BeatrixKiddo88

Nope, never ever acceptable and the cosplayers (whatever gender or costume) are NEVER to blame. Not even 0.000001% is on them. As long as your costume is legal in it's amount of exposure, you can dress however you like. It is TOTALLY on the people around you to not touch/harass/be creepy. If you can't control yourself, that is your problem not the cosplayer's. Doesn't matter what they are wearing. YOU are the problem not them.

That's what I mean though, this event was the transitional one. SM said there would be on-the-door sales for 2 of the days, as I don't think even they thought it would be this mad sales-wise. So next year everything can be more set in stone, and lengths can be gone to to stop these sales issues and work out how best to sell tickets in an accessible and fair way but also limit the freedom of touts.

I think we all have to accept that at some point, LFCC will change, and some of those changes might seem unfair or unsuitable for your personal situation or tastes. But anything that doesn't change to adapt to new markets, customer bases or technologies dies out. LFCC is at the point where it needs to be pre-sale only and e-tickets, because of the huge demand for the event. And so it brings up new ways for people to exploit the system for profit. So, SM have to change a few things here and there in order to combat this. We might not all like them, but such is the nature of the world.

That's why LFCC would need to change in order for IDs to be a legitimate way of solving issues. At the moment, the event is still very much set up in a way of 'you can turn up to whatever days you like, whenever you like'. Even though we are now in the pre-paid only stage, it's still the same. You can do whatever day/s you want to, and arrive whenever you want to. That is great, and flexible. But really doesn't help SM structure tickets in any way that would actually help them with this ticket re-sell issue.

Just because you haven't had an issue, doesn't mean you never will. I've thankfully never had my passport lost or stolen, but it can happen. And while it's enough of an inconvenience for natives who will have to replace their passports if it comes to it, for international fans it would be a downright nightmare as without one you cannot get back home and you might end up not just shelling out money for a last minute replacement but potentially also extra lodging and last minute airfare (which is extremely expensive). And as I said also, what do you use in your country for ID when asked for it? Could you not bring that? I think SM would be fine with something if it had your photo and your name on it. But, I also do agree that at an event of this size, without a pre-reg day checking IDs would take way too long. There just really doesn't seem to be much you can do with LFCC the way ti currently is. Lots of solutions, just would have to change LFCC in some major ways first.

As this discussion is for next year, not this year, buying a photo ID is totally a legitimate idea. And I'm sure a lot of countries have their own version of it. If not...well then how do you handle other times when you need ID for something? And am I the only one who has a passport as his only photo ID and has never had an issue just taking it places that I know I'll need an ID? I think ID is a good idea, but as stated earlier in the thread, pre-registration only really works at events where you are definitely going for multiple days, or can make it on a friday/thursday. Which most won't be able to due to work/school/kids/whatever. It's great for weekend cons in hotels though, as 95% of the attendees will be going to the first day. An official non-forum buy-back system would be great though.

Sometimes the very quiet guests will just have a chat, but obviously they'd rather you paid to see them. I've seen people asked to leave the busier lines when they get to the middle payment and pic table and they say 'oh no I just want to say hi' as they are taking up time and space from paying customers. So it's a big no-no with big guests.

Bill Paxton, I don't think' has ever done a Showmasters event before. I've been doing these over 10 years and never seen him (and always wanted him lol)

Scarlet Witch stuff has all finally arrived (a few days ago but I forgot to post it here lol)

I will say to anyone not familiar with the area that Earls Court station is a good 15 min walk for the best of us (and I walk fast). So I wouldn't say anything around there was 'near by' for food. Unless you use the overground/underground of course. There is a small 'high street' of sorts that the venue is on that has some food places, but it isn't a hub of activity like some London places. So I would say be prepared and bring something until you can venture further (photoshoot timings and stuff may prevent you traveling too far) or be able to make do with something small from Tesco, again till you can venture off.

There is a Tesco express about 5 mins down the road for cheaper stuff that you can just eat on the fly. And there's places like Pizza Express near too.

No they've never made it pre-book only before. And because of how busy it was last year they announced that it may well sell out this year as they were going to strictly stick to limits on numbers.

