A huge disappointment for gaming enthusiasts, tickets for the gaming convention hosted by Blizzard Entertainment in Anaheim from October 10 to 11, were quickly (and I will say, mysteriously) sold out within one hour over two consecutive days.
Many World of Warcraft gamers have posted numerous complaints and expressed dissatisfaction regarding the technical problems of Blizzard’s store webpage. Many users were not able to log into their accounts because technical errors occurred on the site. Blizzard posted a statement explaining that due to high traffic of the store website, the website would be shut down for temporary maintenance, and it would be available again once the technicians fixed the problem.
So, the site went up again, but since millions of people were trying to get their tickets at the same time, the website still could not function properly and got shut down again around 20 minutes after it was “fixed.” Blizzard once again apologized for the inconvenience and declared that the site would be back up in the morning (August 12). That morning the same problem happened again; people just could not get all the way through the 5-step checkout process because of the site’s loading problems and high traffic. The website was shut down yet again after functioning normally for only about 15 minutes.
My boyfriend was one of the millions of people desperately trying to get his ticket to the convention and he finally made a successful phone call to Blizzard’s headquarter (of course, he had to keep calling all day because the staff were too busy to answer their phones). He was told that the site would be back at 8 o’clock that night and that there were still plenty of tickets left. So he waited in front of the computer until 8p.m. and instantly attempted to buy his ticket, but he failed because he had trouble logging into his account yet again. When he eventually was able to log into his account at 8:20p.m., the tickets were completely sold out.
I heard last year that the tickets were sold out very quickly too; but, people did not experience technical problems at all. What I don’t understand is, since so many people could not log in to buy the tickets, why were the tickets sold out so quickly in one hour? Maybe it depended on your internet provider or speed, because Some people who actually bought their tickets said that they did not experience any problems during the purchasing process; others claimed that people with high-speed internet could log in smoothly. Maybe that is true, but I’m just amazed how quickly the convention sold out…there making a killing that’s for sure!
(post originally posted by Maggie at our sister site Hollywire.com)
August 14th, 2008 at 12:11 am
Well that sucks… I wanted to go, can we get press?
August 14th, 2008 at 2:15 am
i will be cosplaying my pet spider.
August 14th, 2008 at 2:17 am
I for one was one of those people that waited all night and then clicked the refesh button for 12 HOURS straight….half of my group got tickets when they went on sale at around 6pm and I was a half second behind them, since I had to type in 3 ticket information, and was not able to get mine the first time.
But shortly after that, and mere miraculous luck, I got my tickets and so did the rest of my group. Although I am so happy I got my ticket, I am still frusterated by the poor exicution made by Blizzard. And I know thousands of other people are as well…
But Blizzard did announce something (although I’m not sure its better)..:
” Blizzard Gamers,
On behalf of everyone at Blizzard, I want to apologize for the challenges and frustrations you experienced while trying to purchase BlizzCon tickets on Monday and Tuesday…”
” Due to these circumstances, we’ve reevaluated our convention hall space and come up with some solutions that will allow us to offer 3,000 more tickets for sale.”
“To avoid the issues many of you faced this week, we’ll be selling these 3,000 via a lottery. We’ll post further details once our plans are finalized.”
You can read the full statement made by Mike Morhaime on http://www.worldofwarcraft.com.
They also stated that this will only be available to people that have NOT gotten tickets thus far, so no ebay sellers. Though I don’t think you can this year due to the fact you have to show your ID and the credit card you paid with when you get you badges at BlizzCon.
Sorry for the long post, and I hope you guys get tickets!!
See you there!!
August 15th, 2008 at 7:49 am
Glad you got tickets Lilith!
This is a familiar process for me, as I used to be a die-hard Dave Matthews Band fan, and every year the ticketmaster website would crash at 10am when the tickets went on sale
(and many other bands of course, but for me it was DMB).
You’d think by now they could figure out a better system. It’s not like selling popular tickets is a new concept.