Gamers who got the top score in a Tunisian mobile game got the ultimate — and perhaps oddest — grand prize: a real live cow.
The game developers delivered the animal, named Pamela, to a Tunisian couple that managed to get the highest scores while playing the game. The cow previously lived at the game developer's headquarters for two weeks in Tunis before moving in with her new owners.
The strategy game in question is called Bagra, which translates to "cow" and tasks players in herding cows while keeping other players from stealing them. Meanwhile, players also must try to steal cows from other herds for themselves. It seems that the couple in question was really good at both herding and stealing bovines, so that's certainly a résumé-builder. The game also allows players to buy special items to help in their in-game cow wrangling.
Developer Digital Mania also gave out other prizes, too: home phones and tablet computers, which some might argue are better than a cow. However, the contest is far from over: the developer has another cow to give away named Brigitte. That cow's fate, though, lies with the winner; she can be taken in as is, donated to charity or converted to raw meat.
Fortunately, it seems that Pamela's fate turned out positive: she went to her new home in the back of a pick-up truck.
Tunisia isn't known just for its cow-herding mobile game, though: it also hosts the town, Tataouine, which Star Wars fans know as a shooting location for the fictional planet of Tatooine, Luke Skywalker's home. Unfortunately, that town recently became a waypoint for the terrorist organization ISIS, which the group uses while traveling to and from Libya.
Although Star Wars fans often made pilgrimages to the Tunisian town in the past, tourism is now down due to the influx of ISIS in the country, as well as terrorist attacks that occurred earlier this year in Tunis at the Bardo Museum. If ISIS gains any kind of control of the country, the legacy of Star Wars — and the future of local video game developers — might disappear.
Bagra is available now on Google Play in that region.
