Thread: Biggest Fan Contest

Any particular reason the contest is only open to players from 3 countries?

Also, you may want to fix your legalese, since currently all US players are disqualifed as well; "who are 13 years of age or older and physically located in the United Sates at the time of entry".

Having read the contest rules, I only see that citizens of the US are allowed to participate.
Where do you see a note of 2 other nationalities being eligible as well?

Anyways, my thoughts are once more that Turbine is in fault to only allow certain nationalities to partake their contents.
I'm no expert on International Law, but I'm sure that a corporation with headquarters in the U.S. is allowed to create worldwide contests. (e.g. Coca Cola held a 'summer challenge' in the country where I'm from, Belgium)

Perhaps an admin could fill us in on the reason why these contests are limited to U.S.-citizens only?

Oh well, best of luck to those who can go for the grand prize (Lifetime Subscription )!


Dark_Enlighter

Now if it wasn't for Step 3 - "Share your video on Facebook and Twitter" - ......

Anti-social networking FTW!

Originally Posted by Dark_Enlighter

Having read the contest rules, I only see that citizens of the US are allowed to participate.
Where do you see a note of 2 other nationalities being eligible as well?

Originally Posted by Sapience

Re-read the rules. The Contest is open to residents of the US, UK, and Germany. You may need to click the appropriate link to see them but they are all there.

this message was too short

Originally Posted by Dark_Enlighter

Having read the contest rules, I only see that citizens of the US are allowed to participate.
Where do you see a note of 2 other nationalities being eligible as well?

From Sapience's annoucement, "This contest is open to residents of the US, UK, and Germany".

Also, the legalese page for the US also has a UK version farther down.

Originally Posted by mjk47

Now if it wasn't for Step 3 - "Share your video on Facebook and Twitter" - ......

Anti-social networking FTW!

Agreed.

Youtube I could live with, but Facebook's unethical behavior means I will never have anything to do with them.

If you are looking at the English rules, read the top of the page. You'll see where it says United Kingdom. Click it and you'll see the UK rules. If you change the page language to German, you'll see the german rules.

We opened participation to as many countries as possible. As always, conflicting, complex and often time prohibitive rules in various countries can make opening it up to them very difficult. It can also make it illegal in another country. For example, did you know that to run a contest in France someone from France must win? That makes the contest illegal in nearly every other country.

Check the contest link in my sig and you'll see it's not just us (I was actually blocked from entering a contest run by Best Buy once because it was Canadian residents only).

Basically almost every time you see a contest in your country it is run by a subsidiary in your country. There are some exceptions of course. However it is extremely rare to see a legal "worldwide" competition that involves actual money or prize winnings.

Neat contest, minor complaint -- many of us fans are musicians, and I know more than a few of us have composed original songs inspired by LotRO. The rules say get creative, but then say we can't use those creative bits. I know, it's about WB covering themselves legally with regards to original work and all, but still a bummer.

I'm thinking motion-capture suits, my hyper 5 year old twins, and a large tesla coil. Movie magic in the works!

Originally Posted by Sapience

If you are looking at the English rules, read the top of the page. You'll see where it says United Kingdom. Click it and you'll see the UK rules. If you change the page language to German, you'll see the german rules.

We opened participation to as many countries as possible. As always, conflicting, complex and often time prohibitive rules in various countries can make opening it up to them very difficult. It can also make it illegal in another country. For example, did you know that to run a contest in France someone from France must win? That makes the contest illegal in nearly every other country.

Check the contest link in my sig and you'll see it's not just us (I was actually blocked from entering a contest run by Best Buy once because it was Canadian residents only).

I thank you for the clarification you gave that quickly


Dark_Enlighter

Originally Posted by Sapience

For example, did you know that to run a contest in France someone from France must win? That makes the contest illegal in nearly every other country.

What about a French that lives in Germany, for example. Can he win the contest? If a EU citizen gives you a German address, (or PO box), can he win the contest?

I'm no law expert, I just wonder. Can you skip around state laws like that in US?

Sure! It´s all around You, called the truth! *LOL*

But be carefull, it´s dangerous! You have to be open minded, otherwise it could kill Your mind. *G*

Just a little something I threw together on behalf of my illustrious kin leader.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/Tg2LdADLfwA

*LOL*

Yes, and in the store is still more to buy:

Originally Posted by Sapience

For example, did you know that to run a contest in France someone from France must win?

Living in France, I have seen countless contests where French could participate and no French won.

