Yesterday Comic-Con International provided updates about the new system for San Diego Comic-Con 2014 badge preregistration, not only on the Toucan Blog, but also on their website under “2014 Badge Preregistration.” They still haven’t given us a date for when preregistration will take place, but they did give a time frame, and explained how the waiting room process will work. Read on for more details.
Highlights from the Updates:
- If eligible for preregistration, at least 24 hours prior to badge preregistration you will receive a personal registration code and a link to the EPIC waiting room via email. You will use the code to log in to the waiting room. Your code will only authorize one device. If you use more than one device, the code will authorize the most recent device, and the session on the previous device will expire.
- You will be able to log into the waiting room starting at 7:00am PT on the day of the sale, and the sale will start at 9:00am PT. At that time, everyone who is already in the waiting room will be sorted into random registration sessions. Anyone who enters after that time will be sent to the back of the line.
- DO NOT REFRESH, or you will be sent to the back of the line.
- DO NOT USE YOUR BROWSER’S BACK BUTTON at any time during the registration session.
- You may purchase badges for up to three eligible attendees (yourself and two other people). You will need the Member IDs and last names of the people you are purchasing badges for.
- You will have 15 minutes to complete your entire registration and purchase. There is no countdown provided, so you will need to keep track of this yourself.
- You may not use multiple credit cards.
- The system is not formatted for mobile devices.
- CCI will post a step-by-step tutorial video of the registration process prior to badge preregistration.
You can read the updates in their entirety below:
Toucan Blog
“Registration Codes Decoded
Over the next few days we’ll be posting additional information on how the new EPIC Registration system will work for preregistration. We know change can be a little unnerving, but we really do believe this new system is a better solution that solves many of the issues we’ve had in the past.
To log in to the EPIC Registration waiting room, every eligible attendee will need their own personal registration code. This helps keep out members who are not eligible and block those pesky bots that want to crash the system! Your personal registration code will be sent to you via email with a link to the registration landing page. This email will go out at least 24 hours prior to the sale. If you do not receive your email, don’t fret. You will be able to access your personal registration code by logging in to your Member ID account and selecting the “Registration Info” tab.
At 7:00 AM Pacific Time on the day of the sale, the EPIC landing page will open for registration code entry. There is no need to rush to the landing page at 7:00 AM! Eligible attendees will have two full hours to enter their registration codes and access the waiting room. There is no advantage in arriving at the waiting room early, so sleep in a little later or enjoy your morning cup o’ Joe. Just be sure to log in with your registration code before the sale begins at the designated time.
When the sale begins after 9:00 AM PT, EPIC will take everyone who is already in the waiting room and sort them in line randomly for their registration session. You can enter the waiting room two hours before the sale begins, or 10 minutes before the sale begins, and your chances are the same. Your wait time is up to you!
Once everyone has been assigned a spot in line, badge sales will begin and anyone who enters the waiting room after this point will be sent to the back of the line. A member cannot enter the waiting room 15 minutes after the sale starts and get a better spot in line than those who were there when the sale began.
There are a few important points to consider:
• Your personal registration code will only allow you one entry into the waiting room. You may not enter the waiting room multiple times on multiple devices or browsers.
• It is very important that you do not refresh while you are in the waiting room, especially right when the badge sale begins. If you refresh during the sorting period, you will be sent to the back of the line.
• Everyone may still purchase badges for up to three people during your registration session. When you get to the front of the line, you may make purchases for people who are still in line, if desired.
• If someone purchases a badge for you while you are still in line, you will still get an opportunity to purchase badges for three other eligible people should you reach the front of the line as well.
We hope that we have been able to address some of your concerns. For those who prefer to see it, rather than read it, we will be posting an instructional video on our website prior to the badge preregistration. This video will be a step-by-step tutorial of the entire process from start to finish and we hope that you take a few minutes of your day to check it out.”
2014 Badge Preregistration
“Comic-Con is working hard to improve the online registration system and will launch Comic-Con 2014 badge preregistration sometime in early 2014. You must be eligible to participate in preregistration and you must have a personal registration code. We strongly suggest that you read all of the information below regarding the changes to the preregistration process for 2014!
If you are eligible to participate in 2014 badge preregistration, you will be sent an email with your personal registration code and a link to the EPIC waiting room at least 24 hours in advance of the sale. To guarantee you receive your email, please be sure to sign in to your Member ID account and and click the “OPT-OUTS” option on the “My Account” tab. Make sure you have not checked the “Email Opt-Out” box. If you have selected to opt-out of email notifications from Comic-Con, you will not receive important registration announcements.
ELIGIBILITY
Only those that have purchased a Comic-Con 2013 4-Day attendee or 1-Day attendee badge and have a valid Member ID and registration code will be eligible to participate in 2014 badge preregistration. Professionals, guests of professionals, exhibitors, exhibitor purchased attendee badges, volunteers, staff, and press will not be allowed to participate in badge preregistration. To see if you are eligible, log in to your Member ID account and select the “Registration Info” tab. If you did not attend Comic-Con 2013 or are ineligible, additional badges will be sold during Open Online Registration at a later date.
