RCT Discussion / Winning Real Money Playing RCT

I've been very curious to know how many hard-core RCT players have actually won serious contest money with this game.

I won $3985 a few years ago when Atari had a contest in conjunction with Hershey's, taking the top prize in the adult category. My entry, which I called the Cocoa Coaster, took me 3 hours to make, and was chocolate colored. Despite being limited to $25,000 virtual cash, I made a very tight design with interlocking loops and even threw in a barrel roll between the station and lift hill. According to the contest, I was to receive a bunch of electronic prizes with an estimated cash value of $3985, but the company that disbursed the prizes asked if I wanted a check for that amount and I agreed wholeheartedly to take the money.

IIRC, the grand prize of $100,000 was won by a 10 year old from Pennsylvania with a coaster called The Blue Kangaroo or something like that. I never did find out who won the top prize in the 13-18 category. Other than the $3985, the only other thing of monetary value I ever won playing the game was a very weird English/Swedish version of an add-on for The Sims.

Has anybody here on New Element ever win a decent amount (e.g. over 100 dollars, euros, or pounds) playing this game?

Edited by lunatim, 08 November 2009 - 07:38 AM.

So? How do you feel? No-life? I don't even want to win money with it. Nothing, this is a game I play for fun, not for money. 

So? How do you feel? No-life? I don't even want to win money with it. Nothing, this is a game I play for fun, not for money. 

How do I feel? Actually, I feel kinda proud to actually have earned money for playing a game that I enjoy.

No life? The main reason I've been away from RCT is that I've been busy as a kinetic artist working gigs from Las Vegas to Belgium. Heck, I just picked up $250 on Friday for teaching the art of stick-bomb making, and this Thursday a local reporter is coming over to interview me and videotape an attempt to beat my own record of a 2,102-stick bomb. Besides my art career, I have a new girlfriend, and am working on an epic time-travel novel. I don't knock people who are still playing RCT, but don't accuse me of having no life.

Besides, what's really cool is to play something one enjoys--and make a few bucks from it as well. The 3 hours I spent making Cocoa Coaster were actually fun, and the money I earned was just frosting on the cake.

But, seriously, I've been curious to know if other people have entered contests for RCT and got cash prizes. I'm aware that gamers have won considerable prize money for first-person shooters and games like that, but there doesn't seem to be much money going around for God games like SimCity and RCT...

Yeah Cena go be an asshole somewhere else. I don't think anyone here has won serious money besides a couple hundred bucks from tournaments here.

I know what you're talking about when you say you are proud to earn money from playing a game you enjoy. I won 200 dollars from a command and conquer tournament and it made me feel great.

I don't think anyone here has won serious money besides a couple hundred bucks from tournaments here.

There's actual RCT tourneys that give/gave out money?? That's a pleasant surprise. I had no clue that there were even contests out there for RCT that gave cash prizes. It's pretty gratifying to have one's park or ride featured on an RCT fan site, but prying money from the wallets of tournament organizers takes particular skill. There's a serious paucity of prize money for sim games compared to tactical/first-person-shooter games; if Maxis had actually given away cash prizes, SimCity would have sold a lot more copies, IMHO.

I know what you're talking about when you say you are proud to earn money from playing a game you enjoy. I won 200 dollars from a command and conquer tournament and it made me feel great.

Congrats on the Command & Conquer win! Do they still have cash prizes for that particular game?

Yea go to conquercup.com

I don't play anymore because I hate Red Alert 3.

I once won 50€ in the RCT Fun contest and 60€ in the never say 60 contest at RCTSpace. I never got the 60€ though ;D

That's all.

"MFG"

I won the RCT boardgame in the Rct2 coaster design competition. Other than the three RCT contest iterations run by the game companies, I think the only way to win money is with the occasional community run contest, and people usually don't worry much about the prize money.

Anyways, it's cool to hear you got some money out of that competition. I'd planned on coming up with the greatest design ever to pay for my college tuition, but I forgot until the last minute and entered some crap instead. Then once they announced the winner, I thought the whole thing was a joke, since the 10 year old grand prize winner was from the sponsor's hometown, and his design was sucky. But maybe at least the rest of the contest was legit. That $100,000 prize was by far the largest Rct contest prize offered, so it alone would make sense to rig.

