Maryland has similar issues - for example your cannot win prizes on the xbox live 1vs100 if your are a resident of maryland; at least last time I looked. Not sure about this (ill advised) Bioware thing; can't investigate until l get home.
I does sound amazingly stupid to have a countdown for something like this in any case.

Yes, by all means, they should refuse to do anything that might leave someone out.
I mean, a little kid might LOVE Baldur's Gate 2. But Dragon Age was an M rated game, so they should have removed all the blood and boobies from that so that the little kids could enjoy it.
Don't get me wrong, I find this to be pretty annoying as well. But how else could this have been handled?
Only show the countdown to the people who are eligible? Yeah, that would end well. A week of people screaming about how Bioware hates the rest of the world PLUS the already existing week.
Not done it at all? Maybe, but clearly they wanted to do something.
Not done the countdown at all? Countdowns equal publicity. Publicity good.
Don't get me wrong, most regional restrictions are crap. But this makes sense. As it stands, shipping and the contest itself are probably going to be pretty expensive. Now imagine that everyone who won was in Abu Dhabi. Yeah, that sounds like a good use of money...
But again, let's ignore that. Let's just whine and scream and pretend that Bioware/EA/Santa Claus is evil and hates everyone except for the Americans (although, screw Florida and New York :p). Because we all know that is the REAL reason behind this.
The only thing Bioware and EA are guilty of is having PR guys who kind of suck. They are trying to do something nice (and get publicity), but they did it in a manner that pissed off all the angry internet men.

Really? You honestly think calling it "US Giveaway" would have made people less angry?
And what would be the point of a mystery countdown if it said what it was counting down to?

"Yes, by all means, they should refuse to do anything that might leave someone out.
I mean, a little kid might LOVE Baldur's Gate 2. But Dragon Age was an M rated game, so they should have removed all the blood and boobies from that so that the little kids could enjoy it."
You know how i feel about most of your brainless, childish analogies, right ? I'm not even touching this one, it reeks.
"Don't get me wrong, I find this to be pretty annoying as well. But how else could this have been handled?"
Easy. Don't do it at all. Do something else. Something available to the whole Bioware community.
"But this makes sense. As it stands, shipping and the contest itself are probably going to be pretty expensive. Now imagine that everyone who won was in Abu Dhabi. Yeah, that sounds like a good use of money..."
It makes sense for those who can't wait to jump on just about any 'pro establishment'/'powers that be' ship like yourself. If it's unpopular, you're there, arguing the other side just fot the sake of arguing the other side.
For me, it doesn't make any sense whatsoever giving the 'community' framing of this bazaar shit. I'm a member of the community last time i checked, and i'm out. Are you out aswell ?
"But again, let's ignore that. Let's just whine and scream and pretend that Bioware/EA/Santa Claus is evil and hates everyone except for the Americans (although, screw Florida and New York :p). Because we all know that is the REAL reason behind this"
If i had to guess i'd say it has nothing to to with evil but with money as usuall. There's probably money gained or money saved at the end of this rainbow, directly or indirectly.
"The only thing Bioware and EA are guilty of is having PR guys who kind of suck. They are trying to do something nice (and get publicity), but they did it in a manner that pissed off all the angry internet men."
No, they're guilty of being fucktard morons if they wrere expecting people wouldn't be upset by this. What are they doing nice for me, a member of the community who bought every single Bioware title since NWN and a couple of others before that ? Or for John Doe, from Texas, who's also a part of the Biowar community ?
And you're definitely not an angry internet man. You take anything and everything with a smile and a shit load of 'what if's' and 'for all we know it could be's' and that's supposed to make everything fine and dandy.
I don't exactly know what they stand to gain, but i suspect it's money in one form or another.
I don't know who's ultimately responsable for it at this point, and i'm not sure i even care.
I do know one thing, it's fucking unfair any way you look at it. THAT IS ALL I'M SAYING.

The thing that is seriously starting to piss me off is that this is turning into an Anti America bandwagon campaign. All of the sudden it is 'America is evil cause they can participate!' - *sigh* I hate ignorance when I see it in person, and I hate it just as much when I see it on the net, ignorance does nothing good for anyone.