REGISTRATION CODES
To help restrict ineligible members from entering the EPIC Registration waiting room, Comic-Con has implemented a personal registration code for 2014 preregistration. At least 24 hours prior to preregistration, eligible attendees will be able to access their personal registration code by logging in to their Member ID account and clicking the “Registration Info” tab. Each registration code is redeemable for one entry into the waiting room only, so do not share your code online! Your registration code will only authorize one computer and one browser to enter the EPIC waiting room.
BADGE PRICES
Badges prices for Comic-Con 2014 can be found here. Please keep in mind that Preview Night may not be purchased as a stand alone option. You must purchase a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday badge to buy the Preview Night option. Children age 12 and under are free with a paying adult. For more information on the child badge policy, click here.
We strongly suggest that you log in to your Member ID account and check your current “Membership Type.” If you are a senior or member of the military, please be sure to update your Membership Type before the Member ID system closes in advance of preregistration.
PURCHASING BADGES
During preregistration you may purchase badges for up to three people total, yourself included. Prospective attendees must be eligible for preregistration and they must have their own unique Comic-Con Member ID. You will need the Member ID and last name for all individuals you are purchasing for.
Comic-Con accepts Visa, MasterCard, and American Express only. We’re sorry, but we cannot accept PayPal or payments using multiple credit cards.
RECOMMENDED BROWSERS/COMPUTER SETTINGS
The EPIC online badge registration system has been tested on the following browsers. We cannot guarantee your results should you use a browser not listed below:
- Firefox
- Google Chrome
- Internet Explorer
- Safari
Your browser should have JavaScript and cookies enabled to function reliably with the EPIC waiting room. These features are usually enabled in the default configuration of most modern web browsers. If you do not have these features enabled, it is possible that the waiting room application will not function properly.
The EPIC online badge registration system is not formatted for mobile devices. Although mobile devices can be used to purchase a badge during preregistration, Comic-Con is unable to guarantee that the registration system will behave as expected using a mobile device.
Your personal registration code will only authorize one device and one browser to enter the EPIC waiting room. If you attempt to enter your registration code on a different device and/or browser, your registration code will authorize the NEW device and your old device and/or browser session will expire. You may not run multiple browsers or multiple browser sessions of the waiting room. We strongly recommend that you log in to the waiting room using only the computer and browser you plan to be on for the day of the sale.
THE EPIC WAITING ROOM
The EPIC landing page will open for registration code entry at 7:00 am PT on the day of the preregistration sale. You do not need to rush to the landing page at 7:00 AM! Eligible attendees will have two full hours to authorize their device/browser on the landing page and enter the waiting room. Early arrival to the landing page does not provide any advantage over those who arrive later than you.
Sometime after 9:00 AM, everyone who is already in the EPIC waiting room will be put in line randomly for their registration session. It does not matter what time you entered the waiting room before 9:00 am, all members will be lined up in random order for their registration session.
Remember, do NOT refresh while you are in the waiting room! Refreshing your browser in the waiting room will move you to the back of the line. It is very important that you do not refresh your browser at 9:00 am or during the sorting process. The waiting room will automatically refresh every 120 seconds.
Admittance to the waiting room does not guarantee you a badge or a registration session.
YOUR REGISTRATION SESSION
To begin your registration session, you will need to enter an eligible Member ID and last name. You will also be prompted to select the number of people you are purchasing badges for during the sale; 1, 2, or 3.
When you reach the badge selection page, all available badge inventory will be shown. This inventory will be held for you while you validate all of the members you are purchasing for. Please keep in mind that badge inventory will not refresh while you are on this page. If your desired badge type is sold out, select another category or close your registration session.
You will have 15 minutes to complete your entire registration session and purchase! There is no countdown timer, so please be aware that your session will expire within 15 minutes of your initial Member ID login. We strongly recommend that you have your credit card information ready and all of the Member IDs and last names of the people you are purchasing badges for. A delay in inputting this information may cause your session to expire.
If one of the Member IDs you are purchasing for does not validate during the badge selection step, you will still have the option to proceed to checkout for the other members who are validated. Do not use your back button to return to the member selection prompt!
*Important* It is critical that you do not use your browser’s back button during any step of your registration session! If you need to remove a badge selection, you will be given that option on the final review page. Comic-Con International cannot guarantee that your EPIC registration session will behave as expected if you use your back button during any step of the registration process.
THE FINE PRINT
While Comic-Con has made every effort to make the badge purchase experience fair for everyone, it is possible that problems outside of our control could result in the system not working as planned. The possibility exists that anti-virus, anti-spyware, and anti-malware software may aggressively block browser cookies, JavaScript, or other operation of modern web applications. It is also possible that user error, specific hardware problems, local ISP issues, or simply the extremely high level of demand beyond our control may result in your computer and/or browser not behaving as described above. While Comic-Con has done extensive testing, we make no guarantees that your efforts will result in a successful badge purchase regardless of when you enter the process.”
