Hollywood predictions: San Diego Comic-Con 2015

2 JANUARY 2015

If you're one of the SDCC attendees grousing about the Hollywood presence, go ahead and skip this post. You can stay pure and self-righteous over by the Mile High Comics booth, pawing through back issues. (I'm not being glib - give Mile High your support if you can.) But for those of you who are excited about all of the big blockbusters coming to theatres this year, let's speculate on what we might see at Comic-Con.

Please note: the below is pure conjecture. I'm only listing movies that come out post-Con - no Avengers, Terminator or Jurassic World here.

 
The #1 pick - Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Can't you already feel the adrenaline? The cosplay, the action figures, the panels, the revelry. The repetitive jokes about feeling a great disturbance in the Force during the next badge sale.
 
Ant-Man comes out July 17 and Crimson Peak comes out in October. These have already made SDCC appearances but I'm sure the studios will flex their promotional chops. Ditto for Hunger Games, out in November.
 
The Fantastic Four reboot hits in August. No question here.
 
Thoughtful sci-fi tale The Martian comes out in November. I'm already planning to be at this panel, so don't put it in Hall H, Fox.
 
Jem and the Holograms is out in October. Panel-worthy? No doubt. Ditto Mission Impossible 5 and Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight, out in December.
 
Pan comes out July 17, just a week after the Con. This is a live action film based on Peter Pan - as you no doubt were smart enough to guess, but I assumed it was about the hoofed and horned flute-playing god when I first saw the title. So if you're as literal as I am, there's your clarity.
 
Also on the live-action front:  Jungle Book comes out in October. I'm on the fence as to whether this would show up at SDCC, but I know the world will be a better place if Christopher Walken does Comic-Con.
 
Spectre, the next James Bond flick, probably won't be at SDCC but I may stand in my first autograph line ever if the beautiful Monica Belluci shows up.
 

 
 
Similarly, Everest probably won't be there either but you can never tell. Comic-Con attendees can definitely empathize with the tale of reaching goals against incredible odds. Maybe Universal will bring it.
 
Gangster movie Black Mass and Steven Spielberg's untitled Cold War movie may also seem atypical SDCC fare, but crime/war dramas have been creeping into the panel programming more and more in recent years. I wouldn't be terribly surprised to see them.

Are you anticipating anything I didn't list?

ETA: People asked about Suicide Squad, Batman vs Superman and the Harry Potter movie, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. All of those come out in 2016, but we'll obviously see content for some of them.

Are you thinking about canceling? Don't.

10 NOVEMBER 2014



So the dust has settled since we all got handed our first round results in Pre-reg. Some of us got lucky, some got nothing, and some of us landed in that weird gray zone of ambivalence known as the Thursday/Sunday split.

This isn't the worst thing that can befall you if you're a local. Thursday has plenty of great panels and a well-stocked Exhibit Hall; Sunday has great deals and lots of children's panels if you're a parent. But if you're planning on travelling to San Diego Comic-Con, you now have to decide if it's worth it to spend on four nights in a hotel just to get 2 days at the Con.

Here's my perspective. If the Con was the only thing in play, I'd probably cancel my Sunday badge and just fly in and out on Thursday, or maybe just spend Weds and Thursday night there. But there is so much else to do at SDCC outside the Con proper. You should know this, because you were there last summer - but let me remind you of:

1. All the cool promotional attractions that it can be normally hard to make time for - like GOT experience, ziplining, all the Adult Swim stuff in PetCo Park, Assassin's Creed this past summer. These get better every year and they can take up a full day.
2. All the parties that you have every intention of going to, but then miss because you fell into bed after a full day of panels completely zonked. When you don't have to get up in the morning for a panel, you can have a very good time the night before.
3. Nerd HQ. No SDCC badge required here, and often the best celebrities and coolest panels.
4. Gam3rCon. Not just games - you have tech launches, bands, comedy shows and rooftop parties to attend.
5. The city itself. Go to Coronado Island, swim, visit the science museums in Balboa park.

And of course, you can always just relax. I know that's not a word we associate with Comic-Con but when you don't have a Saturday badge, you can spoil yourself. Get a massage. Hang out poolside. Order up room service and lay around in bed eating ice cream and reading all the comic books you bought the day before.

