were registered.  Apparently the Discord was no help in solving this issue, though that is third-hand information on my part certainly.  I do know my friend who had this problem at every game he attended has declared he is never coming back, though I think this is only a small part of the issue. 

Posted by toxic_rat

I spoke with the GenCon e-ticketing expert (sadly, I forget his name, but he was very helpful) and we noted that the bar codes were smaller this year.  I think this had something to do with not being able to consistently read them.  I had many of the same errors on my android phone, but my iPad managed to read them without much trouble.

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