Reflecting on the BioWare Bazaar

I am without a doubt a huge BioWare fan. Nearly all of my favorite games are BioWare games, and I have played 11 of BioWare's 17 currently released titles. I have to say, though, this BioWare Bazaar was definitely my least favorite BioWare game thus far. It was a good idea, but seeing as they'd never done anything like it before, there were a lot of things that could have been changed or streamlined. Let me take you through my two-week experience participating in the BioWare Bazaar. If you don't want the details, then skip to the graphic and the conclusion at the end.

Sunday, March 28
I am told by my brother that there is a huge countdown on the BioWare websites, counting down to Monday morning. What does it mean? Announcement of a new game? What could it be?!
I am very excited.

Monday, March 29
We find out that the countdown was all for the BioWare Bazaar, a mock auction for BioWare merchandise (e.g. t-shirts, posters) and, for a lucky few, special things like computers customized with Mass Effect 2 or Dragon Age: Origins designs. The auction would be from Tuesday, April 6 to Saturday, April 10, and there are a number of ways to earn the "tokens" that will be used as the auction's currency: join the BioWare social website, register games or answer questionnaires related to those games, upload a DAO character from the character creator program, win challenge questions by replying to @biofeed on Twitter, and get people to click your unique URL for the event. Having the countdown be for an auction rather than some new game announcement was a letdown--especially for anyone not in the 50 U.S. states (minus NY and Florida) and D.C., who were not eligible for the Bazaar. But I decided to go for it, and the competitive spirit got me into it. I got all the easy tokens (all but the last two). Then, despite my unspoken vow never to give into the Twitter craze, I set up a Twitter account so I could answer Challenge questions.
I am mildly interested.

Tuesday, March 30
I begin answering the Twitter challenges. Some of the questions are simple--"Who is your favorite character in Dragon Age: Origins?"--while others are quirky--"What does Commander Shepard eat for breakfast?" We can reply multiple times, but we can only win once per challenge question. There are up to 100 winners for each challenge question, but there are a lot of participants. I also start getting a few clicks on my URL, but I don't try too hard; my goal at this point is to get 50 clicks over the course of the week, since the rules say it's 10 points per computer click per day until you reach 500 points, then it's just 1 point per click.
I am having a little fun.

Wednesday, March 31
I win my first challenge, for the question "What did you name your dog in Dragon Age?" I wrote a few answers for the question, but I know which one won:
Boo. He always seemed to know more than he let on, though he did go for the throat more than the eyes.
Ah, BioWare jokes (the very ones that resurfaced in Mass Effect 2, really).
I am very pleased with myself.

Thursday, April 1
I continue getting a few clicks and answering challenges. Nothing particularly interesting happens.

Friday, April 2
No challenge questions for the long weekend. The Bazaar is at the back of my mind.

Saturday, April 3
Same.

Sunday, April 4
I finally break 500 tokens earned through clicks...and am still earning 10 tokens per click. I realize that the 500 token threshold is per day--so with 50 clicks a day I could be earning 500 tokens a day! This suddenly makes the clicks the most important deciding factor in the Bazaar--it's now like a popularity contest: who has the best networking to get the most unique clicks? I realize that other people have a ton more points than I do. Here I was all pleased with my challenge win, but all someone needed was 50 clicks in one day to match that. And there had been 7 days already.
I am bitter about my misunderstanding and concerned that I may win nothing.

Monday, April 5
Not giving up hope, I step up my drive for URL clicks. I repost the link in my Facebook status, and I start making posts in various forums and message boards. It's still not the kind of thing I could email all my friends and relatives about--it's not important enough to warrant spamming--but I need points.
I'm still concerned, but not without hope.

Tuesday, April 6
It gets worse. Through the forums, I learn that the challenge judges aren't even reading all of the responses. Seeing as I had been coming up with as many as nine thoughtful answers per question (but usually only two or three), I'm pretty annoyed. Turns out they only take the last answer each user submitted, and then read a random subset of those. Some of my favorite answers were not even considered! Furthermore, the auctions start (one every 15 minutes--all day, all night), and I am more than 1000 points lower than the lowest winning bids.
I am pretty pissed.

Wednesday, April 7
Here's an idea: I'll open another Twitter account. That way, I'll double my chances of winning challenges! And it pays off. I win my second challenge, for the question "Make up your own Mass Effect alien. What is its name, and what does it look like?" My winning answer (with my new Twitter account):
The Vr are a cat-sized, sentient species evolved from viruses who hunt their hosts with thermal sensing.
Unrealistic, maybe, but pretty sweet. Thanks to the Housemate for the help (he studies viruses).
With this challenge win and a bunch more clicks, I am now within reach of winning an auction. I am pretty happy. A nasty gram from a Facebook friend complaining about my status link reposts brings my spirits down somewhat (I always feel bad about spamming people, but seeing as it's my status update rather than a sent message, it's not entirely my fault that he was checking facebook so often). But things are definitely looking up.

