The main reason why a show might set up a digital badge system is financial. As noted in that Beat article, some shows express the concern about individuals swapping badges. A show would then theoretically miss out on a sale if a person bought a one-day ticket, used it for half a day and then gave it to someone else who used it for the other half of the day. I'm sure this does happen, but in the first place, the people who do act as that 'second ride' for an existing ticket were never going to spend money on a ticket so we're not talking about 'lost' revenue here. And in the second place, the shows that are big enough where that might be a concern are primarily attended by fans who spend a significant portion of the day at the show in the first place, so there's minimal opportunity to swap anyways. I think this idea is a minimal problem at worst and more likely a phantom one for most shows that have this concern. Again we're not talking about lost revenue here, despite the concern; we're talking about trying to extract as much money as possible out of the fandom as cynically as we can.
The other financial incentive is in the badge creation and distribution process. A digital badge sysetm would obviously cut down the costs of manufacturing badges since there'd obviously be nothing to actually manufacture, but it would also cut down on distribution costs. A show wouldn't have the costs of physically mailing badges, and they wouldn't need to hire as many people to work at the convention itself to pass out badges for anyone who doesn't have it mailed to them. Anyone who's been to a larger show has seen the couple dozen people they have just to handle badges; this would effectively get cut down to one guy standing at the entrance checking your phone.
Towards the end of that Beat piece, Heidi mentions, "I’m sure people won’t like it at first, but soon they will forget that there ever was a thing such as attendee badges." I don't think this is quite right. Yes, people won't like it at first and complaints will dwindle over time. But only part of that dwindling levels of complaints will be people 'forgetting' badges were a thing. The other part is that anyone who can't participate in the system will essentially just be excluded from it. They won't complain about problems with the show because they simply weren't able to attend in the first place. It will seem as if people have stopped complaining when, in fact, the ones with the issues will be shut out of the conversation entirely and go unheard. Conventions will basically be forcing their loudest audience to self-select out of the system so they won't be able to offer feedback. That's why complaints will die down before too long.
Yes, there are benefits to digital badges beyond the cost savings to convention organizers. I am 100% on board with not creating a crap-ton more plastic that will largely wind up in a landfill. But eliminating a physical option entirely is going to force out a notable segment of the population. Having an "accomodation" method won't be sufficient and will not work at a larger scale. A digital option is great, but it needs to run in tandem with a physical option in order to not alienate a significant audience.
0 comments:
Post a Comment