BioWare's bizarre Bazaar
#26
Posté 12 avril 2010 - 05:21
I wanted to call your attention to this thread in the social forum..evidently one of the winners that "won" turns out he was playing but not eligible, went ahead and answered the questions etc.
Not sure if you are aware of this, but basically..people should not have done things like this, its kind of hijacking the prize, for a legitimate contestant.
http://social.biowar...6/index/2214955
I'm sure that Bioware has dealt with it however, but nevertheless...
#27
Posté 12 avril 2010 - 05:26
#28
Posté 12 avril 2010 - 05:27
Hellhawx wrote...
BioWare stated in the rules that if a winner is innelgible, the next bidder gets dibs.
Isn't he still listed as a winner ..or is that just CaptPatche's sheet thats wrong?
#29
Posté 12 avril 2010 - 05:30
#30
Posté 12 avril 2010 - 05:37
Hellhawx wrote...
Capt Patche's spreadsheet isn't official.
Uh yeah I know...just attempting to see if he'll change it ..the guy didn't win..he wasn't eligible.
#31
Posté 12 avril 2010 - 05:39
CptPatch wrote...
Social network registration.................1000marquiseondore wrote...
I think you could have started with something closer to 6500 give or take.
Character Creator download................500
DA:O registration/questionnaire........1200
DA:A registration/questionnaire.........1750
ME2 registration/questionnaire.........1500
.......................................................Total:5950
Everything beyond these was referrals and Challenges.
#32
Posté 12 avril 2010 - 05:47
My shortwinded response to this all is that those who tried harder got the prizes. Bioware gave out merch, and all they asked for in return was to generate advertising for them, and the winning of tokens for generating URL referrals was the perfect way to accomplish this.
The only way that bioware really screwed up here is by only having 412 auctions instead of, say, 1500, and increasing the length of the contest / shorter length per auction. This would have fixed almost every problem.
Hopefully they learn from their mistakes.
#33
Posté 12 avril 2010 - 05:50
I´m a Spaniard and I got some stuff from the bazaar.Crixt wrote...
For anyone who hasn't read his article, or any responses to it on the other thread he posted this, there are some good points made (as well as some sour grapes posts) and then a great deal of baseless bashing of Americans.
My shortwinded response to this all is that those who tried harder got the prizes. Bioware gave out merch, and all they asked for in return was to generate advertising for them, and the winning of tokens for generating URL referrals was the perfect way to accomplish this.
The only way that bioware really screwed up here is by only having 412 auctions instead of, say, 1500, and increasing the length of the contest / shorter length per auction. This would have fixed almost every problem.
Hopefully they learn from their mistakes.
#34
Posté 12 avril 2010 - 05:58
Hellhawx wrote...
Well, I wasn't going to actually call out any names for their privacy's sake. But essentially the people signed up the week of 3/29/10 and never registered a game are shifty to me as BioWare fans.
Yeah Bioware should of done some sort of sign up day head start. Like if you signed up around the start of the contest you get 0 points. Then make it curve so it peaks pretty quickly like if you were a member like a month before the contest it would give X amount of points and be capped around that.
#35
Posté 12 avril 2010 - 06:03
However.... Work with this image: You're on a TV game show. You are presented with the option of being on stage, in front of thousands of people in the audience and watching at home, and all you have to do to win the Fabulous Prize is.....strip down to your underwear and crawl around on all fours while squeling like a pig. Those are the rules. _Do you_ do what is required, or do you refuse and go home empty-handed?
This event was very much like that scenario. The rules steered you towards doing something that MANY people find highly objectionable: spamming. MANY people couldn't bring themselves to do that. (Me being one of them.) Many participants did their referral link posting in a mostly restrained and dignified manner. But there is no denying that most (I won't say "all") of the really big accumulaters did so by plastering every location they could access. Whatever it took to win.
Again, the _rules_ actually steered participants in that direction. They did so by improving a participant's chances of winning just by the fact that "More is better". But when all is said and done, it is still the _participant_ that decides whether or not the prize is worth the indignity of "going nekkid in public." Or something along those lines.
