The BioWare Bazaar thread of get tokens, win auctions, get stuff

[quote name='Swift900']No. It took two seconds to accumulate the 'easy' points (entering UPC codes), and thanks to this thread and the FireFox add-on, it was not too difficult to reach 500 referral tokens on a daily basis. The Twitter contests, while hard to win, were fun and easy to participate in. The only unfortunate thing about this contest was the fact that NY and FL residents could not participate due to specific state laws and regulations. (The BioWare community managers have also said that other countries and regions would see their own specific contests in the near future as to not overlook those valued customers.)

I applaud BioWare for offering this promotion.[/QUOTE]
Oh, I do, too. This was an incredible promotion. But the fact that something like this thread was necessary to get a serviceable number of tokens shows that the system required a fair amount of--for lack of a better term--grinding. That's not a complaint, exactly. It's just a strikingly RPG-like approach to the whole affair.

Like the combat in Mass Effect, the token system isn't bad by any means, but it's undeniably repetitive and unbalanced. I found it a little funny that the troubles with BioWare's otherwise excellent promotion were roughly the same problems that hamper their otherwise excellent games.

I'm not bad-mouting the promotion (or the games) as a whole. Apologies if I sounded like I was.
 
Man, what a load of crap... after watching that last auction, I'm convinced there's some fishy stuff going on there. Two bidders who were both accumulating points IN THE THOUSANDS during the last fifteen minutes of the Bazaar? (There's no way they were holding back their points, because it's the last auction... why would not bid everything you've got?) They were obviously earning one point at a time, though strangely others (like me) have reported that NO referral points have been showing up in their accounts today. I have a hard time believing they each had hundreds and hundreds of people helping them out.

Like many people, I was never able to get anything due to the bids being *just* out of reach. I'm glad many here were able to get some stuff, but that whole setup seems pretty sucky. Why not offer more individual items for auction instead of everything being bundled? I would have been happy to get a single litho, or a single Mass Effect art book, or something like that. Instead, there are only a fraction as many winners, each with lots more stuff. (And no, I wouldn't be singing a different tune if I were one of the winners... all I ever expected was to win a single item... I was disappointed when I found that everything was bundled together.)
 
Yep, major disappointment that they weren't just offering individual items. Obviously the prices are going to stay out of reach when you bundle many things together.

I think if they had approached this differently it would have worked out better for everyone.
 
[quote name='Swift900']No. It took two seconds to accumulate the 'easy' points (entering UPC codes), and thanks to this thread and the FireFox add-on, it was not too difficult to reach 500 referral tokens on a daily basis if people click the links and not just post theirs. The Twitter contests, while hard to win, were fun and easy to participate in. The only unfortunate thing about this contest was the fact that NY and FL residents could not participate due to specific state laws and regulations. (The BioWare community managers have also said that other countries and regions would see their own specific contests in the near future as to not overlook those valued customers.)

I applaud BioWare for offering this promotion.[/QUOTE]

Fixed. The last 24-48 hours all I got was maybe 20 or so points so I know people stopped clicking.
 
[quote name='microcuts777']Yep - no more referral links counting...not in for a PC or Laptop anymore, but I'm eyeballing a couple of other things! Wish me luck, 13,900+ here![/QUOTE]
I hope you were able to score something!
 
[quote name='marginal']Man, what a load of crap... after watching that last auction, I'm convinced there's some fishy stuff going on there. Two bidders who were both accumulating points IN THE THOUSANDS during the last fifteen minutes of the Bazaar? (There's no way they were holding back their points, because it's the last auction... why would not bid everything you've got?) They were obviously earning one point at a time, though strangely others (like me) have reported that NO referral points have been showing up in their accounts today. I have a hard time believing they each had hundreds and hundreds of people helping them out.

Like many people, I was never able to get anything due to the bids being *just* out of reach. I'm glad many here were able to get some stuff, but that whole setup seems pretty sucky. Why not offer more individual items for auction instead of everything being bundled? I would have been happy to get a single litho, or a single Mass Effect art book, or something like that. Instead, there are only a fraction as many winners, each with lots more stuff. (And no, I wouldn't be singing a different tune if I were one of the winners... all I ever expected was to win a single item... I was disappointed when I found that everything was bundled together.)[/QUOTE]

Umm, Merin is the guy who had beat my bid on the last couple of PC/Laptops - he's actually a really nice guy, and helped a lot of other people win. He's a guy who is pretty dedicated to the community on social.bioware.com. They were both just trying to see who was bluffing - Merin had about 14.8k, so when the bid crept to 15.1k I actually felt really bad for him. He walked away with nothing...just like you, and he worked really hard for it.

