TOPIC: my experience... not good

no one wrote: I understand that management can't control ticket sales to people, and there are times you can't get slots filled. But I don't check the forum while at Gencon, I don't have access to wifi. I know a lot of people don't want to waitlist, cause in previous years you might wait a couple hours for a ticket, and you had to have generics in hand. Also, you don't know if you will be able to get 2 or 3 together, and from what I have seen rarely do. And at least one person I know didn't get their badge until after tickets were sold out. So between volunteer shifts, and the other things they want to do they have to add 1/2 wait (if they are lucky) to a 2 hour event.

Just as a point of interest, I purchased my badge maybe 30 days before GenCon as a last minute decision. I was a brand new player (although I've friends who have played it off and on for a few years.)

I ran three runs this year. Two of them were runs that I negotiated prior to the Con (on the forums), the third I purchased via a ticket booth randomly Thursday night when I found out there wasn't a need for me to be at the auction house during a block of time.

I had the opportunity to run three more as folks lost people, had openings, got exhausted, etc. - but I had already over extended my time budget.

There were tickets available (a bunch) Thursday night as people surrendered them back to GenCon. In the last Pick-up group (Friday afternoon), one of the people had bought his ticket online about an hour before the event. (and spent most of that waiting in line to get it from Willcall )

I think the waiting list is a tricky thing, but I saw several people using it when I was trying to find ARP to get my ticket from him. TD seemed pretty aggressive in getting the slots filled for folks .. I suspect because unless they have a special deal with GenCon, they don't get paid for unused tickets .. GenCon gets it all.

Still, only 1%-5% use the forums .. so that isn't a good real-world example.

Steve wrote: I think the waiting list is a tricky thing, but I saw several people using it when I was trying to find ARP to get my ticket from him. TD seemed pretty aggressive in getting the slots filled for folks .. I suspect because unless they have a special deal with GenCon, they don't get paid for unused tickets .. GenCon gets it all.

Yes, that is true. True Dungeon only gets credit for the tickets that are turned in.

If someone buys a ticket, does not show up and that slot is not filled, then GenCon keeps all that money and TD gets nothing.

bpsymington wrote: I don't think we need a mystery shopper program, between ACs checking in and observing DMs and experienced players and volunteers doing runs and reporting on issues they witnessed.

Not trying to get anybody in trouble or anything, but I was a first-time DM and my AC did not observe me during combat, but did occasionally stop by at other times. This could simply be because many groups killed my monster too quickly, but still I wasn't observed doing actual combat work.

no one wrote: I don't think that a mystery shopper would help with the biggest complaints that my group had, they were deliberate designs that hurt new players, while hardly phasing veterans.

I think any mystery shopper program should be done with people running on Normal-difficulty runs with only the 10-packs. A significant percentage of players run with very little tokens and so should any theoretical mystery shopper.

Kirk Bauer wrote:

no one wrote: I don't think that a mystery shopper would help with the biggest complaints that my group had, they were deliberate designs that hurt new players, while hardly phasing veterans.

I think any mystery shopper program should be done with people running on Normal-difficulty runs with only the 10-packs. A significant percentage of players run with very little tokens and so should any theoretical mystery shopper.

Mystery shopper should be at all levels not just normal. Ti get a true session on what is happening . Ran into a few DMS that did not understand how certain tokens worked or how to keep combat moving at the higher difficultly levels.

Kirk Bauer wrote:

bpsymington wrote: I don't think we need a mystery shopper program, between ACs checking in and observing DMs and experienced players and volunteers doing runs and reporting on issues they witnessed.

Not trying to get anybody in trouble or anything, but I was a first-time DM and my AC did not observe me during combat, but did occasionally stop by at other times. This could simply be because many groups killed my monster too quickly, but still I wasn't observed doing actual combat work.

Don't be so sure, Kirk. They do peek in instead of actually coming into your room. This is because they don't want to interrupt the parties and ruin the feel of the room for them. Over the years I've volunteered the Ninja in me has observed not only my AC's looking in to see how things are going, but also Jeff. If they don't come in after peeking in that means you are doing well.

