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Microsoft Xbox E3 Fanfest - 2017

Risingsun

Neo Member
Wait if they set up a FanFest in another, bigger location in LA why would the people who were going to fly out be screwed? I'm just saying they should choose a new venue that will allow anyone to go.



I'd be ok if I couldn't go to the briefing and couldn't get swag. I understand that's it's pretty short notice, but I feel like they should be able to set something up in two months' time. Just a little something for the fans that are feeling raw from this.

Easier said than done. Most large venues in LA have been booked for months in advance for E3 week. If they could find a place large enough to host the event, it would either be really expensive or far away from the convention center/Downtown.
 
I didn't pay attention to previous Fanfests. What happened wrong in the other ones?

Previously, mostly just stuff that goes wrong with any kind of "line & time based" giveaway.

They told people to line up in the wrong area, then changed the area, so some people were now in the front of the line while others were at the end and missed out, switching from first come first serve to a raffle system, no real security for the raffle system (people got multiple tickets, had other people get them more tickets, etc), line cutting, people lying, etc etc. Nothing specifically on the Xbox team, but it just seemed like they were not prepared for what happened.

Each year it's gotten bigger and bigger. 3 years ago it was 100 people from a line, plus 50 "Xbox VIPs" from online who got to go. They expanded it the next year, and we waited over night, but they had so many slots that peopled walked up the next day and got a ticket. Last year, 1000+ people showed up for 500 promised tickets.

I'd recommended going with an online system this year, or something run directly through the Microsoft store. Problems will always creep up, with anything, I just don't understand how this wasn't stress tested ahead of time.

Easier said than done. Most large venues in LA have been booked for months in advance for E3 week. If they could find a place large enough to host the event, it would be either be really expensive or far away from the convention center/Downtown.

They BUSED everyone to the Petersen Auto museum last year, so adding any significant amount of people could have a number of unintended consequences for their whole project.
 

Risingsun

Neo Member
I didn't pay attention to previous Fanfests. What happened wrong in the other ones?

I know several people who went to the last two Fanfests. The first year when nobody knew that they would be handing out E3 show floor passes, hardly anyone showed up. When the word got out the next year a lot more people lined up over night.

I know a for a fact quite a few didn't even own an Xbox or were die hard Sony fans who hated Xbox and Microsoft, but went anyway thinking this was their shot for a free E3 pass.

A lot of the people who used to line up for the Sony PS Blog events opening for a free E3 pass started trying to go to Fanfest instead once Sony stopped doing them shortly after Jeff Rubenstien left Sony.

It's honestly a really small group of die hards from the LA area, so you see the same faces over and over year after year.
 
I can't believe they could screw this up so bad. I knew it was too good to be true. Especially with my friends getting in as well. Seemed too easy once you figured out the link thing. I had a bad feeling about this happening, but chose to remain optimistic that it was all above board. sigh.
 

Mr Clutch

Member
We need Balmer back to greenlight a billion-dollar FanFest!

Or Balmer could let Microsoft use Staples Center.

afd.jpg_large
 

thanat0s

Neo Member
Definitely sucks for those that planned trips around their confirmations but this was the most fair option for the most people. Good luck to everyone trying for round 2.
 
Definitely sucks for those that planned trips around their confirmations but this was the most fair option for the most people. Good luck to everyone trying for round 2.

honestly, it's pretty ridiculous people would jump the gun so quickly and plan their trips on the same day of their confirmation. when i got tickets to e3, i waited at least a week to make sure they wouldn't email me back that my early bird tickets had been refunded lol
 

Lee

Member
honestly, it's pretty ridiculous people would jump the gun so quickly and plan their trips on the same day of their confirmation. when i got tickets to e3, i waited at least a week to make sure they wouldn't email me back that my early bird tickets had been refunded lol

Got a ticket. Got excited. Saw a super cheap flight. Booked it. A confirmation is supposed to, you know, confirm that you have a ticket.