Also, you should have read the rules better. There were 2100 items across 400 prizes...how would this be a single item auction?

I'm not trying to be a jerk, but you probably shouldn't just point fingers...I had 13959 when I could no longer earn tokens, but it's because about all I did for 11 days was focus on this contest.
 
[quote name='microcuts777']Umm, Merin is the guy who had beat my bid on the last couple of PC/Laptops - he's actually a really nice guy, and helped a lot of other people win. He's a guy who is pretty dedicated to the community on social.bioware.com. They were both just trying to see who was bluffing - Merin had about 14.8k, so when the bid crept to 15.1k I actually felt really bad for him. He walked away with nothing...just like you, and he worked really hard for it.

Also, you should have read the rules better. There were 2100 items across 400 prizes...how would this be a single item auction?

I'm not trying to be a jerk, but you probably shouldn't just point fingers...I had 13959 when I could no longer earn tokens, but it's because about all I did for 11 days was focus on this contest.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, Merin is amazing. He purposely gave up winning the EVERYTHING FROM THE BIOWARE STORE pack and gave it to another person from the community when he easily could have won it. He also gave up several other packs so other people could enjoy it. I felt extremely bad when he didn't win the PC.

Yeah, I wish Bioware put everything up in individual items instead of packs. Why make only 200-400 people happy when they could have made thousands of ppl happy. However, the contest would have gone on forever if they did it that way.

I don't know why I ranted, really?
 
[quote name='microcuts777']Umm, Merin is the guy who had beat my bid on the last couple of PC/Laptops - he's actually a really nice guy, and helped a lot of other people win. He's a guy who is pretty dedicated to the community on social.bioware.com. They were both just trying to see who was bluffing - Merin had about 14.8k, so when the bid crept to 15.1k I actually felt really bad for him. He walked away with nothing...just like you, and he worked really hard for it.

Also, you should have read the rules better. There were 2100 items across 400 prizes...how would this be a single item auction?

I'm not trying to be a jerk, but you probably shouldn't just point fingers...I had 13959 when I could no longer earn tokens, but it's because about all I did for 11 days was focus on this contest.[/QUOTE]

Then my apologies to Merin. While it still sounds like a stupid way to bid on the final item in an auction, if he had fun "bluffing," well, good for him. But I certainly do not feel bad for someone who could have had his choice of 99% of the items available, but decided to risk it on the last one.

And I read the rules just fine. I didn't say I thought this would be a single-item auction. As soon as I saw the breakdown of prizes versus number of auctions, I became worried. However, there was no way of knowing with certainty how they were going to group stuff until the auctions started. I was hoping there would be a good mix, so that people with lower point levels might have a chance at stuff that people with more points wouldn't bother with. The novel packs were about the closest thing to a low-end item that they offered.

If all you did for 11 days was focus on this contest, then congratulations... you deserve your lithos.
 
[quote name='marginal']Then my apologies to Merin. While it still sounds like a stupid way to bid on the final item in an auction, if he had fun "bluffing," well, good for him. But I certainly do not feel bad for someone who could have had his choice of 99% of the items available, but decided to risk it on the last one.

And I read the rules just fine. I didn't say I thought this would be a single-item auction. As soon as I saw the breakdown of prizes versus number of auctions, I became worried. However, there was no way of knowing with certainty how they were going to group stuff until the auctions started. I was hoping there would be a good mix, so that people with lower point levels might have a chance at stuff that people with more points wouldn't bother with. The novel packs were about the closest thing to a low-end item that they offered.

If all you did for 11 days was focus on this contest, then congratulations... you deserve your lithos.[/QUOTE]

Same here. I wish there was a more organized way of sorting the packs =/. The Jade Empire pack was basically, "Here have all of our games bundled up."

All I wanted was one DA shirt. Instead, they throw in, "Here have all of our DA Tshirt for 11-12k tokens =/."
 
Yea i agree with the prizes should have been seperated out in smaller bits to lets everyone win.

Hopefully BioWare can take feedback for a second auction and do this.


Would have been cool for them to somehow reward people who didnt win at all. They worked for what they had 10,000+ people for sure assuming twitter challenges were done.
 
[quote name='the_punisher']Why I regret not buying a Citadel litho when i had the chance...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...5525859&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_642wt_958[/QUOTE]

Wow...

Now I regret not going for them as well. They seem pretty pointless to me, though I guess some collectors would be willing to shell out some serious cash for them. Although I doubt the bids would remain that high once everyone gets their prizes from this promotion.
 
