Demand seems to outpace supply regardless. So just make tweaks to reduce inpacts.
Tweaks like:
50+% nonredundable portion of ticket.
Give top 20 and past top 4 early registration access. Benefits of winning. Also incentive for players and ensures teplay gets their top media opportunities. Do in it exchange for early interviews, etc for the media production.
Auction off a small grouo of early registration access passes. This give some who want to overpay to avoid hassle the ability to do so. Also helps replay⌠do this for like 20-50 passes.
Move to a lotto draw system instead of first in. Lotto allocation from all peoplein the queue that built over a 5-10min window. This will diffuse the rush burden.
Keep the ability to buy multiple passes.
Consider meaningful ways to capture those that dont get a ticket⌠but still get them to goto replayfx
I see demand outnumber supply in other hobbies. One that comes to mind is Nintendo systems around release. They sell out fast, and thereâs a lot of frustrated people. Sure, they -could- charge more for their systems, but that goes against their goal: affordable entertainment for the whole family. Nintendo is notorious for using underpowered hardware to make costs cheaper. The limitations of the Super Nintendo made developers innovate in interesting ways to create their games.
I donât think raising the ticket price is the right avenue. Concert tickets suffer this same issue. Bruce Springsteen really under charged recently, and the reason was because itâs for the fans. Yeah, you gotta be right there to get the thing, but howâs that very different than waiting for a new product outside the store on release day? Iâve been the 30th dude in line only to find out friggin Lebron James took 2 Xbox 360s so even though they had 30 I didnât get one. (This really happened.) Even being in line doesnât guarantee you the product, thereâs a finite supply.
From the facebook threads I have seen, there are a slew of first timers this year that got into Pinburgh. Thatâs awesome! Itâs nice that the same mix of people isnât guaranteed, it makes the experience fresh and unique.
If yâall havenât listened to Dougâs Pinball Profile yet, do that! He would love to raise the participants. However, that means more people running it, so theyâre bringing in new blood to TD and tech. Hopefully theyâll gain enough experience that next year can be more.
Tldr; Raising the prices isnât the best idea, imo. Thatâs a good way to push out the casual to starting to get good players, as that becomes so much to commit to, on top of other expenses. This might be my only tournament I travel out of state for, and I bet Iâm not alone.
For people from overseas, the ticket cost is only a minor item. The real expenses are flights and accommodation.
Another idea to throw into the mix: have some number of tickets allocated to each country, maybe proportional to the number of active players. Give those countries first right of refusal for those tickets; any tickets not taken up go into the main pool. Thatâs basically the same idea as offering each country some spots in the IFPA world championship.
I understand where youâre coming from with overseas folks. Itâs a small portion. Me, Iâm on the poverty line in this country. I saved up to buy my ticket- I couldnât even afford to buy my replayfx pass at the same time. Folks that are travelling by plane seem to have more income with which to use, and ticket price isnât as large a factor for that reason. I mean, if someone can afford to go from Australia to Pittsburgh thatâs already more money than Iâve ever had in my savings.
I donât think itâs possible (nor would it be Pinburghâs job) to do something about financial inequality. The reality is that people with more money always have an edge when it comes to participating in a sport or hobby. If nothing else, they can afford to buy themselves more chances.
Personally, Iâm going to Pinburgh to hang out with my son, who lives in California and is a pinhead, too. So, Pinburgh is just an excuse to have a holiday that I would have had sooner or later anyway.
Thatâs the main reason Iâm not upset about my missing out. Two local players got their tickets, and this will be their first Pinburgh, and theyâre really excited.
Heck no⌠I was already annoyed at the ticketing service fee.
Whatâs funny about not paying for a âmobile ticketâ, though ⌠the confirmation email included an âAdd to Apple Walletâ button, which worked perfectly⌠both Pinburgh and ReplayFX tickets are now sitting on my phone waiting for July. So I guess the $1 âmobileâ ticket wouldâve been absolutely pure profit for them.
I didnât read too closely, but I thought the mobile option was to MMS the ticket to you. The $1 could be the actual cost their third party charges them for MMS.
$1 is an easy thing for me to say yes toâŚbut I also felt that I wanted to finish registration as quickly as possible for fear of a sellout (despite knowing that I had 15 minutes to complete).
But then after seeing those other fees, I wished I hadnât.
840 [spots taken]
440 [on the waitlist so far]
= 1280 total
Bananas. Even if 10% of those people drop out, thatâs still ~1150 players trying to play in this event.
Congrats to everyone who got in. And a small bit of good news for everyone >21 on the wait list: Youâre probably bumping up at least one spot, because #21 told me he was able to get a ticket at 12:15 after adding himself to the waitlist. I let him know that he should sort this out with ReplayFX.
