Board game giant Hasbro recent announced a surprising new version of
its classic Monopoly [http://www.hasbro.com/monopoly/en_US/]. No,
it’s not another edition of Chocolatopoly
[http://www.amazon.com/Late-for-the-Sky-Chocolate-Opoly/dp/B001CBJZ2U].
Monopoly Live
[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/16/business/16monopoly.html], out next
fall, will replace the paper money with ATM cards. And a tower at
the center of the board will keep track of the money (bye bye,
banker!) and enforce the rules (bye bye, cheating Aunt Phyllis!).
But it strikes us that just adding a computer chip to the game won’t
make it contemporary. Monopoly was first produced by Parker Brothers
in 1935, during the Great Depression. Now, in the age of foreclosures
and bank bailouts, we think Monopoly needs to get with the times.
And game designer Brenda Brathwaite
[http://bbrathwaite.wordpress.com/about/] says there’s another
problem with the game: it’s designed to be boring. “The game is
literally just about waiting for people to run out of money and
perish,” she told Kurt Andersen. “The only person who is having
any fun is the one person who's causing this destruction. And that's
not fun considering this can go on for hours!”
We want your ideas about how to redesign Monopoly. New player
pieces? A new board with new rules? Maybe we should be able to
build something other than houses and hotels? What about highly
leveraged loans or environmental impact statements?
SUBMIT YOUR IDEAS BY 11:59PM EDT MAY 3 — WE’LL FEATURE SOME OF OUR
FAVORITES ON THE SHOW.
We’ll give all your ideas to Brenda Brathwaite, who will create a
new-and-improved (if unofficial) version of the game.
SLIDESHOW: MONOPOLY THROUGH THE YEARS
