BlizzCon Ticket Woes

I was on vacation in the Outer Banks of North Carolina until August 10th. Yes, the day before BlizzCon tickets went on sale. I actually cut that vacation two days short so I could get home to a solid internet connection. I knew that I would need one to scoop up the two tickets I wanted to purchase. There I was, August 11th, stuck in the epic “fail Murloc” and XML error cycle like thousands of other users. F5, F5, F5, still the murloc haunts me.

After Blizzard Poster Nethaera said the tickets had been sold out, I thought all hope was lost and began looking at eBay. Don’t look at eBay. It is simply heart-breaking. Yes I saw that there would also be a small reserve of tickets to be sold at 8PM but that is PST time, and I was going to be unavailable then. My BlizzCon hopes were dashed.

Just two days later, Mike Morhaime, the big cheese at Blizzard, pulled some strings and reworked the show’s floor to allow room for 3,000 more people. To top it off they decided that these tickets would only be made available via a lottery system for those with an active Blizzard account (meaning their Online Store) as of August 12th. Huzzah, less chance that the last batch will be placed on eBay!

The details on the lottery came out yesterday and will include an opt-in period much like the Wrath Beta. After that time frame elapses - still unknown - Blizzard will select 1,500 lucky members and allow them to purchase two tickets each. Should there be any tickets left, there will be another drawing and so on until all remaining tickets are sold.

I have been fairly lucky at bingo in my life so I hope that luck carries over into this process. I really, really, want to snag that BlizzCon Polar Bear mount.

Should anyone want to feel my pain, I invite you to play BlizzCon 08 - The Game. You can learn more about the lottery system via the BlizzCon Drawing FAQ. Good luck.