'BioWare Bazaar' announced; online auction tied to community challenges

by Randy Nelson on Mar 29th 2010 1:30PM

A recent countdown clock on BioWare's Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2 websites fueled speculation by some that an announcement -- maybe even a big one -- about one or both (or neither) games was imminent. Now that the timer has expired, we know that it's actually something very different: An online auction of 412 various BioWare items (ranging from custom PCs to Jade Empire mousepads) that the developer has dubbed the "BioWare Bazaar."

Although the estimated value of the items up for auction tops $62,000, participants will actually bid on them using virtual tokens earned through "challenges" that can be entered by following @biofeed on Twitter. This feed will also provide specifics of the various auctions, which are set to begin at 9:00 a.m. PDT on Tuesday, April 5 and run roughly every 15 minutes through 4:00 p.m. PDT on Saturday, April 10. According to the fine print, the auction is open to residents of "the 50 United States and the District of Columbia with the exception of residents of Florida and New York." You also need to be 18 or older to participate.

A full list of items up for auction can be found here. Thoughts?

Source

Tags: auction, bioware, bioware-bazaar, community, ea, electronic-arts, Microsoft, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (48)

This is decidedly less awesome that I had hoped. -_-

My thoughts is that, as usual, for bioware european customers are second rate customers.

It's all to do with contest law and tax treatments. The reason the US gets all the love is it's the largest bloc that can be lumped together using a single contest rule. Getting a contest to work in Europe is effectively impossible without operating one individually in each nation.

Also, not all the US gets to enjoy this either as it isn't open to Florida (my state) or New York residents, again due to differing contest laws.

@Abriael

Nah. Just you.

That's why, instead of this stupid idea, if they wanted to celebrate their anniversary, they could have made something that involved everyone. But no, having to wait more to play their games isn't enough of a slight, it seems.

So much hype for a punch in the face to half of the community. Good job.

You guys have been getting all the special editions lately, now it's payback time.

Your laws are the reason you can't get everything we get here. Just like the US doesn't get everything the European's get in life. You guys need to stop blaming companies and just accept that there are more powerful reasons than just trying to hurt your feelings.

Special editions of what? The european digital collector's edition of Dragon Age didn't even have all the items the american one had.

Heavy Rain, FFXIII, the better CE for Splinter Cell Conviction, all kinds of system bundles...

Well being that BioWare is a Canadian company it makes sense that this is only offered in the USA.

/confused-face

BioWare is US owned...

I think that the promotion is actually run by EA.
At least from what I saw. In the rules it says workers or relatives of EA are not allowed to partake in this.

@Dr. Blight [Team SEGA!] So basically we should feel lucky because for a couple of games we get to spend more for some cheap swag (and absolutely no in-game content), only one I'm not sure about is Conviction, since I'm not very interested in a Metal Gear Solid copycat with a lesser story and that only does 576p.
In the meanwhile we're excluded from 80% of the promotions, we pay more for hardware and games, we get to play 80% of the games later, a lot of games don't even get published here (Demon's Souls, Sky Crawlers, more or less the whole Asus and NIS catalogue, and quite a lot of others), we have to bear with sub-par localizations...
Yep, sure, time for payback. Oh wait...

@Dr. Blight,

Being owned by an American company does not make Bioware an American company. That's why the term "wholly owned subsidiary" is used. They're incorporated as an individual entity, the laws affect them as such, but they are completely owned (100% share) by another company.

If I were to sell Canadian maple syrup to someone in Maine, it wouldn't suddenly become American maple syrup.

In summary: I wish I could participate!

This is just a little -

*puts on sunglasses

- bizarre.

http://ingresstech.com/~bernard/instantCSI/

Brother Pele's in the back
Sweet Seena's in the front
Cruising down the freeway
In the hot, hot sun

No European love. :(

No Canadian love either from the looks of it. I can see the Bioware studio from my office and I can't be involved?

Blame your laws, not poor BioWare.

I would like to blame my laws, Blight. I live in Florida. Damn you laws!!!

...do you think my governor would take me seriously if I sent him a letter kindly asking him to make this contest legal for me to enter?

@Xoonaka:

I'd love to know the specific reason Florida is banned from this. This state just slides further and further down the toilet as time wears on.

Despite two of their three locations being in Canada, this is not open to Canadians. Boo.

Well, I guess now I don't have to worry about sitting around collecting tokens.

No love for Europe? Boo.

I'd like the Normandy ballcap...

I was hoping for some crossover game, perhaps to compete with this weeks DOA Paradise. Bioware's latest epic: MassAge, featuring Miranda and Broodmother.

First one yay, second one *vomits*

Miranda = mAss Effect.
Broodmother = Gross.

Both combined would be interesting.

@Marty
http://www.halolz.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/halolz-dot-com-masseffect2-datasseffect.jpg

Bah! No New York loving.

Not what I was expecting, but still cool. Already got almost 4,000 tokens!

This was interesting till I saw nobody in Florida can get anything.

Damn you Florida with your good Death Metal.

So this is what finally gets me to sign up for twitter? Any other good twitter contests I should be aware of?

My first thought on hearing Bioware-Bizarre:

Geometry Wars RPG

"To show our appreciation of fan support and to celebrate the 15th anniversary of BioWare, we have created the BioWare Bazaar."

In addition, if you live in Florida, New York, the District of Columbia or outside the U.S. we really don't appreciate you that much. For the rest, you can look forward to Bioware and EA looking to provide even more U.S. only promotions like the very successful Dr. Pepper downloadable content giveaway.

don't forget the alienware one :D *US ONLY!*

Yeah I started at 6000+ tokens and will be at 7k by the end of the day at this rate.

For more info on the competition to win, http://social.bioware.com/brc/1688753

Cheap attempt there.

I'll click your link if you click mine!

http://social.bioware.com/brc/1687721

Cant let you have all the fun Tada.

Canada, New York, Florida, and the rest of the world are excluded. Way to go, EA. Way to ruin BioWare.

You should see the reaction on the BioWare forums. I have never seen so many angry people in all my life.

I can't believe they put up a countdown for this...

Cheapness is as cheapness does.

As much as I love Bioware, my hatred for Twitter (and lack of friends) won't allow me to play.

*sigh*
*frown*

Europeans shafted? what about us fking canadians?!?! shipping cant be the problem cuz its almost the same price... international regulations maybe??? damn this sucks.(not that I was going to buy anything even if I could.. but still haha)

Dear Bioware,

I love your games but please don't create a countdown for anything this lame in the future. Thanks.

-Your fans.

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'BioWare Bazaar' announced; online auction tied to community challenges

Reader Comments (48)

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