Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Adepticon 2013 - Have You Registered?

The pre-registration for Adepticon 2013 opened yesterday at 7pm CST, and if you figured you'd wait til today to register and still get into your favorite events or that seminar you missed last year...

...you may get a rude awakening.

At 7:01pm, being in the Central Time Zone myself, I logged into an extremely lagged webcart. After finally figuring out my account password, I promptly selected my ViG Weekend Badge, of which there were only 100 available. Luckily I had already looked at the weekend schedule, as well as the webcart, earlier and knew there was one key seminar I wanted to take. Joe Orteza's advanced sculpting class, of which there was a prerequisite that you had taken his basic course previously. The slightly stressful thing about this seminar is that there were only 6 openings for it. After adding that to my cart, I checked out and was done!

Yes, I am playing in the 40K Team Tournament next year. There were 128 team slots available, and CVinton from Dark Future Games had reserved this for our team while he was checking out!

Now then, there was a very significant point to me deliberately describing my registration process...and no, it wasn't to bore you. In case you missed it, I'll give you a hint. Go back and skim through my registration process and tell me the verb tense I used while describing the events.

Yup, I used past tense quite a bit, didn't I? Now you're catching on. The 40K Team Tournament sold out in under an hour and a half of registration being open, as did over a half dozen hobby seminars. In under 3 hours, the 40K Championships sold out, the 40K Friendly and one of the Combat Patrols sold out, the ViG Weekend Badge option was gone, as were even more hobby seminars. I haven't gone back yet to see what else is sold out this morning.

Sonova $&@!

Look, I'm more than thrilled that Adepticon has grown to be the wildly huge success it is, heck I was literally hitting refresh for the last two minutes before the webcart opened in case my watch was slow. But that's precisely my point! If you didn't want that tournament or hobby seminar spot badly enough to be at your computer right as the webcart opened, you simply didn't get in some of the things you wanted to get into. This is going to inherently peeve off more than a few people.

But is it truly a bad thing? Is success a bad thing? Folks may argue that Adepticon needs to grow bigger to accommodate more people for the favorite events, but is that truly the answer? Adepticon has grown this year, as they now, for the first time, have a full day of events on Thursday having moved the 40K Championships to that day, and the team tournaments to two-day events. They have added more seminars as well as more events and more game systems every year. So grow they have. Do they need to make those favorite events bigger? I don't know honestly...Can you expand a tournament with 520 people already playing in it and truly keep a handle on it so that everyone involved has that amazing experience they are used to and love?

And yes, if you caught that little slip above, I will be in a team this year with a good, local friend of mine, and two good, non local friends of mine from Dark Future Games!

Are you going to Adepticon? Did you register already? If so, what are you participating in? Or we're you not able to get into what you had planned on entering? Share folks, just be tactful about it.

- Tim

 

20 comments:

  1. I was on at 8pm EST and snagged my spots in the Friday seminar on OSL by Victoria Lamb (a fellow Aussie), and the Sunday seminar by Roman Lappat on Theory. I'm looking forward to these, the second and third hobby seminars I've ever sat in on!

    Woot!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I really wanted to sit in on that OSL seminar as well, but I've got a friend going!!! Maybe he'll let me pick his brain afterwards ;)

      The seminars this year are so comprehensive and offer a huge variety of very solid teachings coupled with some amazing instructors. I'm jealous that the Team Tournament is taking me away from so much :)

      Delete
  2. Wow, had no idea that things sold out so quickly. I got my badge and a slot in the Thursday 40k Championship tournament last night but figured I'd come back and add some stuff for Friday/Saturday later on in the week. I was planning on getting in on the Friendly and some Combat Patrol, but apparently not, it seems!

    Hrm... That's unfortunate. Could make for a shorter weekend for me, gly in for the tourney on Thursday and fly back out Friday after getting my butt handed to me on the tables. Heh.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was able to grab the last available ticket for the 40k Warzone event on Friday, so at least I'll have something to do after getting eliminated from the tourney on Thursday. Hah!

      Delete
    2. haha!! Trust me, you'll find MORE than enough to do just hanging out with all the folks you've been chatting with online for years in your off time during the weekend.

