Bobbing For Chocolate Kisses in a Bucket of Razor Blades

[jaegamer]

Or... registering for Origins event tickets this year.

The title is a quote from the Gencon forums re Origins Registration this year.

They hired a contract firm to upgrade their deeply awful web registration.  Alas, evidently meeting deadlines (the opening of registration was postponed, postponed again, and then was pretty much impossible to connect to), and any kind of testing aren't part of the contract. 

Actually, I'm pretty sure they are, as Trey Riley says "heads will roll".  None of which helps the majority of us who can't get our frickin' events.  I empathize - hell, I quit IT because I couldn't deal with the level of stress any more.  It's not good for Origins, though.  Their web interface has always been a poster child for poor customer interfacing, and this just piles more on top of that growing bad reputation.

It's a good thing that Origins is a totally rockin' con, where I meet up with some of the best players and GMs I've ever known, 'cause otherwise I'd have given up.

I did, after hours and hours of attempting, slip through a hole in the endless "enter address" loop, and finally dodged the "you must buy a badge" after you click "credit card" wall to get the tickets that I manged to squeeze into my cart in one lucky transaction sometime during yesterday's 8 hour ordeal.  I can't buy the last ticket I need because, well, now vast tracts of events have just disappeared from the event list.  Which, btw, currently only shows the first 25 (lowest) numbers, and is relatively impervious to efforts to see anything else.

I hope they get it fixed, and soon.  I understand that the problem is probably the contractor, but well... management hired the contractor.  No matter how you spin it, it's EPIC FAIL.

If you use Twitter, the tags are #Origins2009 and #OriginsFAIL.

My schedule (I hope)... There's a distinct lack of early morning events, and I've left Saturday wide open in case Blackmoor is in dire need.  And I'm actually playing!  That's because I expect most of Gencon to be work, work, work, with the launch of Blackmoor 4th ed.

Wednesday 6/24/09

• 1:30 PM    6049    WitchHunter - Dark Providence: Redemption    That which was stolen must be returned; that which is free must willingly return to captivity.
• 7:00 PM    6102    Strange Times: I Am Mythos    Lou Grant meets the Tick meets Cthulhu in this game of horror and humor.

Thursday 6/25/09

• 8:00 AM    6251    WitchHunter - Dark Providence: Corruption    Along the Italian Alps a poison spreads; a pact once sworn has been broken. The pact must be avenged before the oaths can be restored.
• RUN 1:30 PM    6381    Star Mage Prophecies: R001 - Reborn    The StarMage Prophecies is a continuing RPG campaign that launched at Origins 2007. It is *not* Living Dragonstar reborn.
• 7:00 PM    6516    WitchHunter - Dark Providence: Salvation    Death walks the land. The hand that set the stone to roll may be forever severed if the memory of the hunt is keen.

Friday 6/26/09

• RUN 1:30 PM    6780    Fellowship of the white Star: A208 The Fat Lady's Song, (Part Four of the Faulty Towers series ) An Interactive Event.    Origins Premiere #4.  A semi-historic d20 horror campaign module set in San Francisco 1906.
• RUN 7:00 PM    6902    Star Mage Prophecies: R001 - Reborn    The StarMage Prophecies is a continuing RPG campaign that launched at Origins 2007. It is *not* Living Dragonstar reborn, but it could be considered Living Dragonstar reincarnated.

Saturday 6/27/09

• RUN 7:00 PM    7245    Blackmoor: Episode 49 Heroes on Ice (1-4)    With Dave Arneson's Blackmoor: The MMRPG, you can play at home or at any one of the great conventions that run Blackmoor games. We have released over 40 Episodes for home play and more popping up all the time!

Sunday 6/27/09

• SUN 1:30 PM    7502    Pathfinder Society Scenario #25: Hands of the Muted God    "When the man who would be the Muted God wordlessly stepped beyond the gates of the Starstone's Cathedral, his thousand and one faithful ringing the Ascendant Court watched with the silent contemplation that is their highest sacrament. When he failed to emerge, many of his penitents abandoned their vows but a small sect remained loyal and worshipful. You and your fellow Pathfinders are sent into the mountains north of Absalom to follow the path of a doomed party and uncover the secrets of the Muted God. His loyal band of followers, called the Hand, will stop at nothing to keep you away from their shrine--even forming an alliance with some of Golarion's most evil denizens."

Comments

[wampameat.livejournal.com]

I look forward to playing the WH's with you, dear.
Out of order or no. :)

What's odd is - I was probably one of the first successful registrants. I managed to get in and get through before 1 o'clock yesterday. Very lucky, I guess. No loops, no script errors, etc. - just slow.

I'll get my schedule up on my blog soon. ;)
-VIC

[wampameat.livejournal.com]

ps
As a programmer, and one whose work is used by tens of thousands of people every day, I'd be looking for a new line of work if this kind of failure was my doing. Because there is no way in hell I'd ever be able to work as a developer again. *shakes head*

[mephron]

I am not going to Origins; however, my tabletop GM, Mike Satran, is, and will be a) running some games and b) have his first real publication released there.

So if you play Champions, you miiiiight want to look for a copy of his adventure, "Foxbat for President".

[quasievil-bunny.livejournal.com]

Just as well I haven't rush to get my events then. It's been enough of a nightmare just to get my badge order through the GAMA Club thing again. Next year I will just pay full price. It is not worth the headache, aggrevation & vexation of having to keep calling GAMA about it.

[jodidiva.livejournal.com]

Well, the joys of GM'ing is that I won't be playing, or not much. I'll probably prep the WH's w/o zeros (because I strongly doubt that they'll produce the events in time for a zero even if I had time to either go or host) so I can switch in to run if need be, although my time this summer is going to White Star. So I haven't had to deal with the event registration nightmare. Maybe I'll have some of you at a table; that wold be nice.

The key is that management chooses the contractor and is responsible for setting the contract requirements. The penalty for non-performance as to the contract should be non-payment; "heads will roll" is useless posturing. Clearly, it's a GAMA failure. Yet I doubt that GAMA will do what needs to be done to effect any change.

[gasphemer.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry if this may come off as rude posting in your journal entry, but it's not my intention. The itinerary looks like a blast, though. =)

I come here browsing the friendslist of the livejournal community godawful_fanfic. So it is likely that you have been a member/watcher of the GAFF forums in the past. I am sending this message to everyone on that list to let them know that a few members have put their heads together to create a new site- most definitely not a replacement, but a site where everyone can still get together. Here it is: http://whygodwhy.org