See for example:
http://developer.vodafone.com/smartaccess2011/
And the legalese: http://developer.vodafone.com/smartaccess2011/legal/

There could be a trick in the following two sentences: "Vodafone reserves the right to require participants to prove that they are eligible. If the winner of the prize is found to be ineligible, Vodafone reserves the right to award the prize to another participant and to require the return of any prize already awarded.". This was just the first one I googled.

Here is another, which has no such reservation: http://www.officiel-oksapollock.fr/#...ent_Concours.q (rules are in French, but the contest is open to European residents).

A third one, with rules in english and open to anyone : https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B4o...NmMTE1YjQ3OTQz.

I probably could spend the day finding European contests. Nowhere did I find that someone from France has to win the game. If you could point out the exact legal text which specify that, I would be much obliged.

Originally Posted by Sapience

We opened participation to as many countries as possible. As always, conflicting, complex and often time prohibitive rules in various countries can make opening it up to them very difficult. It can also make it illegal in another country. For example, did you know that to run a contest in France someone from France must win? That makes the contest illegal in nearly every other country.

Thanks for the reply.

Ok, the France thing is ridiculous, I can understand that one, but not every country is as bad. Oh well, I'll be happy as long as at some point we get an equally juicy contest open to the entire world, except for residents of the US, UK, and Germany. Fair's fair after all.

Originally Posted by Sapience

Check the contest link in my sig and you'll see it's not just us (I was actually blocked from entering a contest run by Best Buy once because it was Canadian residents only).

But I suspect that was a one time thing. Try using the internet from a IP address that geolocation decides is outside the US, and you'll find a lot of it simply stops working with 'not allowed in your country' static pages. Mostly sites having to do with TV, movies, or music.

As for Best Buy specifically, I see an ad to buy LOTRO from them every time I log in, but they don't carry the game in Canada. Same with Walmart, Target, and Gamestop, who all appear on the same loading screen.

That's it! I'm going to start collecting players for a Million Hobbit March through the Shire, singing We Shall Overcome.

Originally Posted by mjk47

Now if it wasn't for Step 3 - "Share your video on Facebook and Twitter" - ......

Anti-social networking FTW!

To quote Stan from Southpark:

'Are you checking your ******g facebook accounts again? Why waste your time with this c**p ? Let's go outside and play videogames!'


Not a contest for me to enter if fb or twitter is needed :P

I don't like Facebook either.

Not only that their 'privacy' agenda doesn't suit me, but they are sloppy coders, too.

http://blog.parse.com/2012/04/10/dis...s-android-sdk/

I am too old to submit to group pressure, so no contest for me.


Greetings, Polymachos

Originally Posted by Sapience

If you are looking at the English rules, read the top of the page. You'll see where it says United Kingdom. Click it and you'll see the UK rules. If you change the page language to German, you'll see the german rules.

We opened participation to as many countries as possible. As always, conflicting, complex and often time prohibitive rules in various countries can make opening it up to them very difficult. It can also make it illegal in another country. For example, did you know that to run a contest in France someone from France must win? That makes the contest illegal in nearly every other country.

Check the contest link in my sig and you'll see it's not just us (I was actually blocked from entering a contest run by Best Buy once because it was Canadian residents only).

I understand this, but why don't you try to set something else up for other countries then?

i mean, a lot of players come from the Netherlands aswell... or Sweden...

and i guess people can name a few more countries with a lot of players...

Germany is like the Netherlands... so why over there and not over here?

It's just a bit of a bummer to see i can not participate just because i live on the wrong side of the border (Germany-Holland)

Originally Posted by Maelendil

Living in France, I have seen countless contests where French could participate and no French won.

See for example:
http://developer.vodafone.com/smartaccess2011/
And the legalese: http://developer.vodafone.com/smartaccess2011/legal/

There could be a trick in the following two sentences: "Vodafone reserves the right to require participants to prove that they are eligible. If the winner of the prize is found to be ineligible, Vodafone reserves the right to award the prize to another participant and to require the return of any prize already awarded.". This was just the first one I googled.

Here is another, which has no such reservation: http://www.officiel-oksapollock.fr/#...ent_Concours.q (rules are in French, but the contest is open to European residents).

A third one, with rules in english and open to anyone : https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B4o...NmMTE1YjQ3OTQz.

I probably could spend the day finding European contests. Nowhere did I find that someone from France has to win the game. If you could point out the exact legal text which specify that, I would be much obliged.

I found what Sapience said interesting too because I immediately thought, "Doesn't that mean they cannot participate in the Olympics? That is a (in the loosest terms) "contest" that allows French people but that will not guarantee a French winner"

Last word on the issue.

Our lawyers took a very long look at what we wanted to do and did everything they could to include as many countries as possible in this. If your country is not able to participate it is a legal issue. Period. No other reason.