Giantbomb Contests -Bias against the UK?

I'm sure there's not some intentional "Fuck the Brits" attitude around the GB office, far from it. I'm just wondering why no contests can be taken part/won by people in the UK?
 
Animevice is in the same building, and they are open to UK residents. Is there any real reason for this?

I'm more curious why Ryan seems to hate English people so much. You so much as mention the UK to him and he's all like "OH U ALRIGHT GUVNA GOD BRITISH PEOPLE SOUND SO DUMB"

" I'm more curious why Ryan seems to hate English people so much. You so much as mention the UK to him and he's all like "OH U ALRIGHT GUVNA GOD BRITISH PEOPLE SOUND SO DUMB" "

I find it surprising that other people are still surprised when contest are limited to one country or region only.

All their digital prizes are international. It is I think just International shipping (cost and reliability).
 
As for the guys hating British people it is generally the same with a lot of people from the US. They think there is a big rivalry between the two nations when it is only on their side. Similar to us and the German's. Whenever their is an England vs Germany match the press make it out as something big but over in Germany their big match is Germany vs Holland.

" All their digital prizes are international. It is I think just International shipping (cost and reliability). As for the guys hating British people it is generally the same with a lot of people from the US. They think there is a big rivalry between the two nations when it is only on their side. Similar to us and the German's. Whenever their is an England vs Germany match the press make it out as something big but over in Germany their big match is Germany vs Holland. "

" @AdH0c said:

" All their digital prizes are international. It is I think just International shipping (cost and reliability). As for the guys hating British people it is generally the same with a lot of people from the US. They think there is a big rivalry between the two nations when it is only on their side. Similar to us and the German's. Whenever their is an England vs Germany match the press make it out as something big but over in Germany their big match is Germany vs Holland. "

QI is a great show, isn't it? "

" @MysteriousBob said:

" @AdH0c said:

" All their digital prizes are international. It is I think just International shipping (cost and reliability). As for the guys hating British people it is generally the same with a lot of people from the US. They think there is a big rivalry between the two nations when it is only on their side. Similar to us and the German's. Whenever their is an England vs Germany match the press make it out as something big but over in Germany their big match is Germany vs Holland. "

QI is a great show, isn't it? "

Ha. Was about to say the same thing. I <3 Stephen Fry.  Can't believe Jeff said he was becoming annoying. If only he knew that Mr. Fry is probably the most loved Brit in the UK. "

i find it hilarious that the TC speaks about bias against the UK, when he's being hugely biased against the rest of Europe

I'm sure it's just a mixture of shipping and legal issues. I highly doubt that any of them hate anybody in the UK, the French maybe, but not the UK.

@Rhaknar
And Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc.

" @AdH0c said:

" All their digital prizes are international. It is I think just International shipping (cost and reliability). As for the guys hating British people it is generally the same with a lot of people from the US. They think there is a big rivalry between the two nations when it is only on their side. Similar to us and the German's. Whenever their is an England vs Germany match the press make it out as something big but over in Germany their big match is Germany vs Holland. "

QI is a great show, isn't it? "

" All their digital prizes are international. It is I think just International shipping (cost and reliability). As for the guys hating British people it is generally the same with a lot of people from the US. They think there is a big rivalry between the two nations when it is only on their side. Similar to us and the German's. Whenever their is an England vs Germany match the press make it out as something big but over in Germany their big match is Germany vs Holland. "

" @Rhaknar And Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc. "

There are states in the United States which are void to contests due to laws within those states that bar them.  Rhode Island, Arizona and Florida are often excluded from participating in national contests.  The legality of national and international competitions are taken on a case by case basis.  Most won't be available outside the US due to legal hoops and roadblocks.

I'm not trying to spark international ire here, by the way :P
 
When I get paid, will potentially be running a contest for UK people (Maybe apply it to the EU, depends how harsh fees are, wasn't that bad last time I sent from UK>Denmark)

" @AdH0c said:

" All their digital prizes are international. It is I think just International shipping (cost and reliability). As for the guys hating British people it is generally the same with a lot of people from the US. They think there is a big rivalry between the two nations when it is only on their side. Similar to us and the German's. Whenever their is an England vs Germany match the press make it out as something big but over in Germany their big match is Germany vs Holland. "

So you trying to say people in most countries don't like to hate US? You only have to mention the name before someone makes a joke about "the stupid Americans". "

As a brit I don't feel especially segregated from the rest of the community. It's a little frustrating that I can't buy from the store (I would have bought like six of those Oscar Mike shirts) but apart from that I don't really care. When Ryan got back from Liverpool he seemed to have only nice things to say. And, when push comes to shove, we give the yanks their fair share of shit as well. We just don't have a podcast to broadcast it from.
 
It's weird how there are very few successful british game-themed podcasts to contrast this. The IGN uk one isn't bad, but I often feel like they are doing it out of a sense of duty as opposed to because they actually have anything interesting to say. The dudes just aren't funny.

" @AdH0c: you mean england and germany not UK and germany! A few people in this thread referd to english while we were talkin about the UK. Now that is offensive. "

Think it's to do with shipping.

" @CABBAGES said:

" @AdH0c: you mean england and germany not UK and germany! A few people in this thread referd to english while we were talkin about the UK. Now that is offensive. "

Yeah good point well made (although I did put England vs Germany and not UK). I think the main reason for this (UK/England confusion) is that Brad does his "British impression" and it is always comes out like he is from the south east of England. "

My bigger issue with this thread is that a lot of folks referring to Ryan (Or Americans in general) as having a poor sense of the people and culture of the UK, then go on to call us big, dumb, loud, and ignorant.
 
