People are dicks, true. People would find a reason to complain even if everything was perfect all the time, true. So why should we bother with anything at all ? I mean, let's all just accept everything as is instead of wasting time and energy pointing out the injustices and the bullshit. If those injustices and bullshit were somehow corrected next time around, people would bitch about something else, right ? So, why bother at all ?

Speaking of Biowares contest, here's my link dudes, please click it anyway
http://social.bioware.com/brc/808609

Um, why?

Auctions? AUCTIONS? AUCTIONS?
You suck so much BioWare. Until you have a new game and/or expansion to announce, hold your noise.
I can't say I was particularly excited about this announcement to begin with, but it would have been nice to hear about some substantial development.
Oh, and if good luck caring about this announcement if you're anywhere outside the US (or even in Florida or New York, for some reason).

This was just posted over there
"Hi everyone -


The BioWare Bazaar was launched this week as the start of a year-long celebration around BioWare’s 15th anniversary.
We recognize that BioWare has a global community, and the Bazaar this week was originally intended to be an international event to reflect our truly global fanbase. Unfortunately, we encountered some last-minute legal complications around how contests can be structured in different parts of the world that prevented us from including all territories in this first event, even though that was our original goal. And for that, we sincerely apologize – our goal with this sort of celebration is to show all our fans worldwide how much we appreciate your support!
BioWare definitely really values all members of our world-wide Community, no matter where you live. Accordingly, in the coming weeks, we will be announcing details about future events specifically for fans living in those territories which were excluded from participating in the first BioWare Bazaar. The future events will be a bit different from the first Bazaar in how they’re set up and structured, but our goal is to feature the same caliber of awesome prizes and great BioWare collectibles. We’ll announce more details in the coming weeks :)
The reception from those fans who have been able to take part in this first event has been incredible – thank you for participating! - and we’re looking forward to future events where we can enable fans from additional territories to also join in the fun.
Thank you all for your continued and ongoing support and participation in the BioWare Community – we really appreciate all your support over the past 15 years, and the future will be even brighter!
Sincerely,
Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk
Co-founders, BioWare"

^^
Now thats all that was needed. If that was in the competition FAQ from the start it would have smoothed things over considerably. It's probably complete rubbish just to cover their own arses but thats not the point. We LIKE Bioware and we don't want to be hurling pitchforks at them when we could be doing it to Ubisoft.

The only bit i care about in that statement : "we sincerely apologize". The rest, well, the rest it's what it is.
Regardless, they did something about it, and that's definitely good.

WOAH, Ray & Greg?? Okay thats some decent acknowledgement

I was expecting something from Evil Chris but coming from Ray and Greg was a nice touch.

I actually doubt it's rubbish and believe it's probably exactly as they described. But yeah, why in hell didn't they come out with that from second one? Anyway, it's good they acknowledged the issue. I hope it's not too late for them to get the good will of their disgruntled fan base back, though.

Chris posted too...
"I'm glad people are taking Ray & Greg's apology to heart and it was sincere and it is genuine. I know there will always be people out there who say "well I doubt it was last minute complications" (people still doubt the moon landing, the power of bacon as a cure-all, my ability to jump tall buildings in a single bound, etc) but I would suggest that if they weren't last minute complications, do you really think we'd have excluded Canada? Where we are? Really?
Time for an apology from me as well. The BioWare Bazaar IS a cool event and, if we had been able to get it working as we intended, potentially Epic. Yes, not nearly enough people are able to be part of it (see Ray & Greg's apology), but the event is cool. Where I went wrong is in how we marketed it to you and for that I apologize. We used the word "Epic" before we had proven that it was. Sorry. We also used the Countdown timer to generate interest. In hindsight, this allowed rampant speculation which caused disappointment. Again, sorry. While I won't promise we will never use a timer like it again, I can promise we will make sure that such a timer is worthy of the interest it will attract.
So, for those who are taking part in the BioWare Bazaar, thanks for your interest. We are having a great response and people are having fun with it. And for those who cannot be part of the BioWare Bazaar, my apologies as well. As Ray & Greg indicated, we do have more events coming this year to celebrate our 15th Anniversary, including the one specifically for those who were excluded from the Bazaar. We do greatly value our Community. All of it, no matter where you are from and we're going to prove it.
So how about it? Group hug?"

The apology is good. As is the statement that they will try to add in other regions for additional competitions. And while I doubt that Japan will ever be one of the regions covered (due to legal issues most likely), the fact that they apologized and actually took the time to explain what's happened is all that matters.
And as others said, if they had just had the foresight to post that as part of an announcement on all their sites (or at least links to it wherever the Bazaar was mentioned) then the majority of this drama would never have happened.

eh, eh. Gotta love the internets ;)

Considering they live in Canada you would then that would be the laws they know the most.