Good on MS for letting us know today as you can cancel flights fairly easily within 24 hours. Still a hassle and it's going to sting if I don't get one next time around knowing that confirmation email from before is still sitting in my inbox.

So many happy people on Twitter today too. It was painfully obvious that too many people got tickets. When it's truly limited to 100 per drop there's going to be a very different vibe.
 
This is absolute bullshit. First time I ever win something and now they're taking it away.

Yep, never won anything before. Now it's all gone and I know my luck has been used up. Not to mention we don't even know when it's starting next time. Nor do I want to be sitting at my PC all day waiting.I already did that.
 

Lee

Member
Yep, never won anything before. Now it's all gone and I know my luck has been used up. Not to mention we don't even know when it's starting next time. Nor do I want to be sitting at my PC all day waiting.I already did that.

Man, didn't even consider that it likely won't be today. I'm out of town tomorrow through Sunday. I can try on mobile but yikes. I'm just royally fucking out of luck on this.

https://twitter.com/moneyrumble/status/854788844549361665

1/ #XboxFanFest enthusiasm got the better of our system today folks. The site got overloaded and allowed more people than all FF tix

2/ #XboxFanFest alot of Xbox teams involved this morning to make this as fair as possible moving forward.
 
I mean, we'd need to know the extent of how over sold it was. I'm guessing was the 1000 or so people, maybe more.

There is no right way to fix this, as someone is getting screwed. We don't know how many of the people who "got tickets" were even under the original 400 person limit, so while I "got" a ticket.. I was like in the 1700's so I probably didn't deserve it anyway.

Sucks for the first people, but if the website wasn't working correctly anyway, maybe none of them were valid to begin with?

I dunno. They better give us enough warning of the new times.
 
Got a ticket. Got excited. Saw a super cheap flight. Booked it. A confirmation is supposed to, you know, confirm that you have a ticket.

Good on MS for letting us know today as you can cancel flights fairly easily within 24 hours. Still a hassle and it's going to sting if I don't get one next time around knowing that confirmation email from before is still sitting in my inbox.

So many happy people on Twitter today too. It was painfully obvious that too many people got tickets. When it's truly limited to 100 per drop there's going to be a very different vibe.

i guess its different from me since i live on the other side of the country and it takes more time to look for cheap flights in that regard.
that certainly sucks that they overbooked, and luckily you will get your money back for the flight
 
Chris @moneyrumble on Twitter..

#XboxFanFest enthusiasm got the better of our system today folks. The site got overloaded and allowed more people than all FF tix

#XboxFanFest alot of Xbox teams involved this morning to make this as fair as possible moving forward.

#XboxFanFest two big items- 1st we're going to restart everything. Voiding all registrations from today is Step 1.

#XboxFanFest to all those fans who managed to register today and are effected by this, we will be emailing you something directly. Step 2

#XboxFanFest we are committed to getting this fixed and getting FF registration back up. Stay tuned for more from me, @Xbox, et al.

alot.png
 
Haha that was a good test run right guys?? Next time with feeling!

Seriously though it sucks for those who got in but the entry method wasn't clear and a lot of people who didnt get in, should've as well. Imo this is the best option. Any option to fix this screws people over.
 

Lee

Member
If a month makes you happy I guess. I would expect nothing less than 3 months.
Then again I didn't get in.

I was joking. Hopefully what they send out is worthwhile because I feel like that's all I'll be getting out of this experience outside of a wasted day. However, there are likely 1,000 people "effected by this" so I don't expect much.
 

poppedamolly

Neo Member
So are they compensating us all with Project Scropio consoles? LOL

Sucks to have to go through this again despite probably being the first 100.
 
honestly, it's pretty ridiculous people would jump the gun so quickly and plan their trips on the same day of their confirmation. when i got tickets to e3, i waited at least a week to make sure they wouldn't email me back that my early bird tickets had been refunded lol

Not really, the longer you wait the faster planes fill up. the faster planes fill up the more pricey they are.
 
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