Monopoly Game 'Updated'

[Knight-Dragon]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050616/od_uk_nm/oukoe_leisure_monopoly

Mayfair is missing as Monopoly gets makeover

LONDON (Reuters) - Monopoly, the world famous board game in which players try to drive each other into bankruptcy, has been forced into a makeover by soaring property prices.

Parker, the company which makes the game, issued a 70th anniversary edition on Thursday complete with new locations and updated property prices to reflect the way the world's great cities have evolved since 1935 when it was invented.

The famous London board has been totally overhauled.

Gone are the upmarket areas of Park Lane and Mayfair, which, in the original edition, could be bought for 350 pounds and 400 pounds respectively.

Instead, the most expensive locations in the "Monopoly Here and Now" edition are Canary Wharf and The City, both business districts, which sell for 10,000 times those prices.

The Strand has been replaced by the London Eye and Vine Street has given way to the Tate Modern art gallery. Old Kent Road, the cheapest location on the original board, has been eclipsed by trendy Portobello Market.

"The face of London has changed considerably over the last 70 years and property prices have risen to values never imagined in the 1930s," property location expert Phil Spencer said.

Other elements of the game have also been altered.

The little metal pieces which players use to move around the board have been modernised. The old boot has become a roller blade, the vintage car has become a racing car and a mobile phone has been introduced.

The game's famous banknotes have been updated to take account of inflation.

London is not the only city to get a Monopoly makeover. Most of Europe's major cities have received similar treatment.

The total value of property on the new Dublin board, for example, has been upped to more than 150 million euros from a hopelessly unrealistic 15,000 euros, reflecting the changes wrought by the city's "Celtic Tiger" boom of the past decade.

Monopoly was invented in the United States but, with its competitive, capitalist ethos, soon caught on around the world. It is now licensed or sold in 80 countries and printed in 32 languages including Hindi, Icelandic and Catalan.

Parker say that since it was launched, some 200 million Monopoly sets have been sold worldwide and the game has been played by an estimated 500 million people.

 

[phoenix_night]

:thumbdown

The game is all about getting Mayfair...

 

[Rik Meleet]

Why ??

Monopoly is not about reality; it's about fun. I don't care if the Kalverstraat is 40.000 Euro (or guilder) or 400 or 400.000.000. Smells like marketing reasons, not reality reasons. Anyway; this won't make me buy the game again, the one I have is still functioning properly.

 

[Elrohir]

That's pointless. :thumbdown

 

[Narz]

I'm glad to be an American.

 

[Totibbs]

on a school-test for History lessons we had a question something like: "Monopoly, a world wide very populair board game. Why isnt it availible in Russia and China?"

It had something to do with communism and capitalism

 

[~Corsair#01~]

[obvious]

[/obvious]

 

[Chieftess]

Mayfair? I don't remember that...

I do remember a Park Place and Boardwalk as the highest ones (though I think they were $400 and $450). Then again, mine's the American version.

Sample screenshot (on most boards, Baltic and Med. are more purple than what's shown in the screenshot).

 

[CoolioVonHoolio]

i love the original monopoly theres no point in changing it...

 

[Reno]

I'm glad that i've got the Finnish language game since they won't be changing anything there.

And i think "Mayfair" is called "Erottaja" in the Finnish one.

 

[Marla_Singer]

Mayfair? I don't remember that...

I do remember a Park Place and Boardwalk as the highest ones

You fool !

The highest ones are the Champs-Elysées and the Rue de la Paix !

 

[Marla_Singer]

i love the original monopoly theres no point in changing it...

I agree. I can't see why we would replace the Rue de la Paix with La Défense or the Gare d'Austerlitz with Charles de Gaulle airport. As already said, it's only a game. And anyway it's so far from the reality that there's really no point to try to make it "more real".

Actually, there's even an avenue which has changed its name but has kept the former one on the French monopoly board. It's the "Avenue de Neuilly" which has been recalled "Avenue Charles de Gaulle". I would be pissed off if they would call it "Avenue Charles de Gaulle" in the Monopoly !

 

[Nobody]

i prefer the English one (with parklane and mayfair) but the New Zealand one was Lambton Quay and Queen Street

 

[Scuffer]

I wonder what the hell they put in the Luxembourg version? there can't possibly be enough big roads to go round.

 

[CoolioVonHoolio]

I agree. I can't see why we would replace the Rue de la Paix with La Défense or the Gare d'Austerlitz with Charles de Gaulle airport. As already said, it's only a game. And anyway it's so far from the reality that there's really no point to try to make it "more real".

Actually, there's even an avenue which has changed its name but has kept the former one on the French monopoly board. It's the "Avenue de Neuilly" which has been recalled "Avenue Charles de Gaulle". I would be pissed off if they would call it "Avenue Charles de Gaulle" in the Monopoly !

SERIOUSLY!

wait what?

 

[Marla_Singer]

SERIOUSLY!

wait what?

whut ?

 

[Stapel]

Who cares!

It's Parker's business and not ours.

 

[CoolioVonHoolio]

sorry marla but i didnt understand what you were talking about, too much french...

 

[Shaihulud]

i am horribly good or lucky with this game, after sometime in the game when everyone realise my position, they try to gang up to force me from the game. Thats when the Game really starts for me.

 

[Sparta]

:thumbdown

The game is all about getting Mayfair...

Just this week I actually pulled a miraculously lucky victory from a friend who'd acquired Mayfair and and Park Lane (the stateside-versions, anyway) before I'd even gotten a single monopoly, one on one no less. He was broke, I survived for a couple turns and snagged an orange monopoly, mortgaged everything else, and slowly bled him dry while building up houses. It was great.

Agreed on the :thumbdown: , though. Who cares if every quantity is x10,000? And good god, why would I want to add a cell phone to a liesurely board game??

@Chieftess: the property costs are all the same - regardless of the name or country, the values are all universal, AFAIK (e.g. 350/400). Which is part of why it seems so pointless to add a universal multiplier. It's like they're the laziest modder of all time.