As always, there's nothing wrong with deciding to put your Comic-Con dollars elsewhere. If you haven't been to some of the other big non-SDCC Cons, you might think they're all rinky-dink basement events full of fifth-tier actors and a lot of back issue comics. That may have been the case 5 years ago, but these days these other Cons can hold their own.  I've already beat the drum for Emerald City and Salt Lake in particular, but look around and take a chance. I think purists who will only hold out for San Diego would be surprised at the firepower other Cons can offer these days.

But before you cancel that SDCC badge, hold out for Open Reg. And think outside the convention center walls.

Thoughts on Pre-reg

8 NOVEMBER 2014



Now that Pre-reg is over, the usual cries and complaints are echoing across social. This isn't fair; get it together, CCI; the teams and groups are skewing the system; etc.


Here's what I think. One, of course most of us weren't going to get a badge. It's only Pre-reg. That isn't some devious shortcoming on CCI's part, it's basic math. CCI can't let only previous attendees go to Comic-Con, therefore a huge number of us weren't going to get a badge today.

Yes, it went fast. I think it should be slowed down, with smaller groups let in, for Open Reg. I say that because I was one of the people caught on a cusp, and it sucked. I saw Saturday was low, then got in; somehow at that exact second Saturday and Friday sold out; Thursday was marked as sold out too with 0 available, yet it let me buy Thursday badges. Given how fast everything went, I think a lot of people were in the same situation I was - expecting one thing when they got in and finding something very different. It seemed even the system couldn't keep up with itself.

I don't know if fewer badges were sold, as everyone is speculating. CCI may have decided to offer a higher number in Open Registration, but it's more likely they just improved the speed of their network. The team approach also made it go fast. I know that isn't what everyone wants to hear.

As for those groups and teams - this strikes many people as unfair. I'm thinking it might be best to restrict badge-buying to just two people. The most fair method would be one badge bought for each Member ID, but that would force a lot of people to attend without any friends. On the other hand, the current system still leaves some friends and family members in the dust while others get lucky. My vote is for 2 people per registration session.

If you're super angry right now, and are cursing San Diego Comic-Con while stabbing pins into a wax poppet, then I will repeat my suggestion to try other Cons. I know SDCC is frustrating. It isn't worth it for everyone. For comic book nerds, Emerald City still has passes available (and hotel rooms and passes are way cheaper than SDCC); cosplayers have Phoenix Comicon to hit in June; DragonCon is a great choice for sci fi/fantasy fans and general partiers on Labor Day Weekend; Salt Lake City Comic Con in early September is massive and can hold its own with SDCC, with only a slight shortcoming in the Hollywood arena. Don't think SDCC is the only show in town - it isn't.

Overall, there's no perfect solution. I'm sorry for all of you who didn't get a badge today, but buck up - you've still got Open Registration to look forward to. I washed out too today (as an out-of-towner, do you really think I want to pay for 4 nights in a hotel for 2 days at SDCC?) and I still feel confident about Open Reg.

Finally, as I said earlier - be good to yourself today. We all just went through a very stressful morning.

Welcome to Pre-registration

 

8 NOVEMBER 2014

9:50

It's all over.

On the whole, today went smooth and fast. It has taken less than half the time to sell these badges than it did last Pre-reg; that could be because they're saving more badges for Open Registration, or it could be that they've juiced up their system. Preview Night went very quickly.

To compare, here's how last year sold:

Preview Night sold out by 9:32. Saturday and Friday were gone by 10:26, Thursday by 10:51 and then it was all over with by 11:15. 

This year:

Preview Night was gone by 9:25. Saturday and Friday disappeared at the same time, around 9:40. Thursday and Sunday were gone by 9:48.

I know those of us who washed out want to believe there were fewer badges sold today, so we have more of a chance in Open Reg. Whether that's true or not, it's important to stay positive and be glad we have 2 chances at a badge, not just one.


9:42

Well, that was a bitter pill. I got picked before Saturday was announced as sold out, and as soon as I got to the badge screen it said only Sunday was left. Somehow it let me buy Thursday badges as well even though they were marked O available.

That was one fast sale.


9:36

Saturday is almost sold out.


9:23

Preview Night is gone. This sale is moving faster than the last one.