[quote name='Unknown50862']Wow...

Now I regret not going for them as well. They seem pretty pointless to me, though I guess some collectors would be willing to shell out some serious cash for them. Although I doubt the bids would remain that high once everyone gets their prizes from this promotion.[/QUOTE]

Not sure I agree with your logic, Unknown50862. Only 11 prints out of the limited runs of 400 were included in the Bazaar auction. And only a handful of the lithographs were actually included (i.e. I don't believe 'Citadel' or 'Illium' were part of the auction unless they were included in the "one of everything prize").

Anyway, that is a crazy price for the 'Citadel' print, and while that price is steep, I think they will only get higher. I believe the value of these lithographs will keep going up as the Mass Effect Universe grows in popularity. Dark Horse recently announced in a Seattle based Comic Con that Mass Effect will be getting an ongoing comic book series. There is also going to be at least one additional Mass Effect novel coming out. I'd say the prices for these lithographs will peak shortly after ME3 is released and the trilogy is completed.
 
[quote name='DiscoDuck8k']Yep, major disappointment that they weren't just offering individual items. Obviously the prices are going to stay out of reach when you bundle many things together.

I think if they had approached this differently it would have worked out better for everyone.[/QUOTE]


The price in tokens was rather inelastic due to them having no value. This was an all-in only auction. Had there been only one item up for auction, the totals would have only dropped marginally as the number of people that didn't win with 10K or more points likely was in the thousands by the last day. The only good I can see it would have done is maybe more people would have been selective in what they through their tokens in on.
 
[quote name='SomebodyNowhere']So how many people from CAG in total won? from skimming through the thread it is looking like a decent amount.[/QUOTE]

I won a Jade Empire pack. I would have preferred the big book pack because I already have all the games listed, but I panicked and dumped all my points into it. Still a good prize either way.
 
The BioWare Bazaar | Cheap Ass Gamer Winners

Arikado – Dragon Age: Origins Desktop PC
Swift900 – Mass Effect Space Lithograph Pack
Reininop – Mass Effect Character Lithograph Pack
Microcuts777 – Mass Effect Space Lithograph Pack
cali4nic8tor – Bioware Literature Pack
the_punisher – Mass Effect 2 Poster Pack
Vader582 – Mass Effect Statue and Art Book
dogmae – Jade Empire Pack
segabrain – Bioware Literature Pack
wampa8jedi – Mass Effect Statue and Art Book
bogard – Bioware Comic Book Pack
Sdawg – Mass Effect Statue and Art Book
bluexy – Jade Empire Pack
Oddlogik – Mass Effect Novel Pack
rickyff7 – Mass Effect Novel Pack
eugaet – Bioware Literature Pack
unknown50862 – Bioware Literature Pack
Mindlog – Mass Effect 2 Poster Pack
SomebodyNowhere – Jade Empire Pack
danielisawinner – Mass Effect Prequel Pack
rainking187 – Dragon Age Poster Pack
Salamando3000 – Mass Effect 2 Poster Pack
blackvolk – Graphics Card
bigfoot – Western Digital Hard Drive
ohram – Jade Empire Pack
bs000 – Mass Effect 2 Poster Pack
YodaEXE – Dragon Age Pack
Metalic – Dragon Age Shirt Pack
Lawyers Guns N Money – Jade Empire Pack
blueweltall – BioWare Comic Pack
Koopler – ???
[email protected] – Mass Effect Pack
Piccolo – Mass Effect Statue and Art Book

CAG wins / total number of prizes
33/412 = 8%

Congratulations again to all winners!

* If I may have missed you, please reply and/or shoot me a PM and I will add your name to the list. Thanks.
 
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[quote name='SomebodyNowhere']So how many people from CAG in total won? from skimming through the thread it is looking like a decent amount.[/QUOTE]

I think a lot of us won. Atleast 1 person won a computer and then a bunch of people won books, shirts, lithographs.

Edit: Didnt notice there was another page. i feel stupid now.
 
So, does anyone know things such as when/how packages of stuff are shipping? I tried looking around the Bioware site but things seem to have been removed. I'm just curious to know when my stuff is going to be shipped.
 
[quote name='YodaEXE']So, does anyone know things such as when/how packages of stuff are shipping? I tried looking around the Bioware site but things seem to have been removed. I'm just curious to know when my stuff is going to be shipped.[/QUOTE]

The rules said six to eight weeks, but that's pretty much what every contest says. So anywhere between tomorrow and two months from now. I would put my money on around two months from now personally.
 
