You may have heard some rumblings: Yes, as a promotion for Visceral Games' forthcoming multi-platform Dante's Inferno, Electronic Arts sent out $200.00 checks to select members of the media. Why?
The idea, we're told, is to educate people about Dante Alighieri's poem. More specifically, the fourth circle of Hell, Greed. Ours arrived yesterday, after a slight layover in the tenth circle of Hell -- my previous mailing address. (Hint to aspiring gaming writers: Don't ever move or change your address. Ever.)
The decorated wooden box contains the check you see above, which I can confirm is an actual no joke legal check that I could cash at a bank (and likely get a lot of funny looks). The dilemma is such -- do I give in to greed and cash the check, and basically kiss any credibility I might have goodbye? However, if I don't cash it, that could be considered wasteful.
"He who squanders wealth allows the first fruits owed to heaven to rot on the vine," explains the words on the inside of the box.
Quite a conundrum. We're still scratching our chins over this one, but we have a few ideas, which you can find after the jump. What do you think we should do?
- Pay some bills, give Dante's Inferno a 10 out of 10.
- Reserve 20 copies of Dante's Inferno.
- Reserve 20 copies of God of War III.
- Buy $200 worth of booze, let Dale North drink it on a web cam all day long.
- Give it a charity, maybe Child's Play.
- Sign it over to Kotaku's Brian Crecente, who decided to burn his check. It's possible he's regretting his choice, and we'd love to give him another chance.
Contest:
3:00 PM on 09.11.2009
| 
Free money from a games company attempting to flog their wares with a 'moral,' condundrum.
Cash it.
Free money from a games company attempting to flog their wares with a 'moral,' condundrum?
Cash it.
Or, if you wanted to, you could send it to me...
Or just cash it, it's rather ironic that EA is trying to make a statement about greed.
Or, spend it on various prizes to give to the best suggestions for what to spend it on.
Listen and learn from Dante. Greed is responsible for any and all ethical corruption, political or nonpolitical, and is one of the greatest sins of mankind. Do you really want to be punished in the fourth circle of hell for eternity, distorted, shriveled and damaged beyond recognition?
Don't cash it, you greedy bastards!
squandering indeed.
If not that, give it to Child's Play.
This option gets my vote!
It IS from a level of Hell
There is no wrong answer here when a greedy company gives you money as viral marketing
This whole campaign has put me of the game and is just, well, damaging to gaming.
I seem to recall you weren't very keen on the game to start.
Or you can pull a Rickey Henderson and frame it.
They'll probably send you some other stuff, calling you a sinner or such.
Or maybe more money??
My first suggestion is to cash the check, donate $100 to the charity of your choice, and then run a 7 Deadly Sins contest where you send the remaining money (in the swanky box) to the winner.
My second suggestion is to keep the cash yourself and enjoy the weekend. You've already given into the EA's demands for free publicity by posting this, and none of us thought of you as "credible" anyway.
I vote for Doctors Without Borders
It's no secret you've been given the money, no one can logically think you've been paid off. So go ahead, get a great bottle of vodka, go to a strip club, pay your bills, buy a whole ton of tacos, give it all to the first hobo you see, or even burn the money. Whatever lets you sleep at night, really.
Not cashing the check doesn't seem particularly wasteful. It's not like the money goes where no one will ever see it. EA will still have the money. Maybe that's not who some would like to see have it, but it didn't vanish into thin air or spoil like food would. Donating the money to Child's Play would be my vote.
If there's concern about journalistic integrity for cashing the check, don't keep the money and just let us know what you did with it. I'd laugh my ass off at Dale North drunk on a web cam all day.
TAKE THE MONEY BUT DO NOT CASH THE CHECK!
I don't care what you guys do with it but take the damn check and get someone else to review the game. You don't even have to cash it in! You could keep it for a while and then sell it for over $200 as a collectors item. You could then give $200 or more of that money to charatiy and keep something for destructoid. EA keeps its money, you guys get some money, a charity gets $200 richer and some nerd get a really cool check!
Everybody wins!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_Foundation_Burn_a_Million_Quid
You get the scandal of having cashed the check, the even more scandalous honest review when the games comes out "ZOMG 4/10 but you cashed their check!!!!" and the satisfying retort "Yeah, but we donated it to charity, dick."
Oh yeah, and you help the kids. Bonus.