That, of course, ignores the fact that they bought a ticket.  It wasn't 'given' to them.  And it ignores the fact that if 2500 people who bought tickets never used their time slots, his chances of getting a downtown room are greater anyway.  Yes, he MIGHT have gotten an earlier slot with fewer people in the lottery, but he might not have, either.

I disagree with the premise that people who paid $95 were 'given' something or that they were somehow not entitled to be treated exactly the same as everyone else who paid $95 because they MAY not have sat and mashed keys at some random, pre-appointed time.  He doesn't even know if that's the case, he just assumes it is.

So, in summary, yes they might have had a passing interest in the past, but not enough to nudge them to work for it.  Now all they had to do was buy a badge and they were given a time.  Much less effort.  Those who may not have cared having a room at the airport all of a sudden find themselves holding the golden ticket of a 12:45 time slot and think, "Sure, why not?  I can save money on a rental car and parking and the difference be an extra $25 a day?  I think I can swing an extra hundo to be downtown."  So someone not passionate about and having their enjoyment hinge on being downtown got the room.  I think that's where gharris is coming from.

If someone is /really/ passionate and their enjoyment hinges on having a downtown room?  They should have already had one before the portal ever opened.   In fact, there are downtown rooms still available.  Yeah, they cost more in some cases - less in others (ie - the folks who got Embassy through Hotels.com or Booking.com whose reservations were not cancelled) but them's the breaks.

I have 3 rooms booked out of block - 2 downtown, 1 in Southport.  Southport Hampton Inn is cheaper than most of the block at $750 for 5 nights (the hotel is not in block, because, for whatever reason, GenCon doesn't get blocks in Southport).  1 downtown is /expensive/ - at the Hampton Inn, from Saturday-Sunday, for about $2400.  1 downtown is much less so at the Homewood Suites for about $1400 from Tue-Sun.  Homewood is not in block.  I'm probably keeping Homewood. 

I would have been ok in Southport, we've stayed there before, it's an easy drive.  But we prefer downtown and are obviously quite willing to spend literally twice as much to stay downtown.  But because it's important to me and because I know my odds are slim in the lottery, I save up and book outside of block because that's my priority.

I can't be upset because someone else got a better time than me in a lottery where they had an equal chance of doing so as I did.  The idea makes no sense to me.

Forget about the mashing keys/better computer/better internet arguments for a moment. Did the fact that you still logged in at noon on a bad computer, pressed the button once, crashed, logged in again and saw what was there still increase your odds over people who didn't log in? Yes, because you were still competing against less people.

Would EVERY SINGLE PERSON who got a downtown room this year be a person who would have braved the housing portal last year? Of course not. Thus, my odds went down.

Did people claim downtown rooms who otherwise wouldn't have asked for them simply because they got a winning number, knowing they could just give/sell/trade them away? Of course they did. That brings my odds down.

Note that nothing from Gen Con's point of view prevented anyone from logging in at noon on housing day, everyone had a theoretical chance if they tried to claim it. Just not everyone tried to claim it.

No, I am not saying that I was guaranteed a good hotel last year. But because I put the effort in as soon as the housing opened I had an undeniably better chance.

You can argue that people should be rewarded for doing nothing- and this year they were, they were literally handed winning tickets at random even if they "paid" for them. But you can't just blow off people who were willing to put more effort into getting those winning tickets while competing against fewer people being upset that their willingness to put in that effort is meaningless now.

I haven't really heard of any.

Not the case the last few years.  Not even /close/.  Many people who actually HAD early times last year when they logged in at noon STILL found themselves locked out or kicked off or unable to complete their transactions for any number of reasons.

You weren't one of those unlucky people.  This year, you were one of the unlucky ones, so somehow this new system is automatically 'bad'.

In years past, plenty of OTHER people were unlucky.  It's just how it works.

Me?  I've never gotten a room in block because I've ALWAYS been unlucky.  What works for me is booking out of block.  Never disappointed with where I'm staying. 

Look, nobody is talking about getting rooms outside of the block. Gen Con has no control over that. What we are talking about is saving an easy $800+ by getting rooms downtown at housing block prices. It is great that you book room out of block, and no doubt you will enjoy them, but that is off topic.

