Financial prize == Crappy game...

If you watch ESPN, you've probably seen an ad for the console version of EA's hit game Battlefield 2. A $250,000 prize for the best player!

Now, the PC version has become something of an instant classic. A massive military shooter game with deep strategic concepts is a great thing, and despite EA's best efforts to screw up the game post-release, Battlefield 2 has thrived.

However, the console version? Not so much with the good. Gamespot gave it a 7.3/10, while not a horrible score, certaintly isn't what one would expect given the spectacularness of the PC version. A missed opportunity, to say the least.

There are two other games that tried to use money to bribe people into buying the game.

First, there's Advent Rising. It offered a lot of different cash rewards, including a $1,000,000 bounty to those who found the secret icons that would be hidden in the game after Xbox Live updates. But the game was a stinker, the updates broke the game, and the prize was recinded after technical difficulties.

Ouch.

The other is a PC MMORPG called RYL, which offers a $1,000,000 for the best player after a year in the game. And the prize hasn't been taken back yet!

Probably will be, though, because the game isn't what you'd call good. Certainly not compared to World of Warcraft and Everquest 2.

So what does this mean?

When you see a game advertise a cash reward for playing, especially when the game hasn't been released yet, its time to run away. Quickly.

Its like seeing a movie advertisement quote "NBC-TV". BS detector going off like mad.