Forget fretting about microtransactions in video games for a moment and take a look at how, tongue-in-corporate-cheek, Electronic Arts added microtransactions to a charity game of real golf, last week in Las Vegas.
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The following flyer was presented to participants of EA's sixth annual charity golf tournament last Wednesday during the DICE Summit in Las Vegas. I didn't attend, but needed to get the details once I heard that the golf match was played using micro-transactions.
Take a look at EA's special micropayment golf rules:
You can read a little more about the tournament at GameDaily. I was told by people who attended the tournament that about $600 was spent on the microtransactions, all going to the Randy Pausch Scholarship Fund, which provides gaming-education scholarships for Carnegie Mellon University.
Sadly, I don't know how many times the beach ball maneuver was used.
Would you play a game of golf with these rules?