When I saw that tickets had been returned for our events, I posted on our Facebook page, the Gen Con Indy Facebook page, these forums, and Twitter.
Yeah, I shouldn't have posted so heavily about our "Sell Out". It probably kept Generics people away. We could have easily run another 2-3 teams each slot on Thursday, and 1-2 on Friday and Saturday.
Thats another 50-60 folks that could have played Nascrag.
I would think rather than outright cancelling a game, how about just go into the hallway and scream for anyone who wants to play it free? That's got to be better than outright cancelling...
Also, the game that we had to cancel only had two players. How long would you ask them to wait on a Friday night while you look for other people to play a six hour event? How long would you wait if you were one of those two players?
Players are incentivized by the demand to buy tickets to things they are passingly interested in, and disincentivized to refund their tickets since many tickets are cheap and you have to wait in line to get the refund. Since tickets are paper and cant be 'cancelled' remotely (theres no QR code or serial # the gm scans), the path forward to make 'remote ticket refund' is unlikely to show up, so players have every reason to simply bounce, especially because the primary negative (you harm somebody else's experience) is totally disconnected (you're not even showing up to see them be disappointed).
A perfect solution would be to make tickets remotely refundable, if they are 'digital tickets' that you display on a phone and redeem in front of the GM. You'd get more people abdicating instead of no showing.
Alternatively, if something can be done to improve the chances of filling last minute slots, that would improve the experience the other way. If an app could approximately locate you to the GM, GMs could send out pings to interested players that a game is beginning <100 ft from you that is accepting generics RIGHT NOW, and you could, if you're just killing time, scoot in, sit down and play.
All pretty high-concept stuff, but unless the ticket system changes I dont see much chance of fixing it.
Hey, I'll cop to no showing one event. I am almost sorry, but I got an IM from an old friend that I hadn't seen in over 20 years. We had dinner and played some stuff in the Catalyst area.
I only no-showed one event - and that was because I didn't have my clock set right on my phone... it wasn't an RPG though... and I felt bad (and mad too, because I totally wanted to play that game!)
I think our plan next year is to over sell tickets. Right now there is no incentive for a player to show up. They pay for the ticket and then they can just use it to get into some other unfilled event. I ended up running two sessions designed for 5 players and both times only 2 people showed up to each despite both events being sold out. Plus, if I understand correctly, my group will only get back money for the tickets that were turned in? So we prepped for 25 person workshops and 13-15 people showed up... So I'm down the cost of the extra 20+ workshop bits? I hope I'm misunderstanding what I'm reading. Meanwhile those people who bought the tickets can just take them elsewhere and give them over for some other event - or return them - or toss them out. >.<
So next year we're just going to over ticket everything. 20 person workshop? We'll sell 30 tickets and hope 20 show. 5 person game? We'll sell 8 tickets and hope 5 show. 9 person LARP? Let's go for 12 and see what happens. But what to do if all show up? Now I'm preparing an extra third of material just in case....
I love running at Gen Con, but the con doesn't provide great support/incentives for GMs or groups, and then players don't show up, and I just feel like I've wasted my time. I'm not sure we'll be running any games at all next year. I'm sick of prepping and working for something people don't even show up to. At least with workshops even if half the people show up I don't feel like I wasted my time.
A couple options...not solutions...since overselling an rpg is awful if everyone shows up...
1) try to offer events as a group in an area...and have an hq. Put in the descriptions of the events that there will be a wait list to get players in. Just sign the clip board. Also keep an eye on ticket returns and let people on the wait list know ahead of time that seats were cancelled.
2) I agree with the poster above that ticketless tickets are going to have to be a thing. There is going to have to be a way to transfer them to a friend...cancel them remotely...and even use as generics. It wouldn't require a gm to have the app just the gm hq. If he or she DID then they can use it otherwise just have players check in at the hq.
For players who don't have the app...I suppose you could have an 'opt out' but there would then also have to be a disincentive to doing that. Or maybe a 'change over year' where both were in use and then a strictly paperless year.
Might be something to put on a survey.
But guilting players won't work. Never has.
Agreed - overselling is not a solution since as was mentioned, what do you do if all the ticket-holders show up? Tell 10 of the 30 they cannot be accepted afterall? I ran 3 sold out rpg events and only had 1 no-show. All my games started a bit late since many people had said they were not expecting such long walks between events.
Yeah, overselling an RPG is awful if everyone shows up. Or might be, depending on the RPG. But running with half the team can be just as bad. And not running at all is worse. They're all suboptimal choices, but there seem to be more no-shows in recent years than there were in the past, and unless there's some systematic change to address it I can't blame GM's for taking the overbook route.
Option 1 works great if you're part of a big group running a lot of tables. But for smaller groups it doesn't work out. Really small groups don't get their own room. And even if you get a room, are you willing to forfeit a table to administration instead of running another game? Even if you are, you need someone to run the HQ table. That person will need to be compensated just like any other volunteer, and to earn the badge and room for them you'll need to generate more player-hours. That means the people who do GM will need to run more games, or have more players for the games they run. I guess overbooking might help generate enough player hours to cover the HQ too... Hmmm....
I agree that we're not likely to solve the problem of people not going to games they've signed up for. Guilting hasn't worked. Economic disincentives aren't likely to work either - if you're already paying a thousand bucks or more to attend what's another $6 for a ticket you don't use?
What we really need to solve is how to get people to take their places, and sometimes do it on very short notice, so the game can proceed.
Lucas Oil is amazing. Wide open spaces! 288 foot ceiling. We only got one noise complaint the entire convention! OK, it's a bit of a hike. I'm hoping there's more stuff in Lucas next year, maybe some of the back halls that went unused this year.
Tried an Escape Room this year. Short 2 people to work on it really impacted our chances of success. At least 1 person blew off a $28 ticket. Though, I guess it is possible they returned it at the last minute.
No easy answer here. It is a pain, but people are going to meet old friends or find something to do. As was said above, the incentives really encourage this. Buy a bunch of stuff and go if you feel like it, blow it off if you don't. Most events aren't $28. I guess the Con could do a better job of reminding gamers the consequence of this. Most gamers would be more conscientious about this if they knew the impact, but I don't think they are even considering it.
Even if people could return digitally, I'm not sure that the spots would get filled. By the time I get to the Con, I have a pretty full schedule.
I agree that we're not likely to solve the problem of people not going to games they've signed up for. Guilting hasn't worked. Economic disincentives aren't likely to work either - if you're already paying a thousand bucks or more to attend what's another $6 for a ticket you don't use? What we really need to solve is how to get people to take their places, and sometimes do it on very short notice, so the game can proceed.
The greater distance people have to walk between events probably increases the number of no-shows.
On the other hand, I noticed this year that you couldn't buy tickets to conflicting events (I was trying to buy a ticket for one of my teens on my account so I only had to pay/checkout once). I'm pretty sure you used to be able to do that. You'd think that could help a little.
How does allowing people to buy tickets to conflicting events in the same time slot "help a little"? Doesn't that guarantee that at least one of those seats will have a no-show?
It's NOT allowing people to do it that might "help a little". As event tickets are often cheap, particularly for RPGs, I've always thought that some people bought tickets "on spec".