Also, I've seen some of the big winners from the Rct2 contest on here and Rct2.com before. The big prizes for that were the pinball machine, and the grand prize was that, computer stuff, and a trip to any theme park in the US.

Lol, cena, weren't you the one saying we should pay people who win spotlights?

If I won any money with any contest, I would donate it back to New Element.

Just sayn'...

5dave--Congrats on winning the 50 euros! Too bad you didn't receive the other 60 euros, though...

Xcoaster--Yeah, I thought it was funny about the winner myself. They announced the results several months after they said they would and never made the winning coaster available like they promised. I don't think the Blue Kangaroo was even blue and there was nothing 'kangaroo-ish' about it. Just looking at the video they offered, it looked like a poor design, even for a 10 year old. Two or three lift hills, and it still almost stalled out. What was really funny is how, on the press release, a bunch of corporate pooh-bahs lauded the kid for being the 'next great coaster designer'. I thought it was peculiar, too, that he was from Pennsylvania, home of Hershey's. I'm not really going to speculate on what really happened, though.

However, they didn't really have to give me anything at all, so I'm not complaining. I really needed the money at the time, so I'm glad to have gotten some money out of it. $100,000 would have been nice, though...

Nice? That would be amazing... winning like... half a year's pay-check for playing a game...

My dad would kill me and take the money.

So? How do you feel? No-life? I don't even want to win money with it. Nothing, this is a game I play for fun, not for money. 

go watch sweaty oiled up men play fight with each other there champ.

only game ive won money with was Counter Strike 1.5 in cal M for a few years till they fucked the whole series up with 1.6 and source, won a few hundred playin online poker but i dont think i got the focus to really put down a money winning entry in a RCT competition.

Edited by rK_, 08 November 2009 - 03:53 PM.

Nice? That would be amazing... winning like... half a year's pay-check for playing a game...

It'd be cool to be a professional computer-game player. Alas, this was definitely a one-time deal, though. I wandered away from RCT to my kinetic art because I can actually make money on occasion with my art...

rK_--That's great to hear you can actually win money from online poker!

Edited by lunatim, 08 November 2009 - 03:58 PM.

If you want another cash contest, go convince Kumba to use some of his poker winnings to start one. What was the cash prize for winning the PT3? Something on the line of $75? Too bad the prize was dropped when posix and gee took over. 5Dave would've been one happy guy!

Interestingly though, the PT3 was the longest contest ever held at NE, having two seperate preliminary contests and lasting over a year (summer of 2007 to fall of 2008). Just some fun facts about NE.

I once won 50€ in the RCT Fun contest and 60€ in the never say 60 contest at RCTSpace. I never got the 60€ though ;D

That's all.

"MFG"

did the supercell contest not feature a money prize also which we didn't accept ?

@ topicstarter -> look at the contets on this site. some like the Pro Tour have prize money, often tough the winner wont even accept it or its just forgotten . cause we all play here for fun and we dont need the money to make the parks .

Who in their right mind wouldn't accept the money? It was won fair and square, and by the sound of it, we're all either high school or college students so the money would definitely be useful.

^ Wow... that post was really stupid.

Oddly enough I agree with FullMetal.

How is it stupid to want money Tim?

How is it stupid to want money Tim?

Not stupid at all. Making an occasional 100 euros from winning a contest doesn't mean somebody is a total greedhead; it's just very gratifying to know that you're good enough at what you do that you can make a buck or two at it. I'm still paying money each month to maintain my RCT fansite, Lunatim's Loopy Land ( http://www.lunatim.c...and/loopy.shtml ), so making money from playing RCT isn't really my ultimate goal. I just enjoyed the hell out of RCT and winning the Atari/Hershey's contest was just an added bonus.

On a larger perspective, I'm not into the whole 'greed is good' mentality, but unless a person is a trust-fund recipient, we all need money just to make it in this world. I'd love to live in a world where money isn't necessary, but that's a pipe dream that will never exist. I just hope to make enough money with my time-travel novel and kinetic art ( http://www.lunatim.c...t/kinetic.shtml ) to quit my seasonal day job--I don't really expect to become as rich as Croesus doing it...