I attended last nights Cantina here in San Diego and was more than a little disappointed. Little to no new information, and the event was itself very poorly organized and run. There were way more people there than they were prepared for and thus the venue and logistics were inadequate. There were only two small bar stations and lines for drinks were over 30 min long. Food was gone before half the attendees had a chance to get anything, and SWAG was not handed out until after the presentation. There was almost no crowd control inside the venue and people paid very little respect to those who were waiting patiently in lines already formed, just mobbing the area.

 

When I compare how this event was staged vs SOE/Daybreak games events it was very clear that the Cantina event was a mess. What a waste of my time to come down for the event.

 

Only two takeaways of note: 30 days of double XP starts on Tuesday 23 July and PTS will also open on that date for Onslaught.

 

EA/BW, SWTOR has many fans who are passionate about the game and will go to great lengths to support and attend events, but you need to do a better job of planning and preparation. There were way to many people for the venue size and what you were prepared to support. You needed a bigger place, more bars, more food and more organization. You had a choke point at registration where everyone had to pass to get in, that would have been the place to hand out SWAG as people arrived.

 

Looking forward to Tuesday with PTS and double XP.

It seems like they always underestimate how many people actually like there game LOL

Did you have to pay anything for this food?

I personally had fun. Could it have been organized a bit better? Yeah. But getting an opportunity to talk with Musco, Charles and Keith about the game after the presentation (especially Musco about the Kephess Power Rangers) was worth it. Not often that you get to interact with the dev's on that kind of level.

Did you have to pay anything for this food?

 

Nope, the entire event was free. Free food, a free drink coupon from the bar, and free swag. Put this one up on r/choosingbeggars

It seems like they always underestimate how many people actually like there game LOL

 

Definitely. I was talking with Keith prior and he said they were anticipating around 300 people but there were way more than that. Wondering how many walks up they had at the door since they were still talking registrations at the start of the event.

It seems like they always underestimate how many people actually like there game LOL

 

These event are supposed to be RSVPed too, they would probably be better prepared if people would RSVP instead of just showing up.

Something I saw happen with the event a couple months ago in Chicago for Star Wars Celebration was there were several FB groups that had nothing to do with this game mentioning the cantina event as *something* to do after the con closed for the day.

It brought awareness to the event and possibly attendance was buffed a bit by people going out of curiosity, or any number of other possible reasons.

Since I've never been interested in going to SDCC, I wasn't looking at any FB groups for this type of information this time around, but it wouldn't surprise me if the same thing happened here too.

 

 

Out of curiosity, those that did go, were there metal detectors set up with security guards present at the doors?

Something I saw happen with the event a couple months ago in Chicago for Star Wars Celebration was there were several FB groups that had nothing to do with this game mentioning the cantina event as *something* to do after the con closed for the day.

It brought awareness to the event and possibly attendance was buffed a bit by people going out of curiosity, or any number of other possible reasons.

Since I've never been interested in going to SDCC, I wasn't looking at any FB groups for this type of information this time around, but it wouldn't surprise me if the same thing happened here too.

 

 

Out of curiosity, those that did go, were there metal detectors set up with security guards present at the doors?

 

There was security that used the wands to cover your person, but that was it.