9:20

Preview Night is already low.


9:15

9:07

I know. It's beyond nerve-wracking.


8:50

We're just minutes away from getting sorted. So here's my final advice - screenshot the critical pages once you get in. If, god forbid, something happens and you get frozen or booted midway through your sale, you'll have evidence to take to CCI. Traditionally they've been pretty good about compensating people who legitimately got picked for a badge, but got zapped by a glitch.


And if for some reason you haven't done your homework for today, use these final minutes wisely:

Advice

Process




8:27

Don't forget to hit the bathroom before you settle in. It was 2 hours before they called it last Pre-reg.

Also make sure you've adjusted your power save settings. And if you think any of your badge sale comrades might have slept through their alarm, now's the time for a check-in.



8:02

I want to say something about Preview Night. I know it’s the Holy Grail we’re all trying for. That’s understandable for three reasons – it’s your best shot at exclusives, the Exhibit Hall is in its fullest and freshest state, and you don’t have to wait in line to get your badge.

However, some of that’s changed in the last 2 years. While the entire exclusives situation was a hot mess at some booths last summer (hey, Hasbro), many vendors make a point of offering a limited number of the same exclusives each day so everyone gets a shot. As for the Exhibit Hall, if you went to Preview Night last year, you know that it’s almost as crowded as a regular day – CCI is clearly assigning out more PN badges than they used to. It’s not easy to move around and snatch up whatever you see like it was circa 2007.

As for not standing in line, that will forever be a compelling reason for anything – but because more people are going to Preview Night, and we have the Town and Country on Wednesday, fewer people are picking up badges on Thursday-Sunday, and those lines are much shorter and more bearable than they used to be.

Oh, and if you care about the Ballroom 20 pilots, they’re usually shown on other days.

All of this is my way of saying not to feel too disappointed if you don’t score a Preview Night badge. I used to feel like my SDCC experience would be subpar without one, but this year I’m not nearly so hung up on it. I still want one but I’ll be ok without it. I just don’t think it’s the upper-tier experience it used to be.

7:43

Not that I expect an answer from them or anything.


7:33

The waiting room says at the bottom that badge sale inventory will be held for 5 minutes only. I'm pretty sure that's a typo and it should say 15 minutes. I just tweeted CCI to confirm.

7:26

The confused people who see the badge sale talk and ask how they can participate reminds me that SDCC attendance is pretty much an insider's game at this point. It’s an actual skill set where you have to know to get your Member ID and navigate the badge sale - to even get a ghost of a chance at attending, outsiders have to master that learning curve. Usually they find out too late and then they forget about it until the following year when they see more badge sale buzz and it's once again too late. SDCC is definitely not for the casual fan.

(And if you are one of those people - today is only for people who attended San Diego Comic-Con 2014 specifically as an attendee. You can participate in Open Registration in 2015 as long as you create a Member ID.)

7:09

It's here. We all know the process and the right approach, and there's nothing to do but wait and see if the Comic-Con gods smile upon us today.

I think the most important thing we all need to remember is that today offers just a fraction of the badges available, and we all get a second chance in Open Registration. (Except those of us who get a Preview Night badge.) The odds are probably against you, me and anyone else getting the perfect badge. Those of us who do will be a lucky minority. So don't feel like Fate kicked you in the teeth today if you wash out - you'll be in good company.

I really miss those sweet, sweet days when Pre-registration meant walking up to the Sails Pavilion, filling out a piece of paper and handing it with your credit card to a bored-looking lady behind a terminal.

 

 

 

Final Pre-reg reminder

7 NOVEMBER 2014



It's Pre-reg Eve. By now you've tested your browser, swapped info with all your badge sale comrades, and set aside a credit card.

But don't forget to also retrieve your Badge ID number. Just go in your Member ID account and click on the Registration Info tab. People keep saying the process is the identical to last year's and it isn't exactly - it's almost identical, but you do need your Badge ID number to access the waiting room.

Good luck. I'll be live-blogging and Tweeting the sale tomorrow like always, and will keep everyone posted with updates as soon as I hear them.

More Pre-reg info from CCI

6 NOVEMBER 2014



CCI's Toucan blog came out with advice today on Pre-reg. It's worth reading, although a lot of it is the same question with different people involved. ("Can I buy for my husband/friend/give my Badge ID to another Member ID/etc?" NO is the answer to everything.)

