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Hey everyone.
Halo: Outpost Discovery is going on this weekend in Philadelphia, PA. Use this thread to discuss the event.
Hope everyone who's there has a good time!
External link →Hey everyone.
Halo: Outpost Discovery is going on this weekend in Philadelphia, PA. Use this thread to discuss the event.
Hope everyone who's there has a good time!
External link →I heard the horror stories from the Orlando show and went in with very low expectations. However, I'm pleased to say that my friends and I had a phenomenal experience. We spent about 7 hours on the floor and did almost everything. Lines were manageable, merch prices were reasonable and getting to play Halo Reach on PC was nearly worth the admission cost on its own. Outpost Discovery is the first gaming convention I've ever been too but it's been great so far. It's definitely motivated me to look into ComicCon/Cosplay.
That being said, I wouldn't waste your time with the App. It's a buggy mess. Also, if you're going on Saturday...may the prophets guide you on your journey. I was told they sold 2500 tickets for Friday and 3500 for Saturday. (tickets are sold out) and I expect lines will be rough. Good luck.
EDIT: If you can't do everything because of lines skip the "Ring Experience". If you've ever played a Halo game you'll basically already know everything they tell you/show. It's nothing too special.
Glad to hear you enjoyed your experience! The Herschend team (the group running this entire event) really did great work updating and improving based on feedback coming out of Orlando.
smooth but with lines. not horrific, but not a breeze either.
Overall we were happy with the operational improvements between Orlando and Philly. For the most part, the experiences were moving solidly in Philly with avg. wait times well below Orlando. VR remains a bit of a challenge as there's just not much else to be done there to increase throughput, but the teams are continuing to work on it and explore additional options. You'll also see additional content and offerings elsewhere, which is helping to ease some of the crowds in the experiences (more stage programming, expanded marketplace content, community panels in the center of the venue, etc..)
in Orlando they sold the Funkos for $10 to anyone. Some people bought them by the case.
By Philly a limit was put in place to prevent folks from doing this. Demand was higher than anticipated I reckon.
VIPs also got a backpack and 6 months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
Don't sleep on that 6 months of Xbox Game Pass ultimate! Also, the team worked to improve the VIP lounge experience in Philly with food, drinks, and numerous scheduled 343 team meet-ups and a few impromptu visits from Jen and Steve.
I’m sorry but did we go to the same Outpost Discovery in Philadelphia? I waited almost 2 hours to play the VR experience. The Covenant Escape room had a line that was over 45 minutes long if you weren’t a solo. The ring experience had a huge line for the first like 4 hours of the convention.
I will say that MOST of the lines were a lot more manageable then what I expected and a lot of them were under 30 minutes after 7pm, but I would expect it to be worse tomorrow since it’s Saturday and they sold out for Saturday like a week ago.
With all of what I said.. I would still tell anyone interested to come to this and try it out. Lines did seem to do better then Orlando and I heard the autographs went a lot smoother although I cannot vouch for that firsthand.
~Athena
Thanks for the feedback Athena! I do know that VR continues to be a bit of a challenge in terms of throughput - while some improvements were made post-Orlando, there's not a whole lot more that can be done given some of the constraints. I did appreciate how they added signage to give guests an indication of the approximate wait times from a given point so you know what you're getting into. I also believe that Covenant Escape had a few hiccups and was down once or twice, which likely contributed to a bit more of a line build-up.
One of the steps Herschend has taken in response to Orlando is to cap the total # of tickets each day to keep the max attendance manageable. Glad that you overall seemed to enjoy the experience!
Aw man, that is a bummer to hear. Sorry your experience wasn't ideal. I did pick a choose my activities pretty carefully and jumped on any smaller line opportunity I could find. It seems like it can be very hit or miss with wait times and the majority of people will be waiting longer than the times I experienced. I was very lucky day one and I don't expect the same luck today.
The autographs were indeed much smoother but it does leave me feeling for everyone who won't get a chance due to the limitations.
The autographs are always going to be tricky given it's just two people in a room facing thousands of eager fans. I think the approach they took in Philly was fair - first come, first serve - and I like that they gave out the tickets so people didn't have to physically sit in line for 3-4 hours. I know Steve and Jen offered up more time and got through more people than Orlando, too. And they did at least one impromptu stop by the VIP lounge for more mingling.