SDCC 2014: A Pretty Smooth Pre-Registration

A major hurdle of the San Diego Comic-Con registration process was cleared yesterday.

From the looks of it, the new pre-registration process went on pretty smoothly.

With the ample two-hour time block for people to login to the EPIC waiting room and assigning random queue numbers to those there, the horrible server outages of previous years were more or less resolved.

Red Dot Diva noticed significantly fewer frustrated cries of people unable to login at all, even though there were a number who said they had been booted out of the waiting room or faced error messages. It was also interesting to point out that the waiting room queue numbers allocated were indeed truly random. Some people who entered the waiting room later ended up being near the front of the actual ticket purchasing process. So, as long as one managed to log into the waiting room, it was really all The Hunger Games "reaping" like.

The worse part of the entire thing was probably watching and getting hynotized by the "spinning blue circle" on the landing page while waiting it to be refreshed to the registration page.

But it helped that the Comic-Con organizers posted reminders and different prompt messages on the landing page to keep people informed of what's going on. There was even this amusing Star Wars message:

However, many have indicated that it would have lessened much more stress and angst if they knew their position in the waiting room line.

As expected, the package of 4-Day + Preview Night was the first to go, and then about an hour in, weekend tickets for Saturday and Fri ran low and were sold out too. During the process, geeks who were already in the waiting room and could register for more people were offering and helping others out. Really heart-warming to see all the Nerd Love :)

When pre-registration wrapped up some two hour plus later, the limited number of passes allocated for this round was all gone.

Red Dot Diva's friends @eserei27 and @TheArtimus did not get Preview Night tiks but they were more than happy with scoring passes for all 4 days! Woohoo! As @TheArtimus summarized...

It took about 2 hours for all tickets to be sold out, which actually proves that the pre-registration process this year was a more measured and calm event. During last year's panicked frenzy, all tickets sold out in 9 minutes!

It was clear that the organizers and EPIC have listened to the various concerns raised by fans. Red Dot Diva could see that they have put in a hell lot more effort this year resolving those logistic problems. Having worked in IT before, she is aware that you had to think mostly "out of the box" to untangle issues like these.

For those who were unable to get the tickets this time round, don't give up yet. There are a couple more chances in the near future.

Open registration will be in the spring. No dates have been announced yet but do look out for news on Comic-Con's website, or follow these SDCC-centric folks on Twitter:

- @SD_Comic_Con
- @sdccgotgirl
- @SDCCnerdsattack
- @Crazy4ComicCon
- @TheNerdyGirlie

And then soon after, Red Dot Diva says attendees should start panicking about the next stressful event -- The SDCC Hotel Lottery. ;)