I'll be a male version of Scarlet Witch on saturday. Hopefully a leather jacket doesn't = death from heat

Yeha it seems that no matter what anyone tries to put in place, people are still going to miss things or choose not to select things or leave things to late. Sigh.

It didn't seem to change the tickets at all for DSTL. Or how they were sent out. Was just a box on the site that said "in order to purchase x, please input your y-digit code from your entry ticket purchase". Like the old terms and conditions box on the old store. Wouldn't let you progress without ticking it. After that it was the normal ticket system, no changes. Just that extra bit of 'are you sure?' before buying a bunch of stuff with no way to get in.

To be fair, it's the ticket company's thing to change. SM can advise and suggest, but it's up to eventbrite (or whoever they use next year if they decided to swap) I was just suggesting it as it seems to be a very logical way to do it and avoid situations like today/last year.

See but that doesn't actually STOP people lol and so the staff (at the event and online beforehand) still have to deal with people complaining and asking for somehting to be sorted out. All this refund stuff today isn't usual for SM and is actually rather nice. But it's also major extra work close to a massive event that I'm sure the team don't need or want. If it was like DSTL, then the only situation that would arise are 'well I used my friend's code to get my shoots and now I can't get entry' and in those cases, it'd totally be that person's fault and SM wouldn't have to accomodate them in any way.

See but I crewed DSTL (the first one) and had no issues with it. And I'm sure SM (as I know how well they treat crew in this regard) would work something out if they were to implement it. Say when you joined up as crew they would give out codes to use OR sell the tickets to you direct. Or just keep a bunch back. As the first DSTL was crewed majorly by SM, I never remember seeing anyone complainign about the entry-first system when it came to their shoots or anything. But really, it seems like it's going to be the only way to stop issues like this, as I really don't see (sad as it is) people learning from this. Not in the way we'd all like them to anyway lol And I also feel that this is probably one of the major reasons why last years LFCC was so mental. Shoots and such sold really really really well, and entry sold really really really well. But the entry people wern't the people who had bought all those shoots. Loads of people who had bought those shoots DIDN'T buy entry and just showed up on the day, which totally screws up the numbers SM were planning for and so didn't have the staff to handle it.

That won't happen this year, as they can concentrate staff on just getting people scanned and inside the building. No need for 5/6/7 staff to be taking money at the door. Plus they can use all of any entry doors they have to get people in, again as they don't have to divide the queues into pre-paid and pay-on-the-day. WIll be much simpler and faster. You may still have to wait, as you always do unless you turn up pre-paid at like 1pm lol But way less than last year's crazyness. That's the whole reason they went to pre-paid only, it was TOO busy.

I think based on just how rare he is at these events that he'll be busy. For UK attendees who don't make it to US events or travel much for cons, he will be one of the last people they need for certain cast collections. I'm going on saturday with a shoot but only 50/50 thinking I'll get an auto. He'll be pretty rammed.

I don't really have much sympathy, as I've always made sure I get entry if I'm buying a shoot for a certain day. At the point where you are buying non-refundable shoot tickets, you should get entry. Just sensible. BUT, I will say that (although I know SM themselves didn't run the store) Destination Star Trek London's online store literally wouldn't LET you buy anything until you had a code you got when buying entry tickets. Maybe get Eventbrite to add something into their store to implement this? Or somehow have a way to block sales to anyone without entry? That seemed to work very well. It meant people couldn't just buy a load of tickets before entry and this situation arise.

As it's in the T & C's it's something you have to decide on, always has been. Do I buy a non-refundable entry ticket knowing somehting may come up that stops me going or all my guests cancel? You either answer yes, I still want to go anyway and get one. Or no, I won't chance it or I'll go on a day that does have on-the-day entry. As always with these cons, 99% of things are totally the customers choice.

I don't think so, BUT: I do think it is one of a few events that is becoming too big for this country. And by that I mean this country, even in London, really doesn't have the facilities for events like this if they keep getting bigger. There's the Excel...and that's it. Everything else, compared to convention centres in the US, is pretty small (or in the case of Earls Court, outdated and being demolished). If we want US-size events and want them to work well, we need bigger venues in this country.

Blu-ray box set of the Alien films, has Michael Beihn on it already so Bill has to join him.

Dude if you are worried about the physical amount of vouchers available...what job do you have and can I get in on it?