BioWare Countdown Ends, BioWare Blows Up - UPDATED

[PedroSteckecilo]

I think the Bioware Community has summed it up best. It's not the contest itself, it's not even the availability of the contest, it was the fact that they were generally hyping it AND THEN telling a massive portion of their community that they weren't eligible for the contest.

It's essentially "Everyone! Be Excited! Were you all excited! Good, it only matters for half of you, the rest of you? Fuck off!"

 

[Erniesrubberduk]

This smells of EA crap just a little bit

 

[ALKATRAZACAZ]

A little bit disappointed, i was hoping it was a game but oh well, life goes on.

 

[Superasil]

This Contest is only open to residents of the 50 United States(...)

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

anyway... why the fuck not Canada? or anywhere else for that matter.

 

[Eleima]

Bioware Forums are funny right now xD

They should've gone with the "Game Announcement" idea, now this totally backfired, good work EA

Yup! Forums are hilarious, completely awash with protest, not all of them civil, but still funny... I've claimed my own signature (see above), and have joined the disappointed fans (but I still love them for all the great games BioWare has given us, damn it, I just can't hate them).
Star Wars MMO beta would've been more popular, or at least a forewarning that not all would be eligible for this *cough*momentous*cough* event...
*sigh* PR is going to have a hard time cleaning up after this one... (Wait, do they even *have* PR?)

 

[Shycte]

Damn, I sure hate those american-exclusive contests!

I think that's racist!

 

[Quay]

You guys shouldn't blame Bioware for location specific contests, blame the stupid laws in the places you live. Here is an article about Florida, New York, and Quebec, but I'm sure you could find similar laws elsewhere. http://www.theonlinemarketingguy.com/category/contests/

If you are really upset by this kind of thing, write to your representative in your government and try to get the laws changed.

 

[Susan Arendt]

Sarcasm is more than a little hypocritical here, given the wonderful, hitchless performance of this site whenever a new Zero Punctuation is released...

Oh snap!

Seriously though, at least the site doesn't melt! Bioware have a lot more moolah for this kind of thing too.

Oh, we definitely feel their pain, but at the same time, they have, shall we say, a wee bit more cash than we do. Though now I am kind of wondering which group is more passionate: ZP fans or BioWare fans?

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

Thanks for that Quay, very informative...

Still doesn't explain why the rest of Canada is excluded, my guess is shipping.

 

[Deathfish15]

I think the Bioware Community has summed it up best. It's not the contest itself, it's not even the availability of the contest, it was the fact that they were generally hyping it AND THEN telling a massive portion of their community that they weren't eligible for the contest.

It's essentially "Everyone! Be Excited! Were you all excited! Good, it only matters for half of you, the rest of you? Fuck off!"

That's not it at all. The main issue is international shipping and regulation laws. The PC's, for example, are sophisticated electronic equipment that cannot be exported out of the country to a number of other countries as well as has to get a license from HLS (Home Land Security) to ship it to friendly countries. As for the T-shirts, games, lithographs and other stuff, I think that's just shipping itself.

But ya, there are reasons behind this and it's not just a middle finger to their international communities, as you assume it is.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

I think the Bioware Community has summed it up best. It's not the contest itself, it's not even the availability of the contest, it was the fact that they were generally hyping it AND THEN telling a massive portion of their community that they weren't eligible for the contest.

It's essentially "Everyone! Be Excited! Were you all excited! Good, it only matters for half of you, the rest of you? Fuck off!"

That's not it at all. The main issue is international shipping and regulation laws. The PC's, for example, are sophisticated electronic equipment that cannot be exported out of the country to a number of other countries as well as has to get a license from HLS (Home Land Security) to ship it to friendly countries. As for the T-shirts, games, lithographs and other stuff, I think that's just shipping itself.

But ya, there are reasons behind this and it's not just a middle finger to their international communities, as you assume it is.

I was well aware that it was probably shipping issues as soon as they announced that it was US Only, but because the countdown was ambiguous and spread across their entire site with no indication of restriction it certainly FEELS like a middlefinger to the international members of their community. Especially us Canadians, since we've always considered Bioware "hometown heroes" combine this with the fact that it's in "Celebration of their 15th Anniversary" and 15 years ago they were founded IN CANADA it starts to feel a bit like a deliberate insult.

 

[asinann]

How is a US exclusive prize auction an "Epic community event"? It doesn't only exclude the country where the company originated, but all the rest of the world, that's a pretty sizeable chunk of the community right there.

Not to mention that something like this hardly needed a countdown. March Mayhem was announced well ahead of time to get people preparing, you'd think something like this would have the same response, they have just pissed off most non-Americans and everyone hoping for a new game/DLC announcement.

Free Prizes are great and all, but that's a huge amount of exclusion and an insane amount of hype for something like this.

Contest rules are different everywhere, so they went to the place with the largest population that had the most consistent rule set. New York and Florida were excluded as well because their rules for contests like this are so different from the rest of the US.

 

[wench]

Ah, well. I was looking forward to seeing what was up, but I'm not too disappointed. =) It would have been nice if they had put a note on the countdown, but then again it wouldn't have built up as much hype if it had been known it was going to be a contest.

 

[Lonan]

Unfortunately (and rather ironically, given that BioWare is based in Edmonton), the Bazaar is only open to residents of the U.S.

They sold out to EA, remember. They did it so whenever they needed to do something with money, they could just push it through that "games for zombies" mega-corp. Therefore, they're doing this contest through EA. Words cannot describe my opinion of Bioware for doing that. I hope they'll try to buy themselves back somehow.

 

[DustyDrB]

Not joining Twitter, no matter what.

 

[brodie21]

they should have claimed that they planned the crash, just to mess with the heads of all of their fans

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

I have said it before, but it warrents saying again;

It appears America is the only country on the planet.

 

[McNinja]

I like how the "community event" only includes 48 out of the 50 United States. Bioware has some work to do on which things to label as "epic" and which ot label as "relatively pointless and will make you the scorn of most Mass Effect gamers for the next month or three."

I was pretty psyched for this, then they drop a Piece of s**t like this. I couldn't care less about a freaking bazaar, I care about the game!

 

[SturmDolch]

I could bus to Bioware headquarters in half an hour but I can't play in their contest? Argh. Oh well, I guess it would have cost more to include your Canadian brethren and it would seem unfair to only include the other Edmontonians.