The Darkmoon Fiasco

[00:00] okay so I've made the terrible decision

[00:02] of getting into the dark moon Fair line

[00:04] uh purely because it no longer extends

[00:07] all the way into the middle of Hall sea

[00:11] let me tell you a story about the Dark

[00:12] Moon Fiasco Anaheim California BlizzCon

[00:16] 2023 day two the Dark Moon Fair the main

[00:20] hall has been opened for less than an

[00:22] hour and one corner of the hall is

[00:23] already packed shoulder-to-shoulder with

[00:25] a thousand attendees a chaotic impromptu

[00:28] line stretches from the fair itself

[00:30] several hundred feet away into the

[00:31] adjoining Hall eyeball estimates suggest

[00:34] that this line is already 4 to 5 hours

[00:39] long what happened here okay so this

[00:42] story is actually pretty low stakes

[00:44] nothing tragic happened and to the best

[00:46] of my knowledge no one was hurt but it's

[00:49] an interesting story about multiple

[00:51] seemingly unrelated decisions that could

[00:53] have easily resulted in disaster had

[00:56] something gone wrong first things first

[00:58] the lay of the land the Dark Moon fair

[01:00] is situated at the far end of Hall D

[01:02] which is dedicated to the warcraft IP

[01:04] and its four current games themed After

[01:07] the ingame Dark Moon Fair the area has

[01:09] five attractions of note a merch booth

[01:12] for collectible pins and badges a

[01:14] pineapple soft sered food vendor the

[01:16] WonderWorks toy shop the capsule toy

[01:18] Depot and the Ethereal trading Emporium

[01:21] additionally many collectors set up

[01:23] their trade offerings on the picnic

[01:24] benches set up around the fair of these

[01:27] the main attraction is the capsule toy

[01:29] Depot which itself has three components

[01:32] first a line for buying tokens second a

[01:35] line for the slot machines where you

[01:37] redeem tokens for random prizes most of

[01:40] the capsules contain small velcro badges

[01:42] though the potential prizes include

[01:44] larger plush dolls action figures and

[01:46] redemption codes for various in-game

[01:48] items which leads to the third component

[01:51] a line for a window for claiming any

[01:53] prize that doesn't fit inside a capsule

[01:56] this isn't the first time BlizzCon has

[01:58] had this attraction and it is all always

[02:00] very popular the Ambiance is fantastic

[02:03] people love collecting and people love

[02:05] gambling but there's something more

[02:07] going on or rather there's a lot of

[02:10] stuff not going on for BlizzCon 2023

[02:13] blizzard opted for a more streamlined

[02:15] presentation structure ordinarily

[02:17] BlizzCon features a main stage where all

[02:20] the big presentations happen and three

[02:22] to five other side stages for smaller

[02:24] panels like the fan favorite voice

[02:26] actors panel cinematics breakdown sound

[02:29] design Etc generally more Niche interest

[02:32] stuff the philosophy this year was to

[02:34] design the Halls less around panel

[02:36] stages which take up a lot of floor

[02:38] space and more around experiences

[02:42] gameplay demos photo ops and themed

[02:44] viewing areas for watching a rebroadcast

[02:46] of the main stage now there's a lot to

[02:49] criticize about this decision for many

[02:51] attendees panels are the experience that

[02:54] they're there for they don't just want

[02:56] to hear Executives and celebrity devs

[02:58] make big announcements on the main stage

[03:00] they want to hear the people who

[03:02] actually make the thing talk about their

[03:05] craft but inarguably the new approach

[03:08] created a streamlined convention maybe

[03:11] even too streamlined see here's the big

[03:15] thing conventions are all about traffic

[03:18] management you have a certain number of

[03:20] people who can safely fit into the

[03:22] larger space as a whole but become a

[03:25] hazard to themselves if they get too

[03:27] concentrated so you try and spread out

[03:29] the cool stuff so it's not all in one

[03:31] corner you place Necessities like

[03:33] washrooms and food a little ways away

[03:36] and distributed throughout the space and

[03:38] you use things like cues to absorb

[03:41] bodies with the new approach you could

[03:43] queue up for a demo or a photo op and

[03:46] for the most part still have a view of a

[03:48] screen rebroadcasting the main stage

[03:51] unless you wanted to attend that

[03:53] specific event in person you basically

[03:55] never needed to make a choice between

[03:58] getting in a line or missing an event

[04:00] that sounds good on paper in fact it

[04:03] sounds like the ideal attendee

