Monopoly Goes Digital: Is Paper Money a Thing of the Past?

[jtbell]

No more Monopoly money?!

Hasbro is introducing a new version of the classic Monopoly game that has the familiar houses, hotels and title deed cards, but no paper money. A computer sitting in the middle of the board keeps track of players' money and rolls virtual dice for you, telling you what to do via its speaker.

No Dice, No Money, No Cheating. Are You Sure This Is Monopoly? (NY Times)

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

No Dice, No Money, No Cheating. Are You Sure This Is Monopoly? (NY Times)

No Cheating!? Well, no reason for me to play then! :D

 

[Dembadon]

I used to love stocking the center of the board with a stack of 100's. Then, when one would land of Free Parking, one was rich! Handling and managing the paper money was a big part of the experience for me.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

My boss will have to find some other way to pay me.

 

[D H]

No Dice, No Money, No Cheating. Are You Sure This Is Monopoly? (NY Times)

Who plays Monopoly by the official rules? No house rules? No Free Parking money? No shoes=$50, socks=$100, pants, shirts=$200, brassiere=$300, undershorts=$500?

What's the point then?

 

[Ygggdrasil]

Kids will have one less means to use and practice their math skills and another game where they sit passively by and let a computer tell them what to do.

 

[Evo]

Kids will have one less means to use and practice their math skills and another game where they sit passively by and let a computer tell them what to do.

Sounds so mentally stimulating. Gee, a game that required minimal counting? Can't have that.

 

[turbo]

I used to "appoint" one of my sisters (all younger) as the banker, according to their abilities. Very simple "banking" with no complex math, so even the youngest could do it by the time she was old enough to play the game.

I don't get out much anymore, but it was pretty disappointing to see cashiers that needed their electronic cash registers to calculate correct change for a purchase. If you get one of those geniuses, don't even bother digging in your pocket for change to see if you can match the cents exactly and get just bills in your change. That brings the world to a halt.

 

[cobalt124]

No accidentally mixing your own money with the banks'?! My youngest son learned to count change playing Monopoly. Bloody machines.

 

[nismaratwork]

Great, now we can just focus on the sheer rage the game inevitably induces isntead of those pesky LESSONS it was meant to teach.

Great... we've come from this: http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/49924/monopoly-in-the-ghetto/

At Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum/memorial in Israel, there is a cardboard, hand-drawn Monopoly board made in the Theresienstadt ghetto in what was then Czechoslovakia. The properties—the Marvin Gardens, Park Place, etc.—are locations in the ghetto, which, interestingly, were named after various German cities. And CNN gathered Micha and Dan Glass, the two brothers who played the game, salvaged it, and donated it, in front of the board. (They survived the ghetto, along with their mother; their father was killed in Auschwitz.)

Historical documentation is of the utmost importance, of course. But after all the survivors are gone, I am betting that it is going to be things like a Theresienstadt-specific Monopoly board—little, almost novelistic details that are so idiosyncratic and unlikely they simply could not have been imagined—that we are going to turn to teach unsuspecting younger generations abut what really did happen to the Jews of Europe.

through the use of cards and now into utter stupidity, and "Cityville" on a board. I feel badly for any kids who grow up knowing only this version.

 

[physics girl phd]

I used to "appoint" one of my sisters (all younger) as the banker...

I used to be a younger-sister banker. It was a way to avoid all the cheating tension... until I was old enough to actively engage in it.

I feel badly for any kids who grow up knowing only this version.

The article does say they'll continue selling the original version too. (If not -- there's always thrift stores -- I once spent 15 minutes checking to be sure a scrabble board had all the tiles, so I could get a "wood tile" version; In my opinion a plastic tile version just isn't the same... although we already have a Monopoly, so we'd already be set.

As an aside... The Game of Life is now horrid -- even though it still uses paper money and the spinner / UFO of DEATH (and I think has the spot where you inherit 50 cats), you now draw cards for your job (and second later career and "starter home" and final home). What fun is that? Why choose a college path?

