76 réponses à ce sujet

[cynicalsaint1]

What did you think was going to happen? There's like just over 400 prizes.

Somehow I doubt that encompasses the majority of BioWare's fans.

You have the same 5950 that EVERYONE got, it was always going to be the referral links that decided things. Unless you got lucky enough to win a crazy number of the twitter challenges.

[CptPatch]

As of a moment ago, of the last 50+ auctions, the lowest bid to win _anything_ was 9515 tokens.

The big winners in this "EPIC" event, meant for everyone supposedly, are those people that have big TWITter and Facebook Friends networks.  Given that Facebook is by far the LARGEST social network on the planet, we are most likely seeing several thousands of gamers with HUMONGOUS Friends networks.  Meaning that if you're not one of them, you're unlikely to get squat out of this event (other than a s***load of frustration).

In calculating probable point accumulations during the design phase of putting the Bazaar together, the BW folks MUST have realized just who it was that would be amassing those big point totals -- meaning what is transpiring now was actually BW's intention all along.  Or else it means that the event organizers are total idiots for not having anticipated just how lopsided the bidding was going to be.  Either way, it speaks poorly for BW's planning team.  Add to this the snafu about realizing just _hours_ before event launch that there would be these "legal complications" that would restrict the event to just US residents not in FL or NY.  Combine those two aspects and it starts looking like idiocy rules supreme.

So, we have this "Epic community event" meant for EVERYBODY.  Except anyone not in the US.  Or Florida.  Or New York.  Or who doesn't have a Facebook _and_ TWITter accounts.  Or who isn't an uber-networker on those accounts.  What percentage of the total community just got cut out of the action?  40%?  50%?  60%?  70%?  80%?

Doesn't it just seem like BioWare/EA is just managing to ****** off most of their customer base lately?  Is it deliberate, meant to see just what it takes to get people to swear off of BW entirely?  Or will they keep on buying the games no matter what?  Or are the various project leaders ALL idiots with no talent for contingency planning?  It befuddles me to experience some damn fine games, and then have to experience all this other crap.  Makes me think of Jekyll and Hyde.

Modifié par CptPatch, 07 avril 2010 - 04:55 .

[Pacifien]

I gave up on the referral links and eventually the Twitter contests because I realized it wasn't any fun to do either, and I'm rather pissed off at myself for having taken so long to come to that conclusion.



Good in theory perhaps. Hand out free tokens to bid on free stuff. Build the buzz for Bioware. Not so good in practice. People gaming the system, creating the sort of buzz for Bioware that would make Evony proud.



There is one game I'm playing with the auctions, which is to occasionally check in on it to see if there will ever be a time when my tokens could have won me something. I think I have enough to win an N7 sticker. Or even better, a mouse pad. I can sit my trackball on it.

[Dudebag]

Are you guys honestly surprised? I mean I could have told you this was going to happen from the very start.



Unless people are holding onto their tokens for a shot at the bigger prizes of course they are going throw all of their tokens at any prize they can get, there are way less prizes than there are people bidding and considering that these people got their tokens pretty much for free and that their only use is to bid on this auction why hang on to them?



I can pretty much guarantee that nobody will win more than 1 prize so if there is a prize you want you might as well throw all of your tokens at it, if you dont win it just throw your tokens at anything you can.



@OP at 5950 you have pretty much no chance of winning anything so you might as well throw your tokens at anything and everything you can and hope for the best, as far as you are concerned even a N7 sticker would be better than nothing.

[CptPatch]

astraeos wrote...

wtfhammer wrote...
Not when a company can slight its customers like this.

At least they did something.  Plus unless I'm wrong this is supposed to be a year long celebration, so they might give some more suff away.  It doesn't really make sense to say you won't buy one of their games because you don't like the way they're giving stuff away.