[04:06] experience and that's the Trap panels

[04:10] don't just absorb bodies though they

[04:12] don't just move groups of people away

[04:14] from popular attractions into less

[04:16] densely populated areas of the

[04:18] convention they impose a timet onto a

[04:22] semi-random distribution of attendees

[04:25] they give you somewhere to be at a

[04:28] specific time in the future future which

[04:30] imposes limitations on the decisions you

[04:33] make in the present the Dark Moon Fair

[04:35] 2023 didn't account for many things

[04:38] first of all it didn't account for Wales

[04:41] there was on day one no cap on how many

[04:44] tokens you could buy at one time no one

[04:47] who designed the gacha capsule game

[04:49] accounted for the idea that someone

[04:51] might walk up and buy $600 worth of

[04:54] tokens and what that would mean

[04:56] physically for the experience at the

[04:59] actual ual slot machines every token

[05:01] someone purchased also represented a

[05:04] future unit of time that the person

[05:07] would need to spend putting that token

[05:08] into a machine turning the handle and

[05:11] fetching their capsule it also further

[05:14] represented time that some portion of

[05:16] them would need to spend redeeming that

[05:18] capsule for the actual prize so you end

[05:21] up with the Diehard whales the dudes who

[05:24] are willing to get in line at 6:00 a.m.

[05:26] for a 10: a.m. door so they can be first

[05:28] in line to buy 300 tokens and then spend

[05:31] 10 20 30 minutes each monopolizing a

[05:35] machine as they crank through these

[05:36] tokens and just completely murder the

[05:38] throughput of the whole operation but

[05:40] the two halves of this booth aren't

[05:43] evenly weighted it takes more or less

[05:46] the same amount of time to buy five

[05:48] tokens as it does to buy 500 but one of

[05:51] them takes 100 times longer to redeem so

[05:55] already we can sell tokens faster than

[05:58] we can redeem tokens and there is no

[06:00] mechanism to prevent someone from

[06:02] creating a truly heinous bottleneck so

[06:04] the fair has its own internal vicious

[06:06] cycle the bottleneck creates lines that

[06:08] are so long that people feel compelled

[06:11] to get in them purely out of a fear of

[06:13] missing out on whatever is at the end of

[06:15] that line which makes the lines longer

[06:19] it creates crowds so dense that people

[06:21] can't get physically close enough to the

[06:24] booths to even see what the line is for

[06:27] or if they're in the correct one but

[06:29] then we add the Special Sauce because

[06:32] almost no one has a timetable imposed on

[06:34] them because they don't have a voice

[06:36] actor panel on the opposite side of the

[06:38] convention in an hour and a half because

[06:41] they can see all the panels on the

[06:43] screen right next to the line they make

[06:46] the decision to get in a 3-hour line

[06:50] just to buy

[06:52] tokens it's probably a bad sign that the

[06:54] line that I've been in leads up to a

[06:57] blizzard employee holding a sign that it

[06:59] says line closed that's how you sell so

[07:02] many tokens on day one that thousands of

[07:04] people decide that their first order of

[07:07] business on day two is to rush to the

[07:09] Dark Moon fair and commit to the line

[07:11] hell or high water and that's how you

[07:14] get a 5H hour line now they did

[07:17] eventually almost sort this out on day

[07:19] two at the fire Marshall's insistence

[07:22] they capped the line the entire fair was

[07:24] turned into a gated exhibit token

[07:26] purchases were capped at 50 and they

[07:28] stopped selling tokens entirely halfway

[07:30] through the day if you could get into

[07:32] the fair at this point it was more or

[07:34] less running as it was supposed to the

[07:36] lines for toys and pins were reasonable

[07:38] so there was no pressure to commit to a

[07:41] line which keeps the lines reasonable

[07:43] but I can't say they fixed it the damage

[07:46] was more or less done the line for

[07:48] General entrance basically never stopped

[07:50] being capped for the remainder of the

[07:52] show and the line for redemptions only

[07:55] dried up because the fair physically ran

[07:57] out of prizes I don't know how many

[08:00] people bought tokens they never had a

[08:01] realistic opportunity to redeem but it's

[08:04] definitely not none anyway thanks for

[08:07] watching I never managed to get tokens

[08:09] or use the capsule machines personally

[08:11] so I had to take my entertainment from

[08:14] watching this small disaster build over

[08:16] the course of two days