Going to ignore the other response, since it was more an attack on me than Bioware. But, since I am not the one giving stuff away for free, I'll allow it :p
Honestly, I haven't noticed that. I mean, yeah. You have the idiots who think it is all a conspiracy and that they are entitled to personal gifts and the like. But you always have that.
Overall, it looks like most of the animosity is toward Bioware/EA. Well, Bioware/EA, Steam, EA, Impulse, etc. All the OTHER Regional Restriction problems (which I actually DO feel to be somewhat problematic) are getting used for fuel on this fire. Because clearly not wanting to ship a computer to Abu Dhabi and not being able to ship 4 gigs to Japan are the same thing :p
And I just feel the need to point this out: Everyone is arguing that they deserve presents and gifts because they have supported Bioware. Is that why you bought all the games? Because George Carlin came from the future and told you "In the year Two Thousand and Ten, Bioware will reward the faithful fans with the opportunity to be one of 241 some odd people to win a prize!"? If so, that is freaking awesome, and I hope you gave Napoleon an ice cream sundae.
But more likely than not, you bought these games because they were high quality (except maybe Jade Empire. I can't really comment on that one until I force myself to start and love it :p). You bought these games because you wanted to enjoy them. Isn't that the POINT of buying games? The opportunity to potentially win a prize completely outweighs hundreds (possibly thousands) of hours of RPG and MDK goodness (Shattered Steel was probably great too, but I need to get around to playing that :p)?
And honestly, there is no real advantage to long-term fans, at least not yet. So don't forget to scream about that...
Again, if this were a digital distribution kind of thing, I would be right up there and complaining. I actually think regional restrictions are a dick move with regard to digital distribution (although, I always feel the need to point out that you should be yelling at EA or Activision, not Valve and Stardock), although I also question the rationale behind said dick-moves (probably has to do with taxes and import costs). But this makes sense. Shipping and handling is expensive, especially when you are going halfway around the world.

I don't see how stating my opinions on the kind of arguments you usually use to give people the run around is an attack.
I could just as easily claim you're attacking me with the indirect innuendos about Bioware being evil, when i never said that, or with the anti DRM militant/angry man internet stuff, but i don't.
And i have no wish to attack you, Bioware or anyone else. Except steam, obviously...

I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed this tendency.

Oh I agree Gundato - but there are a # of posts in the Dragon Age General forums thread on the topic that... well, that basically are pointing at American's as the bad guy and ignoring any of the possible reasons why this has come out the way it appeared.
If you love the games a dev house makes then little things shouldn't matter, but in this situation folks are like children who get candy taken away (not everyone, to be clear, just some of the more... irritating ones)

Little things ? Like being part of the community when it comes to pay (more than the ones who are elligble for this bazaar thing in some instances) for their games and then being told you're not exactly a 'full' member of the community if you are in Texas or Europe ?
It's not about whatever prizes are up for grabs, i really couldn't care less about those, it's about principles and fairness, which quickly get brushed aside when there's a couple of bucks to be made/saved on the side.
Placing the 'evil' label on US and/or its residents it's just ignorant, but no one can argue the unfairness of this whole thing.

Just got home and read about "bazaar: "
First, the countdown was lame even if most could use the final product.
Second, it is insulting to the rest of the world; particularly when you make a big deal and have an over-hyped public countdown. Even in the US, New York and Florida are excluded. The reasons are certainly legal (probably import/export issues in the case of other countries), but it does suck.
Third, it seems rather convoluted. Some of the prizes seem interesting, but not enough for me to put any effort into this. Like I really want to junk up my twitter account by following them even for a week.
All I can say is that it has fiasco written all over it.

Ooh, seems my guess wasn't that far off.

Little things in the long run, yes. I have stated that I agree it is a bad idea that they have done it this way, but folks are getting so riled up that they are flinging hate all over the place - including on people who have no call to have it heaped on them. It isn't like BioWare stated right out that the folks who cannot participate are not part of the community, its just the wording of the non-event hit harder when the regional restrictions were announced.
I would much rather have the games than the huge flap that is going on right now, it would have been better for BioWare to not announce anything/do anything (except maybe a discount sale for their anniversary - that everyone could be part of).

Oh, I think most people here have noticed it.