      Glad you were able to squeeze in some more gaming though!

      Delete
  3. I was able to get my VIG ticket, 40k friendly (here comes the Ravenwing!), and my teammate registered me for the Team event! I was hoping I could get in to one of the hobby seminars, but that is looking unlikely.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're in a team this year??? Fantasy or 40K?

      Delete
    2. Yep, a group of us from Ogre Games are going to play in the 40k event.

      Delete
  4. Sidenote: Where is the love Tim, why did you not invite me to be on your team?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Umm...cause the team was figured out last adepticon? :(

      Delete
  5. Popularity is a blade that cuts both ways. When something blows up it's initially great because the support gets better, but it also loses that intimate feel that bonds you together and eventually becomes a bit clique-like which can take some of the fun out of it. Overall, a good thing as long as it doesn't crumble under its own weight.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. For the entire history of Adepticon, it's been a good thing, and they have yet to see any crumbling, from my perspective at least. One year the championshis got a little hairy and they had to create two separate tournaments out of it to make it work, but they've always been able to make it work :)

      Delete
  6. Nope not going. Not that I wouldn't love to, but I've got a wife who for some bizarre reason doesn't want to be left alone with as remain two year old? Not to mention its a long trip from Utah, the barren fridge wasteland I temporarily call home.

    I'm not sure you could expand it much more while keeping it enjoyable for all the attendees. But wouldn't it be nice if they were to expand it into multiple events like Penny Arcade did with PAX and PAX Prime? I would love to see a west coast Adepticon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You know, making a second Adepticon was a topic of conversation between me and some friends on this past monday night actually. THe best part is that while there isn't a secondary Adepticon, there are a ton of great indy-run events across the nation. War Games Con, NOVA Open, The Bay Open just to name a few off the top of me head :)

      And you tell your wife that mine let me go while she kept home a 3 month old! ;) We take turns. I get Adepticon, and she gets a weekend out as well.

      Delete
    2. I've already put a bug in her ear about Feast of Blades next year, it's closer and small... Baby steps right?

      Delete
  7. As the organizer of the Hobby Seminars at Adepticon I feel beholden to point out there are still tickets for a number of those events! check out http://cart.adepticon.org/

    It seems things sell out faster every year, I didn't get all my targeted events and I KNOW how fast things can fill up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Honestly Chris, My statement above to Dave holds very true. I'm more excited about So many of the Seminars this year, not to mention the sheer number of them, the instructors, everything, that I almost regret committing to the Team Tournament! I see so many I want to take part in! It's actually the only gripe I have abotu the team tourney moving to two days, it cuts out my Sunday for seminars :P My friend Jason literally signed up for 9 seminars! The only one he missed was yours cause it filled up so quickly :P

      I'll echo Chris here though, just because some sold out fast doesn't mean everything is gone. Go to the cart, participate!!! The more we take part in what is provided, the more Adepticon can do in the future!

      Delete
    2. a few things on that Tim:
      1. you might tell Jason to check out Thursday evening - I added a second section of my class [end shameless plug].

      2. things fill up very fast, but people routinely bite off more than they can chew when registering.
      thus, there are wait lists for a lot of the big events. that isn't always helpful since the wait lists get really long too, but it can be worth a try.

      2a. I can also give you a little insider tip on Hobby Seminars - if you have didn't get into that class you wanted and still have the time slot free, go to the class and ask the instructor if there are any no-shows leaving a seat open. It doesn't always happen, but it does happen enough to mention.

      If there IS a seat, expect to hand the instructor cash for the ticket price (in fairness to the instructor and everyone who paid up front).

      I've done this both as a student and an instructor several times over the years.

      Delete
    3. Chris, I was able to get into your Thurs. evening class. Thx for the info both Tim and You. Can't wait to learn some stuff!!

      Delete
  8. I am going for the fantasy events all weekend, and am working with Alex and a handfull of others to make more terrain and open up more gaming tables, we have 50 waiting for the warhammer fantasy champs, and 30 waiting for the 1k tournaments on thursday....no one new they would sell this fast.

    ReplyDelete