Just because it's in the rules does NOT make it The Right Thing To Do.
As for the fact that he knowingly participated when he _knew_ he wouldn't qualify.....I find _that_ to be outrageous. That's because although #2 gets the prize, MANY legitimate participants didn't even get the opportunity to bid. Like, if he bids EVERYTHING as the first bid, every legitimate participant with fewer tokens _can't_ bid. He is, in fact, in that case, _cheating_. (And I seriously hope BW does _something_ appropriate to punish him. But as he has NO registered games, a forum ban probably wouldn't ruffle his feathers any. And that's pretty much the limit of what BW **can** do in the way of a punishment.)
As for database changes: I got my data directly off of the Past Auctions list. The winning bids were accurate right as of the last auction, so if BW made any changes to alternate winners, it was never posted. That is, had the winner changed, the winning bid would _also_ change -- which they didn't. Ergo, BW never posted any changes of winners on the Past Auctions table.
#36
Posté 12 avril 2010 - 06:07
Unfortunately, I don't know who the alternate winner (and his bid amount) is.Feraele wrote...
Hellhawx wrote...
Capt Patche's spreadsheet isn't official.
Uh yeah I know...just attempting to see if he'll change it ..the guy didn't win..he wasn't eligible.
I have done some tweaking since the end of the Bazaar auctions, but most of that is fixing typos or adding clarifications.
Still looking for one winner though.:
Mass Effect T-shirt Pack
11885
Apr 08,
2010 @ 23:30:00
Apr 08,
2010 @ 23:45:00
#37
Posté 12 avril 2010 - 06:12
The beginning of the article was really well written and worth its weight in gold.. Then you get to the end and its stock dropped harder and faster than a lead weight.. Thank you again, for the stimulating read and the wonderful insight to American life..
#38
Posté 12 avril 2010 - 06:14
joey_mork84 wrote...
Wow.. That article really seemed like it was going to be a good read.. Until I got to the end and realized I'm a "greedy, selfish, and childish American".. I suppose that's one way to open that can of worms back up.. It always ends up sounding like Americans told Bioware and EA to do it 'just for us'..
The beginning of the article was really well written and worth its weight in gold.. Then you get to the end and its stock dropped harder and faster than a lead weight.. Thank you again, for the stimulating read and the wonderful insight to American life..
This is word for word exactly how I felt. I felt like he made some great points, then... yeah, totally got preachy and off topic. Nothing like some off-base anti-Americanism.
#39
Posté 12 avril 2010 - 06:50
In terms of the findings, I was not surprised at how much the things went for. I knew that even had I been allowed to participate in the auction, I would not have had enough, since I refuse to use Twitter, or spam people.
It would have been better perhaps for Bioware to have a lottery where each registered game/expansion was a ticket no matter where you were from.
Modifié par fangedwolf, 12 avril 2010 - 06:52 .
#40
Posté 12 avril 2010 - 07:15
When BW told the international BioWare social network that this event would be for Americans only (excluding FL and NY), that put a spotlight on our American-ness, as opposed to our gamer-ness. Immediately, you have nearly all of the non-American BWSN members watching to see how things would go. (If anything, just to see if there were any hints at what would be a winning strategy when their turn came.)
Then participants started to post referral links on practically every forum they could access. MANY of those forums have an international memberships. Then there were a LOT of game-oriented sites -- also with international follwers -- that were following how the Bazaar was proceeding. And because of that BW snafu that restricted participation to the US, viewers from afar were seeing us more as Americans than simply as gamers.
I have not the slightest shred of a doubt that if an identical Bazaar using identical rules runs in another country, that the participants' behavior will also be identical. The rules pretty much guarantees the behavior. BUT those other countries won't be under the nationality spotlight because of that damn snafu.
And I hate to tell you just how many "What is wrong with you Yanks?" emails I got over the last week from my friends and contacts abroad.