Thursday, April 8
With even more clicks to my link (I earned over 500 on both Wed and Thurs), I am now seeing auctions go by that I could have won--the less desirable prizes, such as posters and books. But I hold out all day hoping to get enough tokens for some Mass Effect lithographs. It isn't until later at night that I decide that I probably won't be able to get enough tokens for a lithograph (even though I'm earning more points, so is everyone else, so the minimum winning bids are increasing), and anyway, I probably have better things to decorate my room with and the coolest lithograph--the Citadel--isn't even one of the prizes. There is a prize that, judging by today's auctions (it turns up in the auction every 4 hours or so), I could "afford" that I want--it is a prize "pack" with several things I'd like to have. I decide to go for it. Half the night, I wake up every half hour to check the current auction (they don't announce a prize schedule or anything). When the prize I want goes by just out of my token range, I figure I can sleep for the next 3 hours.
I'm kind of losing sanity--willing to spend my night with half-hour catnaps--but I'm hopeful.

Friday, April 9
I wake up to discover that there had been another auction for my desired prize at 5 am--only two hours after the one I had been awake to see--which I could have won! I am so angry with myself, and with the fact that if I had been living anywhere else in the country, I would have been awake for that auction (8 am in California, 11 am on East Coast). Furthermore, as the day progresses, there are no winning bids less than 10000 tokens. It seems that as the auction is coming to a close, people who had been hoping for better prizes are dumping their tokens on anything they can get. My 9500 suddenly looks like it might be useless. I start to panic. I open a third Twitter account, which again pays off, as I win my third challenge with it, for the question "What is your favorite BioWare game and why?" I thought of all my answers, the one that won was the lamest (disheartening me about the challenge judging a bit), but I guess it did suck up to BioWare:
BG2. Newer BioWare games come close, but no game quite matches its lovable characters or its deep, engaging story.
Whatever. I hit up the computer lab at school, which puts me over 10000 tokens, but the bids are high enough that it looks like I still can't win. I am especially furious with myself for not winning the 5 am auction and for not bidding yesterday, when I'd been holding out for the lithographs that now I don't even want. I make my boyfriend drive me back to school to hit all the computers in the computer lab again after the clicks reset at 9 pm Hawaii time. I stay awake until 3 am, after which I begin my night of half-hour catnaps. But I am not hopeful. I am distraught to think that maybe all of my effort in earning clicks and answering challenges and hounding my friends (especially my poor boyfriend) will be for nothing. Worse, I don't want to have this depressing memory associated with my beloved BioWare. If I get nothing, will I always think briefly of this bad experience whenever I play Mass Effect 2? I couldn't stand the thought.

Saturday, April 10
Around 6 am, I bid in an auction. It's not my top desired prize, but one of the items in it is the most important part of my top choice prize pack. I don't know how the rest of the day will go, and if I can win this auction, I will be happy. I enter a somewhat random bid about 160 below my token total. Just to get my foot in the door mentally, I guess. Someone outbids me by about 100. Someone else, let's call him LoserUser, outbids that guy by 10 points (the minimum required to outbid). Someone else outbids LoserUser by about 20 points. LoserUser outbids that guy by 10 points. I'm not so dumb. 7 seconds before the auction closes, I bid all of my tokens. I don't know if LoserUser had more points than I did, but I wasn't about to give him time to think about it. They call it "sniping." Swooping in out of the night, I was victorious!

If you made it through this long narrative, I am impressed. It's late, and I know I blabbed on a bit too much. Here is the companion summary graphic:

My experience in the BioWare Bazaar


After all that drama, the insanity, the ups and downs of the last two weeks, I am now the proud winner of the "Mass Effect prequel pack" which includes a copy of Mass Effect (which I already have...), the Mass Effect novels (I may find time to read them at some point) and the Mass Effect art book--the item that I really wanted. It didn't turn out as I had originally hoped, but I didn't walk away empty handed. Thanks to everyone who clicked on my link--I needed every single point I had to win. I am happy.

TMI Thursday: Indonesian Cuisine

During my time in the blogosphere, I've seen many other bloggers follow Lilu's lead in sharing too much information on Thursdays, but I've never done such a post myself. So here it is, my first TMI Thursday post, done in the style of some of Seb's TMI Thursday photos. I'm a bit of a lightweight, so if you want something more hardcore, check out Lilu's blog.