 

[turbo]

I used to be a younger-sister banker. It was a way to avoid all the cheating tension... until I was old enough to actively engage in it.

My youngest sister eventually became a quite accomplished cheat, when she thought that her older siblings were lulled into complacency. She would still lose, by making unwise choices during the game, but she could hang in there longer if she could tap the bank for "extra" funds. She would (and WILL) cheat at any game. She'd howl like a banshee if I insisted that she used a shaker cup in dice games - her "edge" at Yahtzee would disappear if she had to play honestly.

 

[xxChrisxx]

Noone has ever finished a game of monopoly in the history of mankind. After a 5 hour game 50% of couples get a divorce. After 9 hours, 80% of players find themselves murdered.

On saying that monopoly is my second favorite board game after Risk.

 

[nismaratwork]

I used to be a younger-sister banker. It was a way to avoid all the cheating tension... until I was old enough to actively engage in it.



The article does say they'll continue selling the original version too. (If not -- there's always thrift stores -- I once spent 15 minutes checking to be sure a scrabble board had all the tiles, so I could get a "wood tile" version; In my opinion a plastic tile version just isn't the same... although we already have a Monopoly, so we'd already be set.

As an aside... The Game of Life is now horrid -- even though it still uses paper money and the spinner / UFO of DEATH (and I think has the spot where you inherit 50 cats), you now draw cards for your job (and second later career and "starter home" and final home). What fun is that? Why choose a college path?

Oh I know... and I used to enjoy 'The Game of Life' (to be clear from life in general)... it was definitely an early victim of the chopping block. Fortunately it seems to me that just leaving out the batteries and photocopying "funny money" could be a decent way to get around this. Still... ugh.


xxChrisxx: I thought that WAS how you finished?

 

[Chi Meson]

Noone has ever finished a game of monopoly in the history of mankind. After a 5 hour game 50% of couples get a divorce. After 9 hours, 80% of players find themselves murdered.

On saying that monopoly is my second favorite board game after Risk.

I was just going to say the same thing. In 40+ years of playing Monopoly (most recently, "Horseopoly" with my equestrian daughter), I have never, never, never ever actually finished a game to its actual completion. One game with my brother lasted well over a year with at least 30 total accumulated hours of play time. We'd switch back and forth between being way ahead and then way behind, but no one ever went out. And I have never met anyone who actually did win a game outright.

 

[nismaratwork]

I was just going to say the same thing. In 40+ years of playing Monopoly (most recently, "Horseopoly" with my equestrian daughter), I have never, never, never ever actually finished a game to its actual completion. One game with my brother lasted well over a year with at least 30 total accumulated hours of play time. We'd switch back and forth between being way ahead and then way behind, but no one ever went out. And I have never met anyone who actually did win a game outright.

I lost a game outright, which means a friend won it outright... not proud of that, but I think it's the only time I've seen it truly end.


We both agreed that Monopoly was an impediment to our friendship!

 

[Pengwuino]

Noone has ever finished a game of monopoly in the history of mankind. After a 5 hour game 50% of couples get a divorce. After 9 hours, 80% of players find themselves murdered.

On saying that monopoly is my second favorite board game after Risk.

What the hell, when I use to play, we'd have a winner in 2-3 hours at the most. Don't you all know how to get the orange properties?

 

[turbo]

What the hell, when I use to play, we'd have a winner in 2-3 hours at the most. Don't you all know how to get the orange properties?

Damned penguins are the bomb at real-estate!

 

[Pengwuino]

It's all about the orange spaces. Every time someone goes to jail, they have to walk right into the PIT OF ORANGE DEATH. I've beaten people multiple times that had hotels on boardwalk and park place. When they sell their hotels to pay me, it's like making love to a beautiful lady. And then using the kiss to buy a house.

 

[lisab]

I actually played a Monopoly game to completion! By dumb luck, the pile of money in the middle (what's that called again?) just grew and grew until it had about 75% of all the money in the game. My daughter hit it, and mercifully, it was all over just a few rolls later.

Took a few hours all together, though.

 

[nismaratwork]

Orange Spaces... *SEETHING HATRED*...

