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by Zach Yonzon 
May 16th 2009 at 2:30PM
It's a testament to the popularity of Blizzard and their games that the first wave of BlizzCon tickets has sold out yet again this year, and damning evidence of the lengths some people will go to make a buck. In this frazzled economy, who can blame them? Grunty, the Murloc Marine, that's who! Grunty doesn't appreciate being put in the black market like some dead fish! At any rate, congratulations to those of you who were able to score tickets (and actually plan on using them). The good news is that the rest of us who clicked too slowly this round can look forward to another wave of tickets on the 30th. The bad news is that those scalpers are going to be waiting to click right along with us.
Filed under: BlizzCon
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Clnilsen May 16th 2009 2:52PM
And probably even worse, now that the black market has been set for this.
Rofllol May 16th 2009 2:36PM
Blizzard should just rent a stadium.
Ferarro May 16th 2009 3:39PM
This is disgusting.
Servetus May 16th 2009 2:39PM
You can't stop ticket scalping. Sports and entertainment promoters have tried for decades, with only middling amounts of success.
If Blizzard wants to stop it, the only way I see to do it is by limiting the amount of tickets each person can buy, and even then only selling tickets to customers with active WOW accounts.
Step 1, validate active account.
Step 2, you can buy up to four tickets.
Trial accounts and accounts active for less than 60 days would not be eligible.
Even then you'd have scalpers, but perhaps more tickets would go straight into the hands of active players without first passing through the eBay auction of a scalper.
AyaJulia May 16th 2009 2:43PM
Ehh, the only problem with this is the fact that BlizzCon is BlizzCon, not WoWCon. What do fans of Starcraft or Diablo do if they aren't WoW fans but still hope to go to hear about their franchise of choice?
I realize WoW is Blizzard's biggest current largest franchise and many of us think it would be silly to go to their convention without being a WoW fan, but it's not for us to pass judgement on someone for liking this thing and not that other thing. :)
Justin May 16th 2009 3:28PM
What you could do, is make tickets only available online and force people to show ID's at the entrance. How are you going to sell something to someone if they need YOUR ID.
Eh? May 16th 2009 10:08PM
Um, Justin....they already DO require ID at the entrance to pick up your ticket...
If you were talking about being required to show ID every time you enter the building....that would just be a logistic nightmare...these are badges you can hang around your neck for a reason.
Susy213 May 16th 2009 2:43PM
Servetus, wow isnt the only blizzard game, so your argument is invalid
crsh May 16th 2009 2:52PM
Since they've been pushing for BattleNet account unification though, and that WoW also uses that scheme, that can be a valid way to validate who tickets are sold to. I can't see them going that way tho, but it could work.
RogueJedi86 May 16th 2009 2:49PM
I like the Active WoW Account idea, but to account for Diablo and StarCraft fans, they could just make sure you have an Active Battlenet account. Since all 3 of Blizzard's games use Battlenet now(and WoW accounts can be merged to a Battlenet account), that could easily work.
Zrob May 16th 2009 3:31PM
You already had to use your Battlenet account to buy tickets.....
PeeWee May 16th 2009 2:56PM
Some people act as if this comes as a surprise.
If stupidity was edible, there would be no hunger in the World.
bill dunn May 16th 2009 3:03PM
$800 for the Murloc pet... totally silly when you can get the internet stream for $39.99.
twolfer May 16th 2009 3:07PM
i wish blizzard would make it required that you input the name of the person attending when you purchase the ticket and make it so that only that person could attend. that would do away with scalpers. they could easily put a name on the tickets that they send out.
its unfair that these people are taking the tickets away from legitamate attendees, and selling them off for 5 times the face value.
on another note...those auctions that are selling for $200+ for just the grunty pet make me laugh....$200 for a in game item that you can pick up for $40 by getting the internet stream lol...
Risible May 16th 2009 3:37PM
But, once you get a ticket, you could hand it off to a different person since security does not check ID when you enter the building
Mordii May 16th 2009 9:01PM
Obviously they'd have to start checking i.d.s at the gates.
Zeplar May 16th 2009 3:18PM
I asked a couple days ago on wowinsider and commenters said you need the credit card used to purchase the tickets, to pick them up.
Dave May 16th 2009 3:27PM
Correct. Blizzard made it a requirement to present the credit card used to purchase the tickets at the time of pickup, so if you bought from scalpers thinking you'd be able to skate up to the ticket window, you might be a bit disappointed.
Lewis May 16th 2009 3:29PM
Any Scalper can buy the ticket with one of those Green Dot cards and send it with the ticket. Problem solved. The credit card will be on hand day of the event and if the card is not signed and the person who E-bayed the ticket claims to not have another form of ID what is Blizz going to do.
Thalen May 16th 2009 3:24PM
Over 21K people in queue, and they sold out after a little more than 3000? Granted, this is phase 1 of 2, so there's more going out, but still...
Blizz, time to move to a bigger venue. I'd wager they could sell 4-5x more tickets if they moved to a larger hall.