Ro-gan wrote:

Kirk Bauer wrote:

bpsymington wrote: I don't think we need a mystery shopper program, between ACs checking in and observing DMs and experienced players and volunteers doing runs and reporting on issues they witnessed.

Not trying to get anybody in trouble or anything, but I was a first-time DM and my AC did not observe me during combat, but did occasionally stop by at other times. This could simply be because many groups killed my monster too quickly, but still I wasn't observed doing actual combat work.

Don't be so sure, Kirk. They do peek in instead of actually coming into your room. This is because they don't want to interrupt the parties and ruin the feel of the room for them. Over the years I've volunteered the Ninja in me has observed not only my AC's looking in to see how things are going, but also Jeff. If they don't come in after peeking in that means you are doing well.

i get asked by a couple of AC after the run/during the run..how the DMs are doing..any issues I see/advice I can give to make it flow/go better etc.

Ro-gan wrote:

Kirk Bauer wrote:

bpsymington wrote: I don't think we need a mystery shopper program, between ACs checking in and observing DMs and experienced players and volunteers doing runs and reporting on issues they witnessed.

Not trying to get anybody in trouble or anything, but I was a first-time DM and my AC did not observe me during combat, but did occasionally stop by at other times. This could simply be because many groups killed my monster too quickly, but still I wasn't observed doing actual combat work.

Don't be so sure, Kirk. They do peek in instead of actually coming into your room. This is because they don't want to interrupt the parties and ruin the feel of the room for them. Over the years I've volunteered the Ninja in me has observed not only my AC's looking in to see how things are going, but also Jeff. If they don't come in after peeking in that means you are doing well.

....and me! I peek in at you all the time. In your room, in your hotel....

TJRat wrote:

Ro-gan wrote:

Kirk Bauer wrote:

bpsymington wrote: I don't think we need a mystery shopper program, between ACs checking in and observing DMs and experienced players and volunteers doing runs and reporting on issues they witnessed.

Not trying to get anybody in trouble or anything, but I was a first-time DM and my AC did not observe me during combat, but did occasionally stop by at other times. This could simply be because many groups killed my monster too quickly, but still I wasn't observed doing actual combat work.

Don't be so sure, Kirk. They do peek in instead of actually coming into your room. This is because they don't want to interrupt the parties and ruin the feel of the room for them. Over the years I've volunteered the Ninja in me has observed not only my AC's looking in to see how things are going, but also Jeff. If they don't come in after peeking in that means you are doing well.

....and me! I peek in at you all the time. In your room, in your hotel....

and in the shower

lazlo_hollyfeld1985 wrote:

TJRat wrote:

Ro-gan wrote:

Kirk Bauer wrote:

bpsymington wrote: I don't think we need a mystery shopper program, between ACs checking in and observing DMs and experienced players and volunteers doing runs and reporting on issues they witnessed.

Not trying to get anybody in trouble or anything, but I was a first-time DM and my AC did not observe me during combat, but did occasionally stop by at other times. This could simply be because many groups killed my monster too quickly, but still I wasn't observed doing actual combat work.

Don't be so sure, Kirk. They do peek in instead of actually coming into your room. This is because they don't want to interrupt the parties and ruin the feel of the room for them. Over the years I've volunteered the Ninja in me has observed not only my AC's looking in to see how things are going, but also Jeff. If they don't come in after peeking in that means you are doing well.

....and me! I peek in at you all the time. In your room, in your hotel....

and in the shower

I saw enough of Luke this GenCon *shudder* No need to peek in the shower.

"I always feel like, somebody's watching me..."

Raven wrote:

bpsymington wrote: Providing an opportunity for feedback again would probably be a good idea. Comment cards would be good, or perhaps the XP cards could give a link to a forum thread for feedback, or an email address for providing feedback.

I think this is a *great* idea.

TD already gives out a card for volunteer recruitment, and a card for XP... Another "customer satisfaction" card would be a good way to let people give feedback - or even just to let them know there is a way to give feedback, since many people are unaware of how to contact an AC.

This could be combined with the XP card, or be separate. Maybe together would be better, since people are better at not losing those cards.

I think its important that the comment cards be reviewed at least shiftly to provide good real time feedback.

After the con does very little to help a struggling DM get better.