... I used to always go for the damed Boardwalk. Me dumb...

 

[Containment]

For some reason my mom always wanted to play this game with me when I was young. I almost always beat her so I started feeling sorry for her and started to just give the game away if I could. It's actually pretty hard to lose a game of monopoly if your opponent is as bad as my mom was at games :( I find it interesting that most people have the game in a closet or something but hardly ever play it. I keep asking the question do you guys want to play a game of monopoly at places only to get dead silence as a response.

 

[xxChrisxx]

What the hell, when I use to play, we'd have a winner in 2-3 hours at the most. Don't you all know how to get the orange properties?

It always happens that I manage to get two, and someone gets the third or vice versa. No amount of begging, dealing or stealing. Will make them part company with that last precious card.

As such, no bugger can build hotels, meaning an endless cycle of trying to get the free parking money or wanting to land in jail.

 

[Pengwuino]

Trade for a blue property or better yet, a green one. No one ever lands on that crap . I loved trading boardwalk for my final orange property because people thought "oh man now i just wait to land on park place and i win!". Of course, I WIN.

 

[Containment]

I think the main thing is just not to buy the rail roads so you have money for good stuff. My mom would buy every rail road she landed on I think she liked trains.

 

[Pengwuino]

I think the main thing is just not to buy the rail roads so you have money for good stuff. My mom would buy every rail road she landed on I think she liked trains.

:!) :!) Trains! :!) :!)

 

[cobalt124]

We usually "carve up the empire" and decide who is going for what in advance and let each other get them. I'm usually yellow and pink. Yes and my wife goes for orange and usually wins.

 

[Pengwuino]

We usually "carve up the empire" and decide who is going for what in advance and let each other get them. I'm usually yellow and pink. Yes and my wife goes for orange and usually wins.

Sounds like she's got the brains in the family.

Yellow is awful for some reason. For one, i can never freaken get all 3, and then even if I ever dare get them, no one lands on them and they're so expensive to put housing on compared to what you get in if for some magical reason someone lands on it.

The pink are pretty nice, they seem to get landed on a lot. The reds are pretty bad. I don't know why but that whole red/yellow side of the board is just a wasteland. I always want the purple ones just because they're so cheap and it's hilarious to get hotels on them and someone passes Go, collects their $200, and hands it right over to you half the time. No one really bothers trying to get them because its $250 and $400 with hotels or something and who really cares? Well, when they get landed on practically everytime someone goes around the board, I sure as hell do!

 

[Chi Meson]

Trade for a blue property or better yet, a green one. No one ever lands on that crap . I loved trading boardwalk for my final orange property because people thought "oh man now i just wait to land on park place and i win!". Of course, I WIN.

So, your REAL strategy was to play against idiots! Very clever, if I had done that I would win every time!

 

[BobG]

As an aside... The Game of Life is now horrid -- even though it still uses paper money and the spinner / UFO of DEATH (and I think has the spot where you inherit 50 cats), you now draw cards for your job (and second later career and "starter home" and final home). What fun is that? Why choose a college path?

They have a computerized version of that, too. Life - Twists and Turns. It's actually kind of fun, since you can accumulate Life Experience points in addition to money. Suddenly, going crazy on a cross country road trip can be worth more than earning money. Somewhere in there, there's probably a winning strategy on how often to go down each loop (I've only played it a couple times and wouldn't know), but watching who chose what strategy was kind of interesting, as was the frustration of the team that did the "Earn It!" loop over and over and couldn't understand why they were losing.

 

[nismaratwork]

You know what... we should enact some of those "blasphemy laws", but to protect cultural heritage. I have to say, my reaction is that I hope somewhere the Monopoly Man is real, aging... and in his rage at hearing this news makes a statement of, ""What miserable drones and traitors have I nourished and brought up in my household, who let their lord be treated with such shameful contempt by [These idiot marketing execuitves]?"... with all of the predictable results.