Note: This may or may not be based on my real-life experiences.



Edit: Apparently today was the last TMI Thursday, as Lilu is ending the event. Well, I'm glad I got in while I could!

The other islands: Kauai

The fourth of the major tourist islands in Hawaii, Kauai is known for its gorgeous beaches. Unlike on Maui, I actually got a few decent photos (sorry about that yesterday). I visited Waimea Canyon with its breathtaking views, and we even got to see the spectacular Na Pali coastline from a ship. I've never gone hiking there, but I hear the trails are lovely.

People looking out over Waimea Canyon


A waterfall over the canyon. It's probably really cool if you get a closer look.


A different view of the canyon


Na Pali coast and sparkling sea from atop Na Pali (which means "the cliffs")


And now Na Pali from the ocean side...

The other islands: Maui

I have a few Maui photos to share, but unfortunately on my more recent trip to Maui, we didn't go to nearly as nice places as on my first trip to Maui (when I was 12 and didn't have a camera). Most tragically, I did not go up Haleakala this time. The volcano is about 10,000 feet (3000 m) high, and from the top you can see all around the island to the sea. Furthermore, there is a plant unique to Haleakala called silversword that decorates the dry, high landscape. *Sigh* One of these days I will go back there and take pictures to share.

What I did do on my last trip to Maui was drive on the long, narrow, windy road to Hana, a town somewhat unremarkable except that it is reachable only by a long, narrow, windy road. A road with many beautiful places--waterfalls and tranquil pools, black sand beaches, groves of painted-bark eucalyptus trees--to stop along the way. What's great is that some crazy rich tourists make their stretch limos drive down this narrow windy road. That takes talent.

Eucalyptus grove


Looking out along the coast towards Hana


On a black-sand beach


A small waterfall


A thousand apologies to the island of Maui for my taking such crappy pictures. I promise to do better next time. It really is a gorgeous place.

The other islands: Hawaii, the Big Island

With one exception, all of my Hawaii photos on this blog are from the island of Oahu. (The one exception was not even labeled with a location, but it's the "I hate thresher maws" photo, taken on the Big Island.) This makes sense, since I live on Oahu, and my grandparents live here so it's the island that I visited the most even before moving here. But I have been to three of the other islands, twice each: Hawaii, Maui, and Kauai. Unfortunately, the first time that I went to each island I was considerably younger and did not have a camera. My more recent visits to the islands were on a cruise with extended family three years ago (same people I went with to Alaska--my grandparents totally spoiled us, back when they were fit enough to travel), where we'd have at most two days at each island. The visits were brief, and I was hanging out with family so photos weren't always the first thing on my mind, but I'll share what I have.

First up, the Big Island.

The Hawaiian islands are formed from volcanoes caused by a hot spot in the Earth's mantle. As the Pacific plate has moved over many millennia, the location of the hot spot under the tectonic plate has changed, causing new islands to form. The island of Hawaii, known by locals as "the Big Island" (it is the largest Hawaiian island), is the youngest of the islands and the one with the hot spot still underneath it. That means its volcanoes are still active.

I've been to Kona (known for its coffee) and Hilo and Akaka Falls, but the only photos I have are of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. I hear there's some spectacular diving off of the Big Island, so maybe some day I'll have more photos.

Misty Kilauea caldera


Halemaumau Crater


Closer view of part of the crater--I almost had enough to stitch together a panorama, but not quite.

It totally smelled like sulfur there.

On the national park's "Devastation Trail". I like this one.


Another look down into possible thresher maw territory, with the Halemaumau crater in the distance.


Here's one photo not from Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. A turtle takes a break on a black sand beach. Having seen the rocks and soil in the previous pictures, you can imagine why the sand is this color.

Mass Effect 2 notes

I have an older brother who likes to play the same computer games that I do. At present, he is unemployed (by choice...but that's a whole other story), which means that he had finished Mass Effect 2 not long after it had come out. He waited anxiously for a month and a half for me to finish it so he could talk about it with me. As I played my way through the game, I came across awesome things (there are so many of them in Mass Effect 2) that I knew I wanted to talk about with my brother. Since I was likely to forget them all by the time I talked to him, I kept a list.

Note: I didn't start the list until after Horizon. There should only be mild spoilers, since I keep details to a minimum where they might spoil things for people who haven't played ME2.