It's not precisely "giving stuff away"; it's more of an exchange:  BW doles out a bunch of odds and ends -- most of which is actually advertising material -- (AND was mostly paid for by the Bazaar sponsors).  In return, tens of thousands of people give back a MASSIVE amount of free advertising _and_ one HUMONGOUS Marketing mailing list.  (Every one of those link clicks traces back to an email address/ping address.)

In a totally objective view of this event, I have to say that whoever came up with the idea for this event is just downright brilliant.  In materials, manhours, and advertising, they've spent at most several tens of thousands of dollars -- much of which is offset by sponsor contributions.  In return they will be getting MILLIONS of dollars of free advertising and a gigantic mailing list that they will be able to sell over and over again to umpteen scores of other companies.

[Dudebag]

wtfhammer wrote...

AshedMan wrote...

wtfhammer wrote...
I'm not buying another Bioware game ever.

Now that's just being silly.  A true BioWare fan could give a crap about the auction.  All we really care about are the games!  

Not when a company can slight its customers like this.

Now that is just stupid, how did they slight you? Would you be happier if Bioware did nothing at all?

Sure the auction is a farce and you have little to no chance at winning anything but then why does Bioware owe you free stuff? Hell I am an Australian and I am excluded from the competiton altogtether but do you see me ****ing and moaning? At least you were able to take part in the auction.

Bioware doesnt owe you anything nor do you owe Bioware anything so grow up and stop crying over nothing. 

[Azure33]

Yeah, god forbid you would need to put in a minimal amount of work. I can't understand why they wouldn't just mail a top of the line gaming computer to your house beause you bought Dragon Age.



Shocking really.....

[Maria Caliban]

sadmouse wrote...

 C: By now we have to assume that almost no one has enough points for two auction wins.  Not much reason to hold back(not like the points have value).

This is it. Someone would need at least 20k to win two auctions.

[Nyila]

The Twitter thing is what makes me wonder the most.. Why did BioWare create the BioWare Social Network if we have to go to another social network to get news and win tokens?



I kinda feel left out, just because I don't have a Twitter account, even though I log onto the BSN everyday, I am not a full member of this community..

[Zombie Vajini]

To waste more time on this... or to not waste more time.

[magechron]

Wait a sec people in FL and NY are not allowed to participate? Whar is this posted?

[Leshrac369]

Well its annoying that the 10k people are winning things. But my thoughts is that this is a 4 day auction. The high scoring people are blowing their wad every time..they will run out and then it will come down to the rest of us.

[Azure33]

Nyila wrote...

The Twitter thing is what makes me wonder the most.. Why did BioWare create the BioWare Social Network if we have to go to another social network to get news and win tokens?

I kinda feel left out, just because I don't have a Twitter account, even though I log onto the BSN everyday, I am not a full member of this community..

Sooo get a Twitter account, or send the link to your entire e-mail box, or post it on a busy message board.

[CptPatch]

Leshrac369 wrote...

Well its annoying that the 10k people are winning things. But my thoughts is that this is a 4 day auction. The high scoring people are blowing their wad every time..they will run out and then it will come down to the rest of us.

There's, what? 412 items?  Do you really think that there's fewer than 412 people that have over 9K in tokens?  I'm inclined to believe that given the BSN population, and the percentage of US citizens (excluding FL and NY) that have Facebook accounts (which is easily in the tens of millions), odds are that the number of people with >9K tokens will be in the thousands.

[CptPatch]

Azure33 wrote...

Nyila wrote...

The Twitter thing is what makes me wonder the most.. Why did BioWare create the BioWare Social Network if we have to go to another social network to get news and win tokens?

I kinda feel left out, just because I don't have a Twitter account, even though I log onto the BSN everyday, I am not a full member of this community..

Sooo get a Twitter account, or send the link to your entire e-mail box, or post it on a busy message board.

In other words, let all your "friends" know just how much you value their friendship by spamming the hell out of them.  All so you stand a chance to "win" a poster or something else as trivial.