 

[BobG]

You know what... we should enact some of those "blasphemy laws", but to protect cultural heritage. I have to say, my reaction is that I hope somewhere the Monopoly Man is real, aging... and in his rage at hearing this news makes a statement of, ""What miserable drones and traitors have I nourished and brought up in my household, who let their lord be treated with such shameful contempt by [These idiot marketing execuitves]?"... with all of the predictable results.

He said that very thing about all of the ignorant players that decided on their own, in clear violation of the written rules included in each box, to add the stupid rule that money should go into the Free Parking space. That was a rule invented by players that knew they had no chance to win on brains and cunning alone and had to twist the game so that the winner would be decided by nothing more than luck.

Usually, the same players wanting money in Free Parking were also completely unable to understand a simple agreement where we could sell our Get Out of Jail free card back and forth to each other as a legal means to share rent - a tactic that greatly greases the skids towards trading property between players and avoids the eternal stalemate that develops when no players are able to get monopolies.

And what's this BS about the bank never running out of money, anyway?! What kind of lesson is that?! No wonder our generation had rampant inflation! At least Monopoly had housing shortages. It was a great tactic to leave 4 houses on all of your properties just to prevent anyone from building up on their properties unless they bought your Get Out of Jail Free card for about $3000 to encourage you to go ahead and buy hotels. Plus it prevented the entire economy of the game from crashing due to a housing bubble.

Or maybe the whole problem was that younger siblings vs older child relationship. The fact that I was the essential child and that they were just spares in case something bad happened to me created resentment in them and they always seemed to avoid trading with me.

 

[nismaratwork]

He said that very thing about all of the ignorant players that decided on their own, in clear violation of the written rules included in each box, to add the stupid rule that money should go into the Free Parking space. That was a rule invented by players that knew they had no chance to win on brains and cunning alone and had to twist the game so that the winner would be decided by nothing more than luck.

Usually, the same players wanting money in Free Parking were also completely unable to understand a simple agreement where we could sell our Get Out of Jail free card back and forth to each other as a legal means to share rent - a tactic that greatly greases the skids towards trading property between players and avoids the eternal stalemate that develops when no players are able to get monopolies.

And what's this BS about the bank never running out of money, anyway?! What kind of lesson is that?! No wonder our generation had rampant inflation! At least Monopoly had housing shortages. It was a great tactic to leave 4 houses on all of your properties just to prevent anyone from building up on their properties unless they bought your Get Out of Jail Free card for about $3000 to encourage you to go ahead and buy hotels. Plus it prevented the entire economy of the game from crashing due to a housing bubble.

Or maybe the whole problem was that younger siblings vs older child relationship. The fact that I was the essential child and that they were just spares in case something bad happened to me created resentment in them and they always seemed to avoid trading with me.

YES! Still... all valuable lessons, and something that pretty much everyone here seems to share regardless of age and background! Anyway, he's old and he doesn't have great vision, so we have to respect that while the old fellow is resistant to ALL change, blind squirrels.. nuts.. broken clocks... you get the idea.

Ohhh... where are some unstable and violent people when you need them?! Let's import the Iranian Parliament to chant "execute them!" slogans outside of Hasbro. We shouldn't MEAN them, but can you imagine the reaction to a bunch of angry people aged 4+ chanting death slogans in Persian. Still... there seem to be distinct downsides to any attempts to retard "progress", but if this is progress, hmmmph.

Frankly I wouldn't be shocked if this is an attempt to get new customers, AND at the same time, sell tons of older sets to people who don't want to be stuck with the new one.


OH yeah... and free-parking is key... take that away and let's just play "who rolls the higher number" on the dice.

 

[BobG]

OH yeah... and free-parking is key... take that away and let's just play "who rolls the higher number" on the dice.

But if you put money in Free Parking, then you're essentially playing "Let's see who gets tossed in jail most often" (since the person going to jail most often usually lands on Free Parking most often). What kind of lesson is that?!

 

[nismaratwork]

But if you put money in Free Parking, then you're essentially playing "Let's see who gets tossed in jail most often" (since the person going to jail most often usually lands on Free Parking most often). What kind of lesson is that?!

Monopoly.