Note that any argument based people putting in "effort"  or that they "bought a lottery ticket" just because they bought a badge is faulty- literally EVERYONE using the housing block buys a badge. Last year just doing that meant you did nothing to improve your odds if you didn't log into the housing portal right when it opened. Thus the phase "doing nothing". I know people have bristled at that, but that is what it was.

You say not thinking everyone deserves the same chance based on doing the absolute bare minimum regardless of willingness to put in extra effort (yes, even if it is just "mashing keys") makes no sense to you. I would reply simply that putting in extra effort should yield a better chance of reward, not thinking that also makes no sense. Doubly so because for well over 20 years, since before we did registration online and had the mail and later fax in our housing forms, Gen Con HAS rewarded people who put in extra effort with increased chances of reward.
 

The housing site would crash and time out on me too. Had reservations in progress disappear on me. I would have to start over. I still had better odds than people who didn't log in at all, and yes sometimes when I would crash and log back in I would still get a room downtown. It might have been choice #10, but it was something. No mashing keys, no elite internet connection, no top of the line computer. I clicked the button when it went live and waited, and got better odds because I made that effort.

I also didn't say that the system didn't need to be upgraded. We are still going to stress the system again when event registration goes live.

In other words, if you buy multiple tickets, you'll increase your odds.  Go ahead and do that.  Logging on at 12:00:01 isn't 'doing more work' than someone who logs on at 12:01:00, so much so that you "deserve" a "better reward". 

1 equal chance of "winning" per ticket purchased.  I'm good with that.  It's completely and totally unbiased and fair to every single badge holder.

Except many people didn't even bother to log in at 12:01. They didn't put in that extra effort. We did. Doing something unpleasant in order to reap additional reward is textbook extra effort. Logging in at 12 was not fun, waiting out the housing process at 12 was not fun, relogging in was not fun, to say there was no extra effort there is foolish. People didn't do it because it was extra effort.

Now, out of curiosity, last year did you put in the effort to try to log in right at noon? And why not? Remember that discounting people making the extra effort to make sure they were free right at 12 to brave the housing portal should not be discounted.

You also seem to think that I mean only the people who successfully logged in right at 12, with no crashing, and got completely through the housing with their dream room put in extra effort. I do not. Everyone that at least TRIED to log in at 12 put in extra effort. They benefited to varying degrees based on lots of factors, and sometimes they still got nothing, but nonetheless they benefited more than people who did not want to try to log in at noon.

We bought every person we knew who was going with is a badge to maximize number of people logging in.

Buying multiple badges for each person to get multiple times wasn't a "thing". You could only log in once, and everyone logged in at the same time.

The current system is fair the same way that participation trophies and, in theory, socialism is fair- everyone gets the same thing regardless of how hard they try. This is very fair for people who don't want to try too hard, not so much for people who do.

Effort doesnt matter. The fact you were lucky enough to be be available at that time isnt special, isn't a mark of merit. and GenCon was right to move away from a system that rewarded that. Maybe you just think you are inherently superior to people who have to work weekends.

but your odds werent lessened. Only the people who wanted rooms last year stuck it out till they made a reservation. Only people who wanted rooms were in making reservations. Whatever motivated them doesnt matter. Ease of system, the fact they didn't have to fight a server rush, and put forth more effort--doesn't matter.

the only thing that affected your odds is number of people wanting rooms versus number of rooms. the fact that this is the 50th Gencon, and it looks like attendance is going to be huge had the real effect on your odds.

But you had the same chance as everyone else in the system. No one cares about your so called effort. "Bravery" in facing the rush doesn't matter. People werent 'given' anything they didnt 'deserve'. Why they wanted a room--even if to give it away to someone else, doesn't matter. Someone could have done that in years past. Your desire or want isn't any more nobler than anyone else.

Those who wanted a room last before logged on at portal opening time. Those who wanted a room this year logged on at their allotted time, but they had to be free for that as well.

Some people invariably had real life conflicts that prevented that. That doesn't make them less deserving of a room than someone who could be available. The fact that some people have flexible schedules (or better ping rates, or whatever) shouldn't matter to GenCon.

