Here & Now
Monday, September 25th, 2006
After two games of the new, Here & Now Edition of MONOPOLY, I figured it was my patriotic duty to write up some of my impressions.
Tokens
Much of the media attention has focused on the new playing pieces. These are:
- Laptop Computer
- McDonald’s French Fries
- Labradoodle
- A Cup of Starbucks Coffee
- Mobile Phone
- Jet Plane
- Toyota Prius
Some have suggested that the use of recognizable brands here constitutes “selling out”. This strikes me as a strange charge for a game that is a celebration of pure capitalism. The tokens are reasonably emblematic and Hasbro reportedly hasn’t received any payment from the brand holders (although their relationship with the McDonald’s people was already pretty cozy.)
The mobile phone looks an awful lot like the laptop. Surely an iPod would have been a better choice.
Another thing — since when does Starbucks coffee come in a nice ceramic cup? Although I prefer Dunkin, I visit Starbucks occasionally and can’t remember ever being offered one.
Final word on the new tokens: nice, but I still prefer the classic MONOPOLY Scottish Terrier and Kodos from Simpsons MONOPOLY.
Properties
The classic Atlantic City spaces are charming, but also obscure. Here & Now Edition features properties from all over the United States.
I like seeing public places like Times Square and the Golden Gate Bridge on the board. But it feels a little uncomfortable to “buy” them, particularly given recent inroads by Libertarians to privatize American schools. I do appreciate the irony that the White House is for sale.
(In this same vein, the National Parks edition of MONOPOLY is now more depressing than ever in light of National Geographic’s recent articles discussing attempts to sell off or diminish our national parks.)
Board
The three-dimensional Rich Uncle Pennybanks / Mr. MONOPOLY and “America” back drop in the center of the board look okay, but was it really necessary to crowd them out with the enromous MONOPOLY logo, which contains another Rich Uncle Pennybanks / Mr. MONOPOLY? Take it easy on the branding, Hasbro; we know what the danged game is called. This may make sense for Star Wars MONOPOLY, but it is totally unnecessary here.
Money
To better represent today’s market, prices have been multiplied 1000 times over their classic values. Now, you get $2,000,000 for passing Go rather than $200. This seems like it would be a small matter, but significantly effects game play.
These prices seem more natural, and the resulting fortunes are more satisfying.
I found that it was surprisingly trickier to do math in my head with all those extra zeros. Unmortgaging was difficult, and we found we were having to break up transactions into more steps than usual. In some cases, dividing everything by 1000 to recall the classic prices helped.
One disappointment was Hasbro’s failure to find more distinct colors for the $100,000 and $1,000,000 bills. They’re yellow and very yellow, and easier to confuse than ever. If you’re out there listening, Hasbro, please consider changing $10,000 to brown or purple.