In point of fact, quite a few particpants _did_ do their click solicitation in a pretty dignified manner. MOST of them, however, didn't break the 9K threshold. But for however many participants did restrain themselves, there were nonetheless MANY participants that had no compunction at all about spamming. (Or worse.) Those are the folks that are ultimately responsible for all of the bad international PR.
In many ways, this is no different from other high-profile activities. Like, what's the first thought that flashes through your mind when I say, "Liverpool versus Manchester Rugby Finals"? I'd wager that quite a few of you had the word "hooligans" flash through your mind. Is that Liverpool hooligans, or Manchester hooligans? Or is it Rugby that brings out the hooliganism? Whatever the actual case, the truth is that the vast, overwhelming majority of people in Liverpool and Manchester are NOT hooligans. In fact, even the large majority of attendees at the match are not themselves hooligans. Yet, ALL of them are unfairly put under the broad header of "probably hooligans", because of the bad behavior of a nominal few.
Yes, it's grossly unfair to have others that do not know you jump to the conclusion that "Ach, you're probably no better than the rest of that lot." But even being pointedly unfair and not at all correct, it still happens. Because of the many, many, many Bazaar participants that _did_ spam and did post umpteen "Please, please, please click me!" posts on umpteen forums, we _all_ catch the effect of that negative PR image. (Even me -- and I didn't even post any referral links.)
All it would have taken was some self-restraint on their part, to be more dignified (as so many were). Or for BW to seriously crack down on spammers (beyond those that spammed BW forums). But those things didn't happen. [Mainly, because they were most likely doing exactly what BW/EA wanted.] Or maybe if the MANY more mature members of these forums spoke up and demanded that BW crack down on them.... _That_ would have been some seriously major positive PR -- but it didn't happen. That is, we let it happen, comforting ourselves by saying, "Well, at least _I_ know how to maintain a level of decorum!"
So, am I saying that EVERYONE posting referral links were demonstrating just how "greedy", "selfish", and "childish" they were? No, I'm not. But what I am saying is that because of the click-fanatics, there are MANY people elsewhere in the world that _do_ see us that way, and the behavior of the click-fanatics contributes to that view. Oh, no doubt many in foreign lands think that there are Americans that are NOT that way. But usually those add "But those are generally the exceptions."
Modifié par CptPatch, 12 avril 2010 - 07:23 .
#41
Posté 12 avril 2010 - 07:33
Anyone who did anything other than treat it like any other spam and ignore it, letting forum moderators deal with it, which I'll bet is very few, needs to change their priorities.
If ANYTHING, this is a "Bioware fanboys are spammers" issue far more than an "Americans are spammers" issue.
PS. Anyone who had the small number of 50 people per day click their link, along with having the base 6k tokens, had far more than 9k tokens. Having less than that means you didn't care enough to attempt to participate.
Modifié par Crixt, 12 avril 2010 - 07:34 .
#42
Posté 12 avril 2010 - 07:44
#43
Posté 12 avril 2010 - 07:53
#44
Posté 12 avril 2010 - 08:02
If there is a way to complain, people will. I was listening to Activision's in-house journalist Dan Amrich in a podcast. He offered during an interview with a developer to use Twitter so that people could ask questions that they are interested in. Of course, a few pessimists complained that he was trying to get people to do his work for him.
I see a correlation here. Someone does something nice, and people look at only the negative.
[also, I know I posted earlier in this thread, but I now just realised there was an actually article and not just charts, so I skimmed it]
I hope when you (you being anyone complaining about this event) get gifts from people you don't only look at the negative and complain about that. I'm sorry but when reading this article, it pissed me off.
Modifié par Hellhawx, 12 avril 2010 - 08:04 .
#45
Posté 12 avril 2010 - 08:08
Hellhawx wrote...
You know what the real problem is here! That some people are too damn freaking cynical. Oh no! BioWare gave away from stuff in return for some advertising. Big deal, get over it! BioWare stated this isn't the only thing to come.
