They actually let you purchase an additional ticket "for yourself" and then you can hand it to someone on the day of the event? Seems a bit surprising, but I can't imagine the purpose for that option otherwise.

Yes.
I don't know why, but you can. :/

Yes, that confused me too, since I was led to believe the tickets were not transferable (maybe they are).

If they are transferable I wonder what I could get for my AEG Big Game Night ticket...

Well, all the X-Wing stuff I wanted to do has already sold out.... :-(

Really? What if you win a regional tournament?

GenCon allows you to buy multiple tickets in various ways. First being, if you are a friend of mine and we are 'friends' in the system. This way, i can buy us both tickets to make sure we both get into the event together. Otherwise we may not get it if forced to try to submit individually. Second, i can buy a 2nd ticket for myself for a number of reasons...extra promotional items, my friend isn't my 'friend' in the system yet, my friend hasn't purchased a badge and therefore couldn't get events yet, etc... For the national event, maybe someone bought an extra ticket for themselves so they can get 2 promo cards and still play in the event?

The additional ticket for 'yourself' has much greater application when you take all of GenCon into context and not single it to X-Wing events alone...

The system is also slightly flawed in that it doesn't warn you if you take conflicting time slots for events. Yes, sometimes it's intentional but sometimes it's not.

That said, never had a problem with transferred tickets and that's from the receiving end of the table not the player side. It's hard enough in the chaos to get the right event, time slot and the correct number of tickets.

Really? What if you win a regional tournament?

Winning a Regional does not guarantee you a spot in the event. Nationals is an open event and as such even Regional Winners need a ticket.

I think its ridiculous especially with store championships turnouts in some places being over 100. And only 200 spots for nationals. Do they not understand that the game is growing. I know individuals who jumped all over this event and got multiple tickets just for the promo cards. Just so they can sell them on ebay. People like that just love the fact that FFG has limited it to 200. It's just means their promo cards will be worth even more. One thing I like about FFG is they don't do the whole chase money pit thing like magic and hero clicks. As a player its a bit of a slap in the face. Top it off only one qualifying day and its early Thursday. That's just makes it a lot harder for some people to even be able to participate. I was looking forward to going to gen con for the first time. Now there is just no point. I hope enough people grumble and FFG doesn't do this next year. Very disappointing.

Table space is expensive and FFG has other products they want to show off as well. I see the same from the tables we run. It's a balance to provide space for all games. Yes, the XWing players will want more but do you sacrifice Armada for it? How about their other titles? Do you spend hair raising amounts of money just for extra space?

I thought this might be a good place to ask a related question. I've purchased my GenCon badge and event ticket to Nationals, but I chose to place them on will-call instead of having them shipped. So, if the event starts at 10:00 am (registration ends at 9:50 am), just how early do I need to arrive to ensure I can make it through the will-call line in time for the event?

You need lots of time for the will call line. It gets scarey big. It moves, but...

The system is also slightly flawed in that it doesn't warn you if you take conflicting time slots for events. Yes, sometimes it's intentional but sometimes it's not.

As an attendee of Gencon since their days in Milwaukee, (thank God they moved) I have always thought they never fixed this just because they can make extra money this way.

Peter Adkison, former CEO of Wizards Off the Coast who owns Gencon gives me a wink whenever I bring this up, so it's not like they are in a hurry to fix it.

Whenever he gets too smug I gently remind him of the lawsuit Lucasfilm slammed him with in 2008 to Force him into Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.

I thought this might be a good place to ask a related question. I've purchased my GenCon badge and event ticket to Nationals, but I chose to place them on will-call instead of having them shipped. So, if the event starts at 10:00 am (registration ends at 9:50 am), just how early do I need to arrive to ensure I can make it through the will-call line in time for the event?

Wednesday evening. Will-Call is terribly long, although it is getting a little better. The issue is the sheer number of people that also selected Will-Call, so you'll be standing in line for a while.

I thought this might be a good place to ask a related question. I've purchased my GenCon badge and event ticket to Nationals, but I chose to place them on will-call instead of having them shipped. So, if the event starts at 10:00 am (registration ends at 9:50 am), just how early do I need to arrive to ensure I can make it through the will-call line in time for the event?

There are 60K attendees over the course of the weekend, that's a LOT of people, you will already be in lines for a lot of things, do yourself a favor and try to limit wait time when you can.

Will call, is not the best option, especially for popular events. I have seen people lose their chance to make their events by being in line. Slot 0 Wednesday before the masses come Thursday through Saturday (the worse day because families come as well) is your best bet, Sunday is a good day as well because a lot of people get too beat up tired by then. This is a line just to get into a booth to get stuff, its not even in the main dealer room, Saturday gets bad.