Illium bar - bachelor's party, turian flirting with quarian, bartender
The bar in Illium was hilarious. My favorite part was the bachelor's party--a human, salarian, and turian sit at a table watching the asari dancer perched on it, discussing how strange the human tradition of a bachelor's party is, and how each of them thinks asari look like their own species. But there was also the turian trying to flirt with an oblivious quarian, and a krogan-asari matriarch bartender (asari matriarchs are supposed to offer wisdom and advice...why not be a bartender?). Brilliant.

Charr and poems
Krogan love poems to an asari. Enough said. Oh, except for this:
"Let our three hearts beat as two."

Elevator discussion
Roaming the Citadel with Garrus and Tali (the party carryovers from the original Mass Effect) brings up a discussion between them of the conversations the characters would have while on elevators in the first game.
Garrus: Tell us about your immune system.
Tali: I have a shotgun.
Good times.

Elevator music
Speaking of the ME1 elevators, on an elevator during Miranda's loyalty quest, you can hear the old elevator music playing in the background. That darn, catchy song. Still get it stuck in my head.

Morrigan and Loghain
Two voice actors who did major characters in Dragon Age: Origins also both did voices of two of the three quarian Admiralty Board judges. Hearing the two of them in the same place was what made it more disconcerting than hearing other recognized voices (like it would have been really weird if EDI had talked to Captain Bailey). Might have been funnier if it had been Morrigan and Alistair arguing, but it was still pretty good.

Elcor Hamlet
Fearful wonder: Angels and ministers of grace defend us!
Morose rumination: To be or not to be, that is the question.

Blasto the Jellyfish
The first hanar Spectre. He's got a lover in every port and a gun in every tentacle.
This one has forgotten whether its heat sink is over capacity. It wonders whether the criminal scum considers itself fortunate.
This one doesn't have time for your solid waste excretions.
Enkindle this!

Krogan requests for mating...
After taking down the thresher maw on foot, there are several krogan mating requests for Grunt (a krogan)...and one for Shepard (not a krogan).

Mordin. Gilbert and Sullivan.
"I'm sorry, I know that was important, but you sang Gilbert and Sullivan?"
I am the very model of a scientist salarian
I've studies species turian, asari, and batarian
I'm quite good at genetics as a subset of biology
Because I am an expert which I know is a tautology
My xeno-science studies range from urban to agrarian
I am the very model of a scientist salarian
I get this song stuck in my head, too.

Mordin and the Talk
If your character has a romance in ME2, Mordin, the ship's genius scientist/doctor, will have a talk with you. It will be painfully squirm-inducing...but hilarious.

Shepard VI
Very funny in conversation, but ultimately a disappointment. You can get this guy who has been selling a Virtual Intelligence modeled after your character to give you a copy...but it doesn't turn up anywhere you can see it. Given all the other stuff that ends up in your captain's quarters, it was kind of a let down.

Conrad Verner
Conrad is Shepard's biggest fan, encountered three times in the original game (my favorite bit, which I think is funnier if you're playing a female Shepard than a male one, was his comment after taking a picture of you posing with your gun: "My wife's going to love it!"). Now he's in Illium, still being stupid and making trouble. More funny lines and situations ensue ("My wife was really supportive of me doing this--she even payed for my ticket off-world!").

Galactic news reference to Bring Down the Sky
If you play ME2 without playing ME1, you miss out on TONS of references (and even some encounters) related to your choices in the first game. Even the downloadable content is included--if you let a certain person die in BDTS, you hear a news story about a candlelight vigil being held by her father. Made me feel so guilty. I wonder if you do save her (and in so doing let the bad guy escape) whether they still make you feel guilty with a news story about the bad guy doing more bad things.

Legion dances
He dances like a robot. And sings, if it can be called singing. Too funny.


Some other assorted quotes I was inspired to jot down:

EDI: That is a joke.

Joker: (regarding Mordin) ...Like he's got tenure at FU.

Grunt: Hah! See, now we're having fun! Me remembering good deaths, and...you with your...funny...human thing you do.

Legion: You succeeded where others did not. Your code is superior.

Legion: (in a nightclub) We do not comprehend the organic fascination with self-poisoning, auditory damage, and sexually transmitted disease.

EDI: Detonation in 10, 9, 8--
Joker: Yeah, I get the gist of it, EDI. Hold on!


And now some screenshots! What's a mission to save the galaxy without some photos?

Me looking badass


Me looking not so badass. I'm a good dancer!


Samara makes a dramatic entrance


Thane makes a killer entrance


Not a fight you want to get in the middle of...


Looking very dramatic and heroic


The team plots its next move


Major pesticide


Hold on!


Jump!