ndToday is the dreaded Event Registration for GenCon. Somewhere out in cyberspace, a poor event server is about to get flooded by Gamer Geeks around the country, and to a smaller extent, around the world. How will it go today? No one knows. But I will be blogging live at 4pm Eastern, when I attempt to run the gauntlet and try to register for me and my friends.

So stick with me and lets see how this goes…

Pre-Registration Day

I have done all my homework and picked out the events I am interested in, and have coordinated with my friends on which events we are going to. This year I am going to do all the buying for four events:

• Iron Heroes– The Headhunters’ Drums  (Want 6 tickets…good luck)
• Traveller– Return of the Chamax  (Want 1 ticket)
• Aces ‘N Eights–Saddle Up  (Want 3 tickets)
• Lunch Money Tournament  (Want 6 tickets)

I have picked out the events, and gotten a head count.

1:09 pm EST– True Dungeon registration has begun and the registration server is slammed. I have tried to get into registration.gencon.com, but my browser hangs. I am not overly surprised, as True Dungeon is very popular, and they separate it from the regular registration to keep the server load down. But not encouraging that it is already hung up.

4:14 pm– Attempting to get into GenCon Registration site. Have not been able to get the Registration page to load. Attempts to ping the site are going unanswered. Hopes that the Registration system was improving, are starting to fade. Hopes of getting 6 tickets for Iron Heroes also fading.

4:26 pm– Registration page has loaded. Greeted with the following uplifting message:
Due to high registration volume, the registration process is working very slowly. We are currently trying to add additional servers to alleviate server load. We ask for your patience and that you please not continuously try to reload as that only increases load. We will update this message as new information comes available. Thank you for your support!

Attempting to logged in….

4:36pm– Have reached the Registration page but now unable to log in. I had really hoped that this year was going to be different, but sadly its actually worst than last year, when I was able to log in and register, but got stuck in the payment server. This is more like two years ago, when no one could even get into the server. My hopes for getting any RPG events are evaporating.

4:48pm– Now have made it into the event system. Have entered my important RPG events and the sever is hanging and going damn slow. No hope that I will get any of the events I have listed. Ready to write my own Open letter…

5:16pm– Got some events into my card. Ran up against some problems with asking for too many tickets for most events. Have picked up my seminar events as well, and now trying to check out. Ugh…

5:42pm– Still tied up in the payment sever. I have a cart full of tickets and a credit card ready to give money to GenCon LLC, but still nowhere yet. At least this part I expected.

5:48pm– Cleared the payment server.  Registration complete.  With the delay, I got the following:

• Iron Heroes– The Headhunters’ Drums  (Two Tickets)
• Traveller– Return of the Chamax (One Ticket)
• Lunch Money Tournament  (Two Tickets)

And while I could not get any Aces ‘N Eights tickets, Spenser was able to get a pair.

In all it was about 2 hours to get through the process.  Much worst than last year.  I was not happy that the amount of tickets I as able to get was limited to 2 for an event.  In all I have to give GenCon a D+ for this year’s registration.