What I found most salient: the fact that we will NOT know our place in line. While that was kind of expected, the explanation was interesting. "There is no virtual line. The line was removed when we went to the random selection process. Members are randomly selected in groups from the waiting room for their registration sessions. Not only are you assigned randomly to a group, but those inside the group are sorted at random." Then they go into a cereal metaphor in which we're all Cheerios waiting to be eaten. They don't draw a parallel between soggy left-in-the-bowl cereal and not getting picked/eaten, but I'm sure we're all thinking it.

What else matters - and I'm going to strongly suggest everyone read this directly - is their advice on running multiple browsers. I personally feel separate devices are the way to go, rather than Chrome and Firefox on the same laptop, but I recognize not everyone has that option. So here it is - you can't run multiple tabs of the waiting room in the same browser, but you can use different browsers on the same device. Again - I think it's safer to use different devices.

I feel very detached about Pre-reg being in 2 days, which might mean my badge-mojo is weak and I'll wash out. Or maybe the randomness of it all removes the anxiety. Not sure, but I've noticed people seem pretty calm in general about it. Probably that will all change on Saturday morning.

My advice on 2015 Pre-Registration

5 NOVEMBER 2014

 

 

By now you should have familiarized yourself with the Pre-registration process we'll experience Saturday. It's very close to last year's and all pretty simple, and mostly comes down to luck. Here's my advice anyhow on how to manipulate whatever luck you're given and maximize your chances for attending San Diego Comic-Con 2015.

 

Tactics

 

Use the right strategy. Remember, this is the era of randomization and one Member ID/one device, so trying to use 7 devices at once won’t help you. If you can team up with a large group, that’s in your interest, statistically speaking. Have everyone's Member ID and last name ready to go and be very clear on who's buying for who.

Remember that your browser should be Safari, Chrome, IE or Firefox, and that your device should be a desktop or laptop - not a mobile device.

Once inside the waiting room, don't refresh. A yellow status box will keep you updated every 120 seconds during the sorting process. Make sure your computer doesn't go to sleep while you're waiting. Adjust the power save settings if necessary. Don't ever use the back button.

Have your credit or debit card ready. It can be under someone else's name; that's fine. But you can only use one card to pay for everything and you can't use Paypal. You don’t need to show this credit card at a later date, which means you can use one of those store-bought ones if you need to.

 

Psychology

 

Don't get rattled by the hysteria on Twitter and Facebook. People will post completely untrue things like "Friday's gone! Only Sunday left!" that spread like wildfire. I used to think they did this for attention; now I think it’s a strategy aimed at demoralizing contenders and driving them out of the waiting room. Yeah, we're all nice to each other once we're at the Con but on badge sale days some people grow claws and fangs.

The one thing that drove people crazy last time was not knowing where they stood in line. There were a few years where CCI used a numbering system that told people just that, yet it was missing for 2014 sales. Will that be back? Probably not, but you still shouldn't give in to your rising despair as the minutes tick by. Hold on until the bitter end. True story - I had a friend who an hour into the last badge sale texted me that he didn't have a shot and was going to log out. I persuaded him to hang in there and within minutes, he had all 4 day badges.

On that note, let's review the stats from last Pre-reg: Preview Night sold out by 9:32. Saturday and Friday were gone by 10:26, Thursday by 10:51 and then it was all over with by 11:15. Yes, it went that slow.

If you do get picked late, remember that you can always try to upgrade during Open Reg. Don’t stomp off in a huff because Saturday is sold out. And if you’re not picked at all - don’t lose hope. There’s a limited number of badges in play, and you get a second chance in Open Registration.

I have to say it - don’t be hungover during the badge sale. I know Saturday 9 a.m. is not everyone’s best hour, and that the process is fairly simple, but every year I hear about someone who slept through the sale or was indisposed and made a critical error. Every year. Maybe I just have irresponsible friends.

 

And if you're emotional or obsessive about SDCC at all, build room into your day to recover from whatever failure might befall you. People can get seriously enraged on badge sale days and it doesn't dissipate quickly. I know I've felt exhausted for hours even after scoring a Preview Night badge - the process is that stressful for me. And the emails that flood my inbox indicate a lot of you are the same way. Make Saturday a day when you can be good to yourself.