 You want your effort to matter?  Work an extra part time job, get more money, reserve a room out of block. Gencon doesn't care about your effort. GenCon has never cared about your effort. Gencon wants a process that causes the least headaches for them, the least cost, and goes quicker and smoother to distribute the limited quantity of rooms they have. Implementing a system that rewards 'effort'-- doesn't fit that description.

You also seem to mistake less competition to being the same as better odds. You do realize that if less than 100% of attendees participate the odds of people who do participate increases, right? This being an anniversary year would have just made the participating and not participating pools bigger, but the participating pool would have still been smaller than the not participating pool no matter what.

 From Gen Con's point of view, in theory everyone had just as much chance to have 12:00 Sunday off with months of advance notice as they did to have a random time off on Sunday with a day's notice- in fact, I would argue that having months of advance notice actually made it easier to be available.

And yes, I did work weekends, and I had to ask for the day off months ahead of time. I also didn't say that I couldn't put in the "effort" of putting in extra work hours and tracking down/paying for a more expensive room downtown out of block- but we aren't discussing a system for Gen Con to give us discounted rooms out of block.

Sure people may have had real life conflicts arising at the last minute, but they were just as likely to happen at noon vs (insert random log in time here).

So what your saying is someone who does the bare minimum "deserves" the same chance of reward as someone who put in a little extra work towards that reward? You don't see how this could be seen as unfair? Especially when the standard for decades has been to give the person who put in a little extra work a better chance at a reward?

Honestly, I wish I had just been more aware of WHEN to book a room outside of the block.  As I NOW understand it, if you book in November or so, you can get a nice downtown room for just a bit more than it would cost to get it in the block.

The extra money would have been worth it for me to just KNOW I had a nice downtown room.  I'm at a stage of life where I can afford it, and in fact I'm "blessed" to know that I'm unlikely to live long enough to have to worry much about retirement, so what the Hell am I saving the money for?

My allotted time was 2:35, and from what I have read here people were scoring the last of the downtown rooms literally MINUTES before my time came.  So that was funny.

Anyway, next time, I'm just getting a room in November.

Preach brother!

Why, whenever I register I do so holding my laptop above my head while doing burpees!  The extra effort is what entitles me to a room!

Now no matter how many burbees I do I don't have any advantage over people who just sit at a desk and register!  Gen Con is rewarding those people for doing nothing (except buying a badge, but why should that matter...)!!!

This is outrageous!  

I demand Gen Con do the right thing and reward my doing of burpees, which is a huge value add to Gen Con!

Maybe next year they can send out FitBits and associate our heart rate during the 60 minutes before the portal opens to allow those who exert the most effort to get rooms like they deserve!
 

:)

Again, this year was totally unchanged in that everyone got a random time. The only difference is when and how you found out.

If so, well done! You did more than a lot of people and you got a better shot at a room because of it.

If not, then thank you. You helped give the rest of us better odds.

Did you just do burpees thinking they alone would help? The congrats, you probably now realize Gen Con housing does not reward stupidity, and hopefully realized that the fact that you were at your desk trying to register on time was the something that was more than what a lot of people did.

In any case I am sure you looked great at the beach that year.

Last year they randomized access to the portal AFTER YOU LOGGED IN AT NOON. You still had to be on your computer when housing went live and wait out the housing process- otherwise you went to the back of the line. They also did not just give access times to everyone regardless of whether they logged in or not.

Again, just to be clear, the housing rules clearly stated that if you logged in after the portal went live you went to the back of the line.

Absolutely nothing you quoted about  big12cowboys and myself was a mistake. You had to log in to win. No log in, no access time, better odds for everyone else that did log in.

Here, I'll quote the exact description from the Gen Con web site from a year ago:
"ACCESS TO HOUSING PORTAL
"Random scheduled access to the housing portal is required to distribute initial opening server demand, eliminating housing page "time outs" and crashing. When housing opens, all attendees who have purchased a badge prior to housing opening will be put into a pool and given a random scheduled position to access the housing portal. Access times can be immediate or may last up to three hours. Badge purchasers will be given a countdown timer so that they know how long they will be waiting for access to the Housing Portal."

I'm happy to now hear your 'mea culpa'. :)