That's totally awesome guys, and completely proving that the UK is way more mature and cool.

" My bigger issue with this thread is that a lot of folks referring to Ryan (Or Americans in general) as having a poor sense of the people and culture of the UK, then go on to call us big, dumb, loud, and ignorant.  That's totally awesome guys, and completely proving that the UK is way more mature and cool. "

Eh, like all of us from other continents, you can't participate in most of the contests. Besides, if they were to start shipping to UK, they might as well start shipping to all the countries outside the US.
 
As for a bias, since you can't win most of the contests, and there are more Americans here than people from any other country, it's only natural that Americans will get most of the prizes. Even if a contest was open to all users, UK would still be a minority and I wouldn't be surprised if users from the UK didn't win.

" I'm more curious why Ryan seems to hate English people so much. You so much as mention the UK to him and he's all like "OH U ALRIGHT GUVNA GOD BRITISH PEOPLE SOUND SO DUMB" "

I don't know if you guys noticed but there are a few QLEXs where they bring UK-based indie devs and promote them. So that kind of negates the whole bias thing doesn't it?

" I don't know if you guys noticed but there are a few QLEXs where they bring UK-based indie devs and promote them. So that kind of negates the whole bias thing doesn't it? "

You guys must be really sensitive if you get upset about some American doing a bad English accent jokingly. In my whole 19 years of living I have never heard a British person say anything good about America and that is the gods honest truth.

There are huge legal issues with opening up competitions to other countries. It's got nothing to do with bias or anything, its that it would cost waaaay too much to pay someone to get around the legal issues with such competitions.
 
As for the jokes on the bombcast - they're just jokes. And they're funny. You're taking both the bombcast and yourself too seriously if you can't see that.

South or North Americans? See! You stupid English are getting us all mixed up! 
 
On the real though, I know there are many different accents when it comes to the English. I can, most of the time, pick a Welsh out of a conversation. I know that each different area has their own accent. I have lived in the U.S. my entire life, besides that short stint in Germany, and we make fun of our other accents internally. I live in California and make fun of people with New England and southern accents. It's all in good fun. Lighten up, Jesus.

It wouldn't be fair on everybody else if we were allowed to enter?  More seriously, because the Atlantic is pretty big, and spending $30 on postage when the prize is a $5 t-shirt or something is really fucking stupid.  
 
I don't get any kind of anti-UK vibe from these guys at all, and it's kinda getting a bit embarassing how whiney some of you are being about it.  Do you think we built the Empire by acting like a bunch of wibbly-lipped cry babies?  No sir, we did not.

"No, I am saying that the rivalry between the US and UK is more on the US side. Our main rivalry (in our minds anyway) is more with Germany. "

Being British is awesome...that is all.

I would love to enter competitions and win stuff from here but considering international shipping can really bite you its understandable. Although I do wish next time someone mentions UK they would try out a different accident to bludgeon to death rather than their current one, id like to hear them try to be Scottish, Welsh or maybe (northern) Irish?

Both Kotaku and Destructoid run contests as well and its the same thing US residents only unless its a European specific contest which I know Destructoid has run in the past. It's what happens when the site is located in one country  compared to another. There has to be at least one decent non main-stream European gaming site that runs contests.
 
I see your point, I can understand if an item is region locked like say a Game or whatever due to PAL and NTSC standards however for things like a t-shirt or other swag international shipping with isn't all that bad just takes time. Can be a bit expensive however I have shipped stuff to Brazil, Canada, Russia and Mexico in the past without issues through the United States Postal Service. The cost would be negligible for something light. 
 
Expanded a contest to other countries would make it more interesting especially if it required a video or some photoshopping, etc it makes it larger.

I'm from the South of England and I find the stupid accent they do pretty funny and hell at least they don't do much of the whole British people have terrible teeth stuff (regardless of any truth to it). We should probably stop talking about this as it is not going to end well.

" There are states in the United States which are void to contests due to laws within those states that bar them.  Rhode Island, Arizona and Florida are often excluded from participating in national contests.  The legality of national and international competitions are taken on a case by case basis.  Most won't be available outside the US due to legal hoops and roadblocks. "

" There are states in the United States which are void to contests due to laws within those states that bar them.  Rhode Island, Arizona and Florida are often excluded from participating in national contests.  The legality of national and international competitions are taken on a case by case basis.  Most won't be available outside the US due to legal hoops and roadblocks. "

" @PenguinDust said:

" There are states in the United States which are void to contests due to laws within those states that bar them.  Rhode Island, Arizona and Florida are often excluded from participating in national contests.  The legality of national and international competitions are taken on a case by case basis.  Most won't be available outside the US due to legal hoops and roadblocks. "

 This is the only correct answer. "

" @PenguinDust said:

" There are states in the United States which are void to contests due to laws within those states that bar them.  Rhode Island, Arizona and Florida are often excluded from participating in national contests.  The legality of national and international competitions are taken on a case by case basis.  Most won't be available outside the US due to legal hoops and roadblocks. "

 This is the only correct answer. "

Just before it is I'd just like to say that in my opinion GB has been one of the the most UK-friendly US based sites around. I find GB no more offensive than Family Guy.

" I would love to enter competitions and win stuff from here but considering international shipping can really bite you its understandable. Although I do wish next time someone mentions UK they would try out a different accident to bludgeon to death rather than their current one, id like to hear them try to be Scottish, Welsh or maybe (northern) Irish? "

" I'm sure there's not some intentional "Fuck the Brits" attitude around the GB office, far from it. I'm just wondering why no contests can be taken part/won by people in the UK?  Animevice is in the same building, and they are open to UK residents. Is there any real reason for this? "