Finally, despite numerous blogs posting numerous posts on Pre-reg, and CCI churning out videos and painstaking instructions, some people effed it up last year by trying to do it on their iPhone or using some esoteric browser. If you’re prone to acting randomly like that, get it together. There’s no room for individuality when it comes to an SDCC badge sale – you have to follow the process by the book.

And that's my advice. I will say that I haven’t seen too many complaints or accusations since Pre-reg was announced. Were there snafus last time? Yes, of course. Sessions closed prematurely; some people were told their Member ID had already bought a badge (which could make for a cool alternate universe/SDCC conspiracy story); sometimes the blue circle stopping spinning and just froze, truly a sign of doom.

However, I do feel that this is superior to the years when we all stormed the digital Bastille at once and crashed the system. And I think most people agree with me. The lottery system has its drawbacks, but at the end of the day it only devastates some of us, rather than frustrating all of us.

The Pre-registration Process

4 NOVEMBER 2014

First of all, my usual caveat – the below only applies to people who attended San Diego Comic-Con 2014 as an attendee. If this isn’t you, you should ignore all things pertaining to Pre-registration.

For everyone else – this is going to go a lot like it did last year. (Actually, earlier this year – Pre-reg 2014 was in February.) Hence my using the 2014 video above. If you didn’t participate in that one, it wasn’t terribly different from Open Reg, which I’m assuming you did participate in. Lots of long minutes waiting to be chosen and watching everyone else brag about their Preview Night badges on Twitter. A blue spinning circle. A growing sense of disbelief that you weren’t getting picked. And then – getting picked and buying a badge.

So yes, it will be much like that Saturday. Here’s a refresher:

 

Sometime in the next few days you'll get an email from CCI with the link to the EPIC waiting room. If you haven't received an email by Friday, email CCI. (And if you didn’t get an email from CCI today telling you about Pre-registration, check your Member ID account and see if you're eligible.)

In the meantime, map out your game plan with your friends. You should have each other's Member IDs and other information. Test your browser with CCI’s handy little gizmo to make sure your browser has JavaScript and cookies enabled.


Saturday, Pre-Registration Day

7 am - 9 am PST: You'll use your Badge ID to get into the EPIC waiting room. You'll do this using a Chrome, IE, Safari or Firefox browser, NOT on a mobile device. You will only use one computer, because if you try to log in on a 2nd device with your Member ID, it'll just cancel out the previous one. According to CCI, it doesn't matter when you get into the waiting room.

Shortly after 9 am PST: Pre-registration will go live. We’ll all be randomly sorted into a line for registration sessions. Don't refresh or you'll go to the back of the line. This can take 10-15 minutes to complete. Watch for a spinning blue circle on the page that indicates your page is still active.

Once/if you're selected, you'll enter the number of people you're buying for, then your name and their names and Member IDs, then go into the badge screen. Check Preview Night, and every box is checked for you. Otherwise, just check the dates you want. You have 15 minutes to complete this phase.


Payment: only American Express, Mastercard or Visa are accepted. No Paypal, no multiple cards.

Quick Links:

Member ID
Instructional Video
CCI's Pre-registration page

I'll post my advice on navigating a successful Pre-reg session tomorrow.

Pre-reg is 8 November

4 NOVEMBER 2014



At last we know - Pre-registration for San Diego Comic-Con 2015 will be on Saturday, 8 November. That's right - THIS Saturday. It's probably best that we don't have too many days to get anxious and worked up about it.

The process will go mostly like it did last year, although this year you'll need your Badge ID. Don't freak out if you tossed your badge after validating it; you can get your ID in your Member ID account.

I'll post actual instructions and advice in a bit. For now, clear your calendar on Saturday morning.

No date for SDCC Pre-reg yet

21 OCTOBER 2014

In these final days before Halloween, every 2014 SDCC attendee is haunted by two questions:

1) When will Pre-registration be?
2) How far in advance will they announce it?

The collective wisdom/speculation of the Internet seems to have selected 15 November as the most likely day. I can kind of see this, because I have 6 events already on that day. There seems to be some bizarre astrological magnet on that Saturday. However - CCI has always marched to their own drummer, so maybe it will fall a week before on 8 November (my second choice) or a week later on the 22nd. (My preferred date.)

