Is nothing sacred???
(h/t to Harper's Weekly Review)
Hasbro's Monopoly to Gain Computer Overseer
Monopoly is going 21st century. Soon, there will be a computer managing all the transactions in the game, which will make all the clever alterations to the game's rules that people inevitably use as part of the fun a thing of the past.
Monopoly Live, as it is called, was shown off at last week's Toy Fair in New York. Instead of that huge center space in the board, where players used to throw money, put the Community Chest and Chance cards, and roll the dice, is an infrared tower with a speaker. It's the HAL 9000 for your Monopoly board, and it issues commands, er, instructions, keeps track of the money and makes sure players stick to the rules. There's no confusion here. It even makes sure you advance the correct number of spaces.
Since they went this far, it's unclear why they didn't simply use electronic representations of the Monopoly figures you move around the board.
HAL-like computer tower rules Monopoly Live
The classic tokens, properties, and plastic buildings have been retained, but there's no paper money; dice; or Chance or Community Chest cards.
The tower does all that, along with barking instructions to players, as seen in the vid below. An added feature involves sending a plastic cab around on a rail to dodge taxes, and the tower can sometimes announce random events like a horse race or property auction.
In classic Monopoly, players wheel and deal with each other, screaming for rent and hiding $100 bills up a sleeve or under the board. In Monopoly Live, they seem to be interacting with the computer. Is that the purpose of a board game?
Monopoly Live? Are we really this lazy?
Compared to what is going on in the streets, I understand that this is relatively minor. But it's necessary. First they came for Guitar Hero, and nobody said anything. Now they're coming for Monopoly - someone has to speak up!
After all, it's only from Monopoly that I understand how foreclosures work or what spawned the financial crisis. "Watch the banker!" I insist. "Because if the banker takes your money and spends it on houses nobody can afford, then no one has any money and the game is over! Also, do not let Bernie Madoff be the banker."
But this is no Monopoly. "Monopoly Live" is to Monopoly as listening to baseball on the radio is to playing baseball. This game is perfect for people who don't want to play Monopoly, but would like a robot to tell them about it in detail. It's the books-on-tape edition of life. "Don't have a childhood?" it asks. "Here's a bored, yet patient robot voice describing what it would be like if you had one!"