The picture above was taken holding my camera high amidst the press of bodies trying to either get in or out of the main hall. Some waited patiently while we stood still for the better part of ten minutes, while others tried squeezing through the crowd, pushing past large, sweaty members of the press as if they weren't there. I was frustrated myself, not being a big fan of being trapped in small spaces, and if it weren't for the fact that I could see above everyone I might have panicked. Looking around, it seemed like I wasn't the only one having issues either.

Blizzard sold more tickets this year and added a new hall, but at events that everyone wants to attend, the new hall doesn't make much of a difference. Last night's costume contest was another example, with folks packed into the hall, sitting on the floor, and crammed up against the concession stands off to the side.

So yeah, selling more tickets just wouldn't work. With Blizzard's legion of fans, I have doubts that there exists a venue large enough to really satisfy their needs. Perhaps next year they can institute a system where customers place their ticket orders over the course of a week, with some sort of random algorithm determining who gets a chance to actually purchase them and attend the show. All I know is more tickets is definitely not the answer.

Prices are all over the place, with the highest buy it now price for a set currently listed at $1,500. The highest bid as of this afternoon for a set was at $910 with four days left to go.

There's obviously an issue with scalpers, but I don't really know how Blizzard can address it other than by really cutting down on the number of ticket you can buy at a time, or greatly expanding the size of the event.

eBay Listings

Update: 9:40 PM PDT - We have appreciated everyone’s patience as we've worked to address issues with the BlizzCon ticket sales today. To avoid having people stay up into the early hours attempting to make ticket purchases, we will take ticket sales down and continue implementing optimizations through tonight and tomorrow morning.

There are still plenty of tickets available, so if you weren't able to purchase tickets today, please check back tomorrow. We'll continue to provide updates on the World of Warcraft forums here.

I haven't checked yet, but in theory purchasing your BlizzCon tickets today should be a much smoother experience.

BlizzCon Ticket Sales Resume Today [Blue's News]

Featuring appearances by 50 Cent, Tony Hawk, Method Man, Seth Green, Tenacious D, AFI, plus more B and C level celebs and musical acts pretending to care about video games, the night will probably be a blast and/or unintentionally funny. I'll be there, so if you're attending, keep an eye peeled. Michael McWhertor

Spike TV Video Game Awards Tickets

Hey guys, remember when we told you about the Chicago Wii Ambassador who was giving away two tickets to his Wii Party?

The Ambassador in question was there at the appointed place and time, and the minutes ticked on, and finally…

Soo..... after the HUGE crowds that showed up on friday, it was hard as hell to choose 2 winners.....aah, who am i kidding.

NO ONE SHOWED UP.

NO ONE.

so, if you were the guy driving around for an hour (as someone in the chat box said) and you DIDN'T see 5 nerds playing with their ds lites with a 4 foot Wii sign above them, too bad. i ended up inviting a couple of non-gamers, who are cool cats.

all you blogtrolls missed out.

Gamers couldn’t be buggered to leave their houses for free Wii tickets. Classic! Eliza Gauger

Contest Results [Endangered Gamer]

Now that's commitment. A gamer managed to squirrel away enough tickets from his local Dave & Buster's to earn himself an Xbox 360. The total cost? 85,000 ticket. Let's see, when I ran an arcade with redemption, the formula was one penny for every ticket to calculate the price we were charging for an item. (Of course there was always a hefty mark-up: 20 to 200 percent, depending on how cheap the item was, I seem to recall.) So, that means, they charged $850 for the console, which would make for a...um... really big mark-up.

Well, what really matters is that he can lord it over all of his friends, family, neighbors and local D&B riffraff. If I were him I'd buy an extra thick security chain and just wear the console around my neck.

"See that? I bought it with tickets. TICKETS!"

Hmmm, I wonder how many tickets a PS3 will cost? Brian Crecente

What 85,000 Dave & Buster's tickets gets you... [Xbox 360 Fanboy]

Face it, she'd pwn you proper.

This is Japanese pop idol Utada Hikaru, whom everyone agrees looks adorable in glasses. Between bouts of pretending to pinch her little cheeks, and dressing me down for stealing a post about Japan, Bashcraft translated the details of the Tetris promotional contest for me:

• Buy a copy of Tetris during the campaign period, which is through July.
• Register the serial at Club Nintendo.
• When you register, you must CHOOSE: a chance to battle Hikki (only 30 people will be chosen) or be entered for concert tickets (504 pairs of tickets will be given out)

I'd say the concert was the better deal all around, seeing how fast she beats the everloving christ out of that angry man in the video.

She won't even look up from her stooped crouch over her DS when you enter the room, nervous number 22, and will utter no sound as she inflates her screen with your doom and then drops that long piece straight into your cringing nuts, launching a fusillade of raw humiliation directly at your sweating face.

Thanks to Kylara and Jasohill for the linkage, Bashcraft for the verbage, and Hikki for the pwnage. I'll be holding her Hello Kitty towel during the slaughter. Eliza gauger

Contest stuff (in Japanese) [Club Nintendo]