I doubt it will happen the Saturday after Thanskgiving, the 29th, or the day after Halloween, 1 November. Forcing us to get up early the morning after Halloween parties or Black Friday seems especially cruel, even for CCI. But we must always factor in the strong possibility that CCI's original target date could be postponed over some kind of internal development snafu. They seem to be using the same lottery system as last year, but there's always room for delays and problems when it comes to a CCI badge sale.

So my overall conclusion is - this is hard to predict accurately, so keep your Saturdays clear. Sorry, I know this wasn't very helpful.

You validated your badge, right?

13 OCTOBER 2014


Final reminder - you have until 5:30 PST on 15 October to validate your badge for Pre-registration.

I'm pretty sure 98% of us did this within days if not hours of the initial email, because that's who we are. But if for some reason you've dawdled, do it now. Otherwise you'll be shut out of November's sale.

Did you validate yourself for SDCC Pre-reg?

30 SEPTEMBER 2014

Guess what tomorrow is? October. That's one month away from the magical month of Pre-registration, and only two weeks from the deadline to validate your eligibility.

That's right - the deadline for going into your Member ID account, selecting Registration Info, and entering the number at the bottom of your badge is 15 October at 5:30 pm PST.  If you don't do it, you can't participate in Pre-registration.

And here's again my caveat to stave off all the confused emails I'll probably get anyhow - Pre-registration is only for people who attended San Diego Comic-Con this past summer. If you were not milling around the convention center with an attendee badge in July 2014, this has nothing to do with you. Ignore anything called "Pre-reg." Your turn will come - assuming you've created a Member ID - next spring, when Open Registration is held.

Sorry to keep repeating myself, but you would not believe the number of people who email me in a panic because they think this is the only badge sale ever for Comic-Con. It's not.

I know Pre-reg might seem like an unfair advantage for previous attendees, but it does ensure that a large number of attendees really enjoy being there and know what they're getting into, as opposed to the first-timers who think it's the biggest hot mess ever. And it's still a lottery, so really it just gives 2014 attendees two rounds at the Comic-Con game of chance. It's entirely possible to not get picked at either badge sale - depressing as that thought may be.

Validate your badge now for November Pre-Reg

2 SEPTEMBER 2014



How exciting: we have an actual month for SDCC Pre-registration. And the month is.... November. If you're eligible - that is, if you had an attendee badge for this past summer - you'll get an email with the details and probably a link to one of CCI's mesmerizing instructional videos.

Now onto the important thing you need to do right now: validating yourself. You will do that by going into your Member ID account, selecting Registration Info, and following the instructions. You'll need your physical badge to do this - and the deadline is 15 October at 5:30 pm PST. That's plenty of time to work out any weird tech hiccups that might arise if you validate now.

The other important thing: if your formerly free child now qualifies as a "junior attendee," they have their own validation process. Check here to find out if your kid can still get in free next year or if they need to register like we do.

November is an ideal time - the digital maelstrom that is Pre-registration will spice up an otherwise boring month, and you can always try to get your parents to cover your badge as an early Christmas present. I haven't heard of any major upgrades to last year's lottery system, so I don't foresee any major delays as happened last year. Let's cautiously hope for the best.



ETA: I always forget the population of never-been-to-SDCC's that come across my blog. So for those of you who've emailed me (or are just wondering) "how can I take part in this wondrous Pre-registration you speak of?" - you can't. This is only for people who attended San Diego Comic-Con 2014. But you can register for a Member ID and then you'll be able to try for a badge in the big Open Registration sale next spring with everyone else.

Timeframe for SDCC badge sales

21 AUGUST 2014




After much speculation, we now know that Pre-registration will be this fall and Open Registration will be in spring of 2015 - subject to change, of course.

For you first-timers, this will be the order of sales:

Pre-registration (fall 2014)
The Early Bird Hotel Sale (winter or spring 2015)
Open Registration (spring 2015)
Hotel Sale (spring 2015)

This means there will be possibly half a year between getting your badge in Pre-reg, and booking your hotel room through Travel Planners. Given that the worst official* CCI sale of the year was when hotel reservations re-opened after the initial sale, it's likely that the Early Bird Hotel Sale will sell out quickly this year - and that many attendees who get lucky in Pre-reg will opt to book rooms on their own this fall.