Some events are very well organized, some are not. I help with Paizo's Pathfinder event and we seat 900 gamers per session and we still have people waiting to get into a game.

I did gencon for the first time last year and selected will call to pick up my tickets, thinking I was saving money. But then I had to come in specifically for that on Wednesday night, and had to pay for parking.. plus the added cost of going into he city an etxra time. I winded up spending more momey and wasting time by not getting them delivered.

I did gencon for the first time last year and selected will call to pick up my tickets, thinking I was saving money. But then I had to come in specifically for that on Wednesday night, and had to pay for parking.. plus the added cost of going into he city an etxra time. I winded up spending more momey and wasting time by not getting them delivered.

Mailing tickets is certainly the best, but only works for residents of the U.S. Not so good for those of us that cross borders. Oh well, I'm there on Wednesday every year anyway...

Always worth going on Wednesday to get settled and pick up badges/tickets. We used to just get a roach motel for $35 in Speedway that night and drive in early the next morning, ready to go. Will call has extended hours so late Wed is great or of you have an early event on Thurs get in line way early to blow through it.

Personally, I hate the whole event ticket system they have now. Our group usually has two people but tickets for all of us to ensure we can table games as a group. We still end up trying to get into games on generics. The old system in Milwaukee with peg boards was amazing.

They actually let you purchase an additional ticket "for yourself" and then you can hand it to someone on the day of the event? Seems a bit surprising, but I can't imagine the purpose for that option otherwise.

I've never actually been to an event where they checked the name on the ticket against the name on your badge. Not that it can't happen, but I've never seen it.

Yes, that confused me too, since I was led to believe the tickets were not transferable (maybe they are).

If they are transferable I wonder what I could get for my AEG Big Game Night ticket...

Don't rub it in. I missed out on AEG Big Game Night for the first time this year. It is the Event of the Con for me.

The system is also slightly flawed in that it doesn't warn you if you take conflicting time slots for events. Yes, sometimes it's intentional but sometimes it's not.

That said, never had a problem with transferred tickets and that's from the receiving end of the table not the player side. It's hard enough in the chaos to get the right event, time slot and the correct number of tickets.

Not sure what you mean. Wishlists when processing will only book you for 1 event in a given time slot. Once one of those items is placed in your cart, your wishlist skips any conflicting events.

Now, if you come back later and buy a separate ticket that conflict with an event you already have a ticket for, it will let you. But to me that is an operator error and not the fault of or shenanigans built into the system. You should kind of know what you have purchased tickets for.

I think its ridiculous especially with store championships turnouts in some places being over 100. And only 200 spots for nationals. Do they not understand that the game is growing. I know individuals who jumped all over this event and got multiple tickets just for the promo cards. Just so they can sell them on ebay. People like that just love the fact that FFG has limited it to 200. It's just means their promo cards will be worth even more. One thing I like about FFG is they don't do the whole chase money pit thing like magic and hero clicks. As a player its a bit of a slap in the face. Top it off only one qualifying day and its early Thursday. That's just makes it a lot harder for some people to even be able to participate. I was looking forward to going to gen con for the first time. Now there is just no point. I hope enough people grumble and FFG doesn't do this next year. Very disappointing.

I don't mind the size so much as the cut line (down to 16) and the time (the first hour of the first day of the con? Really?). As I said in another thread, we may as well just line up and start playing elimination rounds from the beginning, because it isn't far off from that. And as I also said in another thread, it would have been much better if they had split Armada/X-Wing both in half and split them over 2 flights each.

I thought this might be a good place to ask a related question. I've purchased my GenCon badge and event ticket to Nationals, but I chose to place them on will-call instead of having them shipped. So, if the event starts at 10:00 am (registration ends at 9:50 am), just how early do I need to arrive to ensure I can make it through the will-call line in time for the event?

If at all possible, get your stuff mailed.

If not, then to take no chances, you've got to be there Wednesday. Anything else and there isn't a "safe" time. It varies year to year from as little as an hour to 3-4 hours (I think 3 years ago it took that long, been a little better since then, but you never know. It is a crapshoot every year.

Ok after reading all this gen con seems like a pain in the butt, and not much fun. So what is the draw?. X-wing bragging rights and 15 bucks worth of swag?? Lol..being partly sarcastic. .also I could see the draw if it was in a place like Orlando..

According to this article, https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/5/18/ffgs-2015-world-championships/

They are saving spots at Worlds for Regional champions.