[quote name='Swift900']The BioWare Bazaar | Cheap Ass Gamer Winners

Arikado – Dragon Age: Origins Desktop PC
Swift900 – Mass Effect Space Lithograph Pack
Reininop – Mass Effect Character Lithograph Pack
Microcuts777 – Mass Effect Space Lithograph Pack
cali4nic8tor – Bioware Literature Pack
the_punisher – Mass Effect 2 Poster Pack
Vader582 – Mass Effect Statue and Art Book
dogmae – Jade Empire Pack
segabrain – Bioware Literature Pack
wampa8jedi – Mass Effect Statue and Art Book
bogard – Bioware Comic Book Pack
Sdawg – Mass Effect Statue and Art Book
bluexy – Jade Empire Pack
Oddlogik – Mass Effect Novel Pack
rickyff7 – Mass Effect Novel Pack
eugaet – Bioware Literature Pack
unknown50862 – Bioware Literature Pack
Mindlog – Mass Effect 2 Poster Pack
SomebodyNowhere – Jade Empire Pack
danielisawinner – Mass Effect Prequel Pack
rainking187 – Dragon Age Poster Pack
Salamando3000 – Mass Effect 2 Poster Pack
blackvolk – Graphics Card
bigfoot – Western Digital Hard Drive
ohram – Jade Empire Pack
bs000 – Mass Effect 2 Poster Pack
YodaEXE – Dragon Age Pack

Congratulations again to all winners!

* If I may have missed you, please reply and/or shoot me a PM and I will add your name to the list. Thanks.[/QUOTE]


I won a Dragon Age Shirt pack.




[quote name='YodaEXE']So, does anyone know things such as when/how packages of stuff are shipping? I tried looking around the Bioware site but things seem to have been removed. I'm just curious to know when my stuff is going to be shipped.[/QUOTE]

6-8 weeks i remember reading.
 
I also met a good 10 - 12 nice people thanks to this little thing. We chatted for 5 days straight, helped each other out and rooted one another on. A pretty cool thing to happen as a result of what were essentially bidding wars. Good community here at CAG.
 
[quote name='ohram']I won a Jade Empire pack. I would have preferred the big book pack because I already have all the games listed, but I panicked and dumped all my points into it. Still a good prize either way.[/QUOTE]

lol I won the BioWare Literature pack, but would have preferred the Jade Empire pack. :p
 
I wouldn't have minded one of the game packs, if the gamers weren't all for PC. Wasn't there supposed to be some X360 copies of Dragon Age? I don't recall ever seeing them in any of the auctions. That is, unless you get to choose your version.
 
I regret not attempting the Twitter challenges until the last day. I ended up with only 9510 tokens and didn't win anything. The closest I came was some auctions in the middle of the night while I was driving my shift in a road trip.
 
[quote name='Unknown50862']I wouldn't have minded one of the game packs, if the gamers weren't all for PC. Wasn't there supposed to be some X360 copies of Dragon Age? I don't recall ever seeing them in any of the auctions. That is, unless you get to choose your version.[/QUOTE]

One of the pictures was wrong. The DA:O pack actually included the Xbox 360 game, not the PC game as the picture indicated...according to some forum posts. Remember that we have to wait 6-8 weeks now, so no one will even know for a month minimum.

The PC games were always listed as "Mass Effect PC" "Dragon Age: Origins PC" etc, but that DA:O Pack, didn't have 'PC' listed after the mention of the game - it just said "and a copy of Dragon Age: Origins"

Just another thing that probably could have been done a liiiiitle bit better with the Bazaar.
 
Just another thing that probably could have been done a liiiiitle bit better with the Bazaar.
Click to expand...

Yeah, there are a lot of things that could've been handled a little bit better, especially if you see all the complaint threads in the official forums. I can say that I actually enjoyed it thanks to this community helping me get something out of it, but obviously a lot of people are gonna be furious with it. Hell, I would be too if I accumulated all those points without getting to spend them. I actually kept track of the rest of the bids after I won, and I saw that I could have only won one character poster pack had I not spent my points on that lit pack.

Here's hoping that their next community giveaway event will improve upon this last one (and that we'll gather again for that one to help each other out).
 
Before this thread closes, did anyone help "Koopler" get his stuff shipped? I assume that someone who DIDN'T win would have to do this because those who did win will already be having things shipped and it could look suspicious...

Just wondering...
 
[quote name='microcuts777']Before this thread closes, did anyone help "Koopler" get his stuff shipped? I assume that someone who DIDN'T win would have to do this because those who did win will already be having things shipped and it could look suspicious...

