Suvudu Universe

And that's how planning for a Hall H day starts.

These days, in order to have a good chance to get in to a prime Hall H panel, you either camp out overnight (starting as early as 4:00 pm the previous day) or wake up early and get in line no later than 4:30 am.

Hence the question I asked Friday evening, "We're waking up when???"

Why Hall H this day? Warner Brothers (with possible Batman v Superman news) and then Marvel panels (with all sorts of possible news, including Avengers 2 footage). 

Our plan, get up and out of the hotel by 4:30 and meet our friends, which is what we did. 

Did we get in? ... No. Based on estimates, we were in the final stretch, but would have needed to line up no later than 4:00am to guarantee entrance for the first panel. 

To be clear, even though we were in line very early, neither we, nor about the 200 other people in our line section made it into the hall. When we eventually left, around 4:30pm, the line still hadn't moved. I heard later that the line didn't move at all for the whole day.

So, there are a few questions:
1) Was it worth it? 
2) What about the new wristband policy?
3) Wasn't there a live simulcast elsewhere?
4) Why didn't the line move after each panel (there were a total of 6 panels that day)?

Was it worth it?
It did give us the opportunity to bond with a few fellow sufferers. We were able to pass the time talking or napping and also checking the Twitter feed for any news on how the panels were going and why the line wasn't moving. I think I stayed in that line for 12 hours because of the remote possibility that people would relinquish their seats, making room for the rest of us.  I mean, look at the photo, we were so close! Yes, I was disappointed, but collectively, we also learned quite a few things.

Were the lessons learned worth the 14 hours that were lost? Quite simply, no.

Wasn't There a Live Simulcast Elsewhere?
Hall H panels are not simulcast anywhere. However, they do show an abridged replay of most major panels over at a conference room in the Omni Hotel. You get to see the panels and discussions but all footage is cut, mostly due to some agreement with the presenting studios.  The Marvel panel playback started 2 hours after we left the line, so we saw the panel material at 7:00 pm, just not the special preview or footage. In short, we were on property for 14 hours before seeing anything of the Hall H Marvel Panel.

What about the new wristband policy?
This year, SDCC initiated a new wristband policy. 

To wit, they would hand out a certain number of Hall H wristbands at specific times, starting the previous day until 11:00 pm and then starting at 5:00 am the following morning. If you got a wristband,your chances were really good. 

Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly, that's not what happened. The reality was that two waves of wristbands were handed out in the evening, and the remaining were issued very early Saturday morning. By 3:30 am, it was reported that all wristbands were handed out, 2 hours before the policy said they would start.

Why did this create problems? Because people were uncertain about where they stood. Rumors went back and forth whether there were more wristbands because of the break in the stated policy. Some rumors said that they only distributed only 90% of the wristbands and would issue the rest later in the day. This gave us unwarranted hope.

Because SDCC didn't stick with their own stated policy, everyone that was supposedly in the know were left wondering what was going to happen next. There were several of us who, if we knew the reality of the situation, would not have wasted so much of our day in a fruitless enterprise.

Why Didn't The Line Move After Each Panel?
To be clear, SDCC used to clear out all panel rooms between panels. However, several years ago, SDCC stopped clearing Hall H after each panel because it was taking too much time and actually caused some panels to start late.

Since the change, you could stay there for as long as you wanted. There are even some processes in place to allow you to exit the Hall H area for a short period of time to use bathrooms outside of the Hall (there was a bathroom issue 3 years ago with the internal Hall H bathrooms that forced them to create this Bathroom Pass process). You just have to return before that panel is over.

Knowing this, it was no surprise that most of the people who made it inside never left. Aside from a very small number of people who left after the 3rd and 4th panels, no one ever left to make room for the rest of us.

What didn't help was that the line staff never filled us on the line status. We were kept in a perpetual state of hope. Last year, when the same thing happened, there was one staffer in a cowboy hat that kept us updated. he single-handedly kept us appraised of what was going on as well as our likely changes. For some reason, that didn't happen this year and the lack of communication left us feeling like no one cared. This further fed into the growing resentment against the overall Hall H line process.

As seasoned attendees, we knew how to filter the BS, but what burned us the most were the reports, via twitter with photos, of several empty seats while we are still waiting in line. Well, there were two reasons for this:

Reason #1: They stayed, but took advantage of the bathroom policy where they could leave the Hall H area with a pass that expired when the current panel ended. With Warner Brothers being a 2 hour panel, there were several people who were able to enjoy the Exhibit Hall while also having their Hall H seats guaranteed. How do we know this?  Because of ...

Reason #2: One stupid attendee posted on Twitter that she was selling her Bathroom Pass for $100. There were several rumors about this going around, but I actually saw this one. Basically, this attendee abused the system to make some coin while  screwing the other people who were dutifully standing in line. Sure, you could say she was opportunistic, which she was. Shrewd also applies. Hopefully, she was identified and banned from the rest of Comic Con ... and all future ones as well. However the real issue is that we now had confirmed proof that things like this were happening. 

How did Hall H lines become such a competitive event? Where cut-throat strategies and loose ethics seem to be the only way that fans will ever be able to get a glimpse of the shows and creators of the movies we all love.

Well, I think a little history lesson is required:

Brief Recent History of Hall H Panels

With 2009, not only was the Hall H line starting even earlier, the lines became more intense, though camping overnight was still rare. By the way, this was the year of Marvel's Iron Man. 

2010 was a special year: Tron Legacy (Thursday), the last Harry Potter films, Marvel's panel for Thor and Captain America with a special full cast reveal of the Avengers cast was all on Saturday! Also featured this year was Cowboys and Aliens panel. This was the first time Harrison Ford ever attended. Of course, this was also the year of the infamous Hall H fight where a couple of attendees had a row about who save what seat and then someone's eye got stabbed.  That all happened just before Harrison Ford took to the stage. It was a very memorable moment for many reasons. 

By the way, 2010 was also the last year without the Hall H line tents:

Image copied from ComicsBeat.com. Link here

After 2011, camping out became more popular and has grown significantly ever since.

In 2013, my brother and I were able to attend all of the prime Hall H panels when we arrived by 5:00 am. Not only that, we got in with another 50 or so people behind us. This year, 4:30 was too late and after waiting 12 hours, we never saw the inside of Hall H.

Basically, the Hall H line process has developed into its own sub-culture within Comic Con itself, a culture that encourages taking dramatic measures to ensure a place in the panels. There is a bonding that happens with crowds like this, where we are all similarly situated and share in the misery that is lack of sleep and bathrooms that are a little too far for comfort. On the other hand, this also brings out some of the more cut-throat nature in some people, taking advantage of others. 

Will I try for another Hall H panel day next year? As long as I get passes, I'm planning on it.

Next Year
Next year will be 8 years after the Twilight influence and movies in the works are Star Wars VII (end of 2015), Star Trek 3 (2016), Captain America 3 (2016) and Batman v Superman (2016).  

With all of that expected activity, the question remains: Should SDCC continue to allow people to camp out? Is the wristband policy really effective? Is Hall H getting to be too much?

My own feeling is camping should be allowed, but for limited areas and should not start until the end of the current convention day. Also, the wristband policy needs to be rolled out when they say they will. This will prevent confusion and give potential attendees like myself fair warning of my chances. 

What other options are out there, dear readers?

Tune in next week for "Sunday ... Wait, it's Sunday?"