Facebook game gives winner real gold

Many popular social games require you to gather gems and various trinkets to advance further. But how would you like a Facebook game that pays the winner with real gold?

As you may know, real gold is often hard to come by. But according to Tecca, the new Facebook contest by American Express will indeed pay the winner with $15,000 of the shiny stuff.



    

The competiton is known as The Great American Express Gold Rush and it will be in operation from now until August 5.

    

The game is centered on trading virtual gold with different world regions. The gameplay requires the player to travel around the world and compare and contrast gold prices to find the best deals.

    

The money raised via the gold broker deals in the game is the factor that is used to rank players on the leaderboard. The person who makes the most profit when the game is over will be crowned the winner. They won’t get an actual crown, but the winner can have their gold treasure prize melted down into a crown if they so choose.

    

The folks at American Express set up this interesting challenge as a way to advertise its new Preferred Rewards Gold Card. So if you don’t win the gold prize and you still crave material things, you can still apply for the gold card and buy a bunch of stuff that way.

    

Right now the game can be played by anyone who has a Facebook account.

    

But, and here’s the part that many people will not like; only residents of the U.K. are able to win prizes. So if you’re American, you’re SOL.

    

The credit monger American Express is nice enough to point out that the market scenarios simulated in the game should not be used to any investment purposes.

Apparently some people are so dumb that they would bet the farm on some fake investment advice they received from a Facebook game. Since many people lack common sense American Express had to put a disclaimer with the game. Good grief.

If you live in the U.K. and want to win some gold you, or if you just want to check the game out, you can do so at the Facebook page for The Great American Express Gold Rush.