[neubourn]

Yeah, i agree with the OP. I registered all my games, and even did a few referral links, and am sitting on about 5900 tokens, and while i never expected to be in range for a computer or something cool like that, i figured i would have a shot at some books or tee shirts or posters or something.



But alas, i guess as a loyal BioWare customer who is not cool enough for link spamming, i am out of the running for the auction. It really is quite depressing. What they shouldve done was cap the referrals to maybe 1 token per click, maxed out at 500 TOTAL. But, they did it so random people will be drawn into their website, so all this link spamming is just free promotion for BioWare really, and i guess thats what the auction really boils down to: not rewarding loyal customers, but instead rewarding people who are generating views for BioWare.

[ice445]

I agree that this is mostly crap. I went into this with about 7500 tokens at least expecting to be able to BID on something. But you can't even do that. What a waste of time.

[Varenus Luckmann]

You seem to think that the contest has anything to do with 'fun', when in fact, the only thing it has anything to do with is EA getting exposition.

[mikalof]

the part that i really think is messed up is people can STILL get auction tokens, so the hardcore spammers will be able to get a bunch more tokens, while the rest of us are just waiting for the top bid to get below 9k

[superkoolstud]

I wish I got points for multiple copies of Dragon Age and ME2.

I do agree people who don't own DA or ME2 should not be allowed to participate.

However atleast most of the prizes can be bought online.

Modifié par superkoolstud, 07 avril 2010 - 09:36 .

[deathguild]

a person has already won 2 auctions by the way

[Mahngiel]

Many of you are taking the wrong approach or reading into what many of the posters are saying the wrong way. It's not that people are upset about not "getting something for free".  What upsets them is the pure principle of being led to believe that as consumers, fans, and members of Bioware's products they would have a chance to bid on some trivial trinket or a even a book. The intent was for the fans, not the social network adept.

To quote Bioware, "To show our appreciation of fan support over the last 15 years, we have
created the BioWare Bazaar!" 

Dark Jayer wrote: "This was a marketing ploy to get everyone in the eligible area at least
to go out and advertise all over the internet for basically free. EA
and Bioware hooked all of you. Yes there is an auction with some stuff
to potentially win free but it was mostly a Spam-Ad campaign."

If Jayder (and most of the community  members) is(are) correct, Bioware is indeed a malicious company with no qualms about deceitfully leading their fanbase / consumers.

wtfhammer wrote: "I'm not buying another Bioware game ever... not when a company can slights its customers like this"

Now, I don't fully believe Bioware is this evil engine of malice, intent on deceiving its fanbase.  I, like many others, am just irked that an event intended for us fans was ruined by the ability to spam their advertising.

mikwill wrote: "I was a fan of the concept, but not the implementation."

In the end, I still like their games, and would not think twice of buying a new title.

Zombi Vajini: "I support AshedMan. This uber fail of an auction does not take away from
the entertainment and content that is in the games that 'inspired' this
auction. It would be a shame to let something as trivial as this keep
you from playing a game that would be a classic because BioWare is more
than capable of producing more games of that caliber."

In the end, those of us who never get a bid in, wether we have 1,500 or 7,000 are curious what will become of our tokens.  Whether they allow us to to turn into cash shop items, they disappear, or if Bioware has future plans for them, I just hope it is done with a bit more focus on the community rather than the potential page views of games that are quite popularly known anyhow.

*Steps down from pulpit* Thanks for reading.

[Kohaku]

I love Bioware. Don't get me wrong but the overall scheme of this thing is free advertising. Hands down. Most of the websites people are getting banned from are miffed because people are advertising on their website. This is all it is.

[Mahngiel]

Kerridan Kaiba wrote...

I love Bioware. Don't get me wrong but the overall scheme of this thing is free advertising. Hands down. Most of the websites people are getting banned from are miffed because people are advertising on their website. This is all it is.

Do you find it callous that they marketed this as 'for the fans'?