Just wondering...[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I PM'd him and he said he got someone.

Wow, almost 10% were CAG's, go us :)
 
[quote name='Swift900']The BioWare Bazaar | Cheap Ass Gamer Winners

Arikado – Dragon Age: Origins Desktop PC
Swift900 – Mass Effect Space Lithograph Pack
Reininop – Mass Effect Character Lithograph Pack
Microcuts777 – Mass Effect Space Lithograph Pack
cali4nic8tor – Bioware Literature Pack
the_punisher – Mass Effect 2 Poster Pack
Vader582 – Mass Effect Statue and Art Book
dogmae – Jade Empire Pack
segabrain – Bioware Literature Pack
wampa8jedi – Mass Effect Statue and Art Book
bogard – Bioware Comic Book Pack
Sdawg – Mass Effect Statue and Art Book
bluexy – Jade Empire Pack
Oddlogik – Mass Effect Novel Pack
rickyff7 – Mass Effect Novel Pack
eugaet – Bioware Literature Pack
unknown50862 – Bioware Literature Pack
Mindlog – Mass Effect 2 Poster Pack
SomebodyNowhere – Jade Empire Pack
danielisawinner – Mass Effect Prequel Pack
rainking187 – Dragon Age Poster Pack
Salamando3000 – Mass Effect 2 Poster Pack
blackvolk – Graphics Card
bigfoot – Western Digital Hard Drive
ohram – Jade Empire Pack
bs000 – Mass Effect 2 Poster Pack
YodaEXE – Dragon Age Pack
Metalic – Dragon Age Shirt Pack
Lawyers Guns N Money – Jade Empire Pack
blueweltall – BioWare Comic Pack
Koopler - ???

CAG wins / total number of prizes
31/412 = 7.5%

Congratulations again to all winners!

* If I may have missed you, please reply and/or shoot me a PM and I will add your name to the list. Thanks.[/QUOTE]

I won a Mass Effect pack. I really wanted a hoody, but they were always just out of my reach so I kinda settled. I might sell it and put the money towards the hoody anyway...
 
[quote name='[email protected]']I won a Mass Effect pack. I really wanted a hoody, but they were always just out of my reach so I kinda settled. I might sell it and put the money towards the hoody anyway...[/QUOTE]

The best part about those hoodies - they only had "Large" size...
 
[quote name='microcuts777']The best part about those hoodies - they only had "Large" size...[/QUOTE]

You sure about that? I thought I remembered reading all of the shirts that were winnable would be shipped in whatever size you wanted. I'm assuming it would be the same for the hoodies.
 
[quote name='Piccolo']Well, I was able to score the Mass Effect art book with a nice looking Shepard Statue.[/QUOTE]

That statue was pretty nice. Will make a nice collectible. :)
 
So, has anyone received anything in the way of confirmation of their address or anything? So far, I've only received notices that I've won and an auto-reply from their email account, but nothing else.
 
[quote name='Salamando3000']So, has anyone received anything in the way of confirmation of their address or anything? So far, I've only received notices that I've won and an auto-reply from their email account, but nothing else.[/QUOTE]
Nope that's it for me. I'm expecting the next notification we get will be the box on our doorsteps.:)
 
[quote name='dogmae']The T-Shirt packs said to pick your size, the hoodies didn't mention it, but I also assumed you would be able to pick[/QUOTE]
The winning confirmation message I got said if you won a clothing item, include the size in the email to them.
 
[quote name='Lawyers Guns N Money']The winning confirmation message I got said if you won a clothing item, include the size in the email to them.[/QUOTE]

ohh shit i never included the size. They didnt tell me that. Time to e-mail them again i guess. Would suck to get a small.
 
[quote name='Arikado']You sure about that? I thought I remembered reading all of the shirts that were winnable would be shipped in whatever size you wanted. I'm assuming it would be the same for the hoodies.[/QUOTE]

Well, in the store anyway, the only size hoody available was 'large'
 
[quote name='microcuts777']Well, in the store anyway, the only size hoody available was 'large'[/QUOTE]
That was probably all they had left at the time that you looked. I ordered one a while back and got a medium. Nice hoody too.
 
[quote name='microcuts777']I also met a good 10 - 12 nice people thanks to this little thing. We chatted for 5 days straight, helped each other out and rooted one another on. A pretty cool thing to happen as a result of what were essentially bidding wars. Good community here at CAG.[/QUOTE]

The chat was quite entertaining at times.

Almost....

NOOOOOOOO!

Nice to see a lot of CAG winners.
 
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