* I know the parking sale was the worst sale but that was run by Ace Parking - CCI had no role in it.

Pre-registration will have a "validation period"

8 AUGUST 2014




If there's one thing Comic-Con registration needs, it's more complexity and another step, said no one ever. But that's exactly what we're all getting.

We knew that we needed our badge for Pre-registration. A glance at the badge led to a safe guess that it would involve the "Badge ID" printed at the bottom. But if you thought you would just have to input that during Pre-reg, you were wrong; instead there will be a separate step called "pre-registration validation" completely separate from the badge sale.

And it's going to happen soon. Over the next few weeks, you'll get an email telling you how to enter your Badge ID for this validation. It will be open for "only a short window of time."  Sometime after that, when you're safely validated, you can participate in Pre-reg. Which as I predicted before, sounds like it also will happen soon. I say this because CCI refers to this validation period as in "the weeks preceding preregistration."

Again - this only applies to those of you who wore an attendee badge around your neck two weeks ago. If you were there as an exhibitor, a volunteer, press, anything else, you can't partake in Pre-reg.

I'm going to be churlish here and say that if CCI put as much effort into improving things like lines and badge pick-up as they've directed toward this badge code stuff, there would be - well, I don't know exactly, but I'm positive things would be a lot better. Obviously this is engineered to make sure only eligible attendees get into the Pre-reg badge sale and I appreciate that. But it does seem weird that with all the top IT experts they supposedly procured these last 2 years, they can't design their system to segment badge recipients automatically.

No, I don't know the date of Pre-registration

3 AUGUST 2014


I do, however, think it will happen soon as opposed to 2015 - so stay on top of your email game. If you opted out of CCI emails, make sure you opt back in.

For those of you who are wondering what Pre-reg is, it's the first sale of 2015 Comic-Con badges and it is only open to those who had an attendee badge this summer. If you didn't go this summer, or you were there as an exhibitor / professional / some other category, you're not eligible for this sale. You can try for an attendee badge during Open Registration (which will happen after Pre-reg.)

Stay tuned.

Let's speculate baselessly on pre-registration

21 JULY 2014



So Toucan's tip of the day is to save your badge for 2015 pre-registration. This is the third time we've heard it in recent weeks, which makes me think they're running out of material to post. But because we're all obsessed with pre-registration, let's parse their words and read between the lines.

First, remember that their earlier email instructed that kids turning 13 after the Con on 27 July and before 1 August would need their badge to pre-register. 1 August is such an early date to give for that.

Then there's this. Today's post doesn't give any hint as to when pre-reg will be. But it does say that when it comes to everyone else - professionals, exhibitors, staff, press, etc. - "online registration for these categories will occur sometime in early 2015."

The way it's worded suggests that we'll get pre-registration in 2014. In the past it's occurred shortly after the Con, and the only reason it got delayed last year was the development of the new system. And the fact that they reminded us again to expect an email about it makes me think it'll happen sooner as opposed to later - say August or September as opposed to months down the line.

This is all wild speculation. Possibly I'm dead wrong and in the end, the when of pre-reg doesn't matter - but it's something we'd all like to know anyhow.

You need your badge for pre-registration - Part II

17 JULY 2014



CCI emailed all of us today to let us know we need our badges for 2015 pre-registration. Yes, we already knew that. The email today didn't say much new in that regard, except for this little nugget:

Children who are 12 right now and going to SDCC next week, and then turning 13 in the few days before 1 August, must keep their special child badge to do pre-registration. Which suggests kids who will still be 12 by 1 August don't need their badge apparently. But that begs the question of kids who turn 13 in December (for instance) - how would they participate in pre-reg since they will need a regular badge next summer? Am I missing something obvious? My advice is to hold onto your kid's badge if they have any kind of 13th birthday looming in the next year.

And no, we don't know when pre-reg will happen except that it "will occur sometime after Comic-Con." You don't say. The 1 August cutoff above has me curious, though; I wonder if they'll spring it on us quickly (like they used to) since the new system is already in place. Anything is possible with CCI.