If there is a way to complain, people will. I was listening to Activision's in-house journalist Dan Amrich in a podcast. He offered during an interview with a developer to use Twitter so that people could ask questions that they are interested in. Of course, a few pessimists complained that he was trying to get people to do his work for him.
I see a correlation here. Someone does something nice, and people look at only the negative.
[also, I know I posted earlier in this thread, but I now just realised there was an actually article and not just charts, so I skimmed it]
I hope when you (you being anyone complaining about this event) get gifts from people you don't only look at the negative and complain about that. I'm sorry but when reading this article, it pissed me off.
^This^.. Pure WIN!
#46
Posté 12 avril 2010 - 08:53
I just put up a poll concerning members' feeling towards the Bazaar and how it went down. Time to go stuff the ballot box! Get enough votes and you'll be able to say, "See?? I _told_ you so!"
#47
Posté 12 avril 2010 - 12:38
CptPatch wrote...
10,229 tokens isn't what you'd call "small change" -- ESPECIALLY with no points for game registration. You must have done something to generate such a big pile. When did you post your first referral link? And where (if you don't mind my prying)?koruthaiolos wrote...
Haha, I was one of the winner's with zero game registrations. (I actually thought I had registered games, since I went through that whole account connecting thing with DA:O and ME2. Only found out today that I hadn't). Also, I answered a total of two challenges (won one), and posted my profile link a grand total of two places. You didn't need to exert a ton of effort or poopsock your way to the top in order to win. You just had to be lucky.
_I believe_ (no access to the rules any longer) that you could start doing links **immediately** after the announcement on March 29th. But I got the impression that most people didn't start their collection until about the 4th or 5th. That gave anyone that made an immediate start a big lead over the other slowpokes.
[In researching the event history I found it humorous that nearly all of the gaming news sites that broadcast the Bazaar commencement almost invariably utilized someone's referral link for the "Read more" links. Not even sure that they were aware that they had done so; they were simply steering people to the Bazaar homepage to get the details first-hand.]
As others mentioned, I did the questionaires to get the registration points. I basically got all my points from a single thread on another forum where everybody agreed to click each other's links each day. I did get in on the 29th which probably helped a lot, but then that still really came down to luck. Also, most days I didn't get anywhere close to the full 500. I also wasn't able to run the character creator on my computer so I didn't get any for that.
Also, there are very few international contests or giveaways. If I'm at a webpage based in another country, I almost always expect not to be able to participate in contests. Most contests aso have certain state exclusions, so I don't really understand getting mad about that. The whole countdown thing was a bit overwrought, but then they needed to generate interest since unless you got in early you didn't really stand a chance.
#48
Posté 12 avril 2010 - 01:16
gcadays99 wrote...
Nevremind read the whole article. Didn't realize you could get more points by registering the games from different mediums. I had 360 and pc version of a coupleoh well.
you couldint, i had two versions of dragon age registered and got nothing
#49
Posté 12 avril 2010 - 05:16
CptPatch wrote...
Well, even in other countries they have these things called "Search Engines". Plug in "BioWare Bazaar" and learn all the details. Which many non-Americans were actually bright enough to do.
Already did that at the beginning of this abomination and (surprise, surprise) I'M AMERICAN. Wanna try again?
#50
Posté 12 avril 2010 - 06:03
Very true. I couldn't confirm that once BW took down the Contest Rules almost immediately after the last auction ended. Several people (such as yourself) set me straight on that score.PSRdirector wrote...
gcadays99 wrote...
Nevremind read the whole article. Didn't realize you could get more points by registering the games from different mediums. I had 360 and pc version of a coupleoh well.
you couldint, i had two versions of dragon age registered and got nothing
The MAX tokens for game registration/questionnaires was 4450. Add 1000 for social sign up and another 500 for downloading the Char Creator/upload a character and the absolute most you could have before Challenge wins and referral clicks was 5950. As the lowest winning bid was 8620, it means that EVERY winner was able to win because of those additional tokens from Challenge wins and referral clicks garnered.




Ce sujet est fermé
Retour en haut






