27 OCTOBER 2015
Today is truly a historic day in the annals of San Diego Comic-Con. CCI is entertaining a radical departure from tradition: "We are currently researching the option of mailing out Comic-Con and WonderCon badges prior to the event."
Yes, please! If you're new to the world of Comic Cons, this is rather huge - even though CCI has radically improved the badge pick-up process and times (which used to be ungodly), it's still a pain in the ass and has been one reason Preview Night is so popular. (Picking up your badge for PN is a breeze.) Obtaining our badges ahead of time would be highly convenient.
Anyhow, enough exulting. The real takeaway: you need to update your mailing address now in your Member ID account. The system is going to close before Pre-reg (I'm guessing 7 November by the timing of this message, maybe 14 November but probably the former) according to CCI so get in there. But of course you'll be able to update your address later, I'm sure; CCI must be aware that some attendees will change residences over the next 9 months.
Change! Revolution! These are exciting times for San Diego Comic-Con attendees.
While I like the idea of mailing the badges in principle, I have to wonder how it's going to work, How will they mail the (admittedly bulky) holders? How will they prevent scalpers from out of town buying badges and passing them on to others? What if your badge get lost in the mail? What about international attendees who might have to deal with customs issues? How will people get their swag bags (which at any other con wouldn't be a big deal, but at SDCC it is something people are very excited about)?
ReplyDeleteHonestly, badge pickup is the smoothest, easiest part of SDCC. I'd rather see them put the effort into making RFID badges or something similar, so that they're more difficult to scalp.
Maybe we'll get RFID badges. Who knows. I know that seems very un-CCIish, but it's possible.
DeleteTo me the main issue is: if we don't need photo ID to pick up our badges, scalping will be rampant. Fake Member IDs will become even more common. But I can't imagine they'd just throw in the towel and ignore the black market after cracking down on it for so long. So... hopefully they have some kind of plan.