New Monopoly Game Design – Does it Deliver or Disappoint?
February 5th, 2010We don’t normally blog about the designs of board games, but since Monopoly is the most famous board game of all time and has somewhat its root in different real estate “properties” we thought we would use it as a perfect way to start the weekend.
This new version of Monopoly is a special 75th anniversary version of the game and includes a number of interesting changes. The board is circular, doesn’t have paper money but debit cards instead, and when you pass go you don’t get a measly $200, but $2,000,000 to account for all the inflation and the change in real estate prices since 1935 when Monopoly was first released.
What do you think of this new design? Do you like the new look or does it disappoint? Post your comments below, @ reply your thoughts on our twitter or post them on our Facebook Fan Page!
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Tags: 75th anniversary monopoly, monopoly, monopoly debit game, new monopoly design, new monopoly game, new monopoly game design, new monopoly pieces
So what’s this about no community chest or chance? Okay, community chest gone, maybe. We don’t live in communities, we live in houses with the intent of isolating and estranging ourselves from everyone except our out-of-town/out-of-state friends (which is just so brilliant that it makes a black hole look like it’s actually giving off visible light). But Chance?
Oh, I get it. Government’s outlawed any elements of chance in life — if you’re going to fall behind, it’s your own fault, and if you’re going to get ahead, you must be doing something illegal to make that happen anyway.
But I digress.
1. Inflation has been over-compensated. Collecting 2M for GO? That’s absurd. I could see maybe two, maybe three orders of magnitude for today’s prices, which pops us up to $200,000 for passing GO.
2. DEBIT? Screw that. I’m actually trying to migrate my life to pretty much an all-cash basis, myself. I don’t trust the banks!
3. Batteries on a boardgame. No. Just…no. No real boardgame of substance uses batteries.
4. Circular, wandering around on wedge-shaped lots? Srsly? At least the properties on the square board made sense.
5. Names are irrelevant — that’s why there are so many bloody versions of Monopoly out there.
6. “How come only one company makes Monopoly?” Cute. I like it.
7. The clear player tokens suck.
I think that playing with the paper cash is the only way to go, and I think that altering the game play to have no community chest/chance is really a sharp deviation from the original — sharp enough to warrant doing some other design modifications and coming up with a whole new game (I have some ideas). Leave Monopoly alone.
While overall I may not be thrilled with the whole concept, this will definitely forestall something that my family ran into a number of times on a few of our marathon-length Monopoly games… the necessity of going out to buy another board because the bank was out of money! lol
I’m deployed to Iraq right now, but we’ll probably give it a shot… if it’s less then ideal, as most people have already said, we’ll just pull out one of our old boards and call it a day!
I’m a 24 year old young professional, probably right in the target market for this game. It’s a very efficient and slick version of monopoly, but frankly I love my old clunky dice and wrinkled bills. I like the little monopoly dude on all the chance cards, and I like the way the prices make sense on each side of the board. Maybe they will force this upon us and it will be the wave of the future, but I’m keeping my square monopoly.
What irks me the most is that whoever designed this board has changed the order of some of the spaces on the board. Take a closer look at that last picture. That large black space should be Short Line, but it looks like it’s become Chance or Community Chest or something. The railroad for that side of the board is actually two spaces before the black space, right where Community Chest should be. Right after the black space is Electricity, right where Chance should be. There shouldn’t even be a utility property on that side of the board at all.
Actually, if you look at the second picture, you can see that the space between the red properties is Gas, which sells for 1.5M. Looks as though they’ve added more utilities to this new version, meaning you need more properties for that monopoly. This means one of two things: Either they’ve bumped the rent for the utility properties up, perhaps made them work more like the railroads, since you need more for the monopoly now, so that the “balance” of the game is thrown out of whack; or the utility properties just suck even more now, which I never would have thought possible. I’m tempted to pick up a copy of this version just to find out how exactly the game play has changed.
If I do buy this, though, I’m likely to buy some spare Monopoly money (Do they still sell those packages in toy stores?) and take a Sharpie to every price on the board to reflect the original values. I greatly dislike that the electronic card system makes money transactions take longer and that you can’t know how much money you have without swiping your card. I agree with everyone that says the electronic-ness of the newer versions stinks.
But to all of you who think Monopoly is the greatest board game ever: You all need to play more European board games. I would like to refer you to Richard’s post (#40), specifically to the link he provided to http://www.boardgamegeeks.com. Half of the games he specifically mentioned are easily located somewhere at the top of their list, and for very good reason. (Monopoly, for the record, is on that list at, like, 1,500th place.) If you like board games, give them a try. You won’t be disappointed.
Architecturally it looks nice and modern but I think I’ll stick to the classic.
I see your lips moving but all i hear is QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ
grow up, will you? it’s a nice, different design, snap out of it and experience something new
you prefer the board, then don’t buy this one.
not the end of the world.
Awful! I can’t believe they changed it! Way to kill a classic and awesome game Hasbro. At least when I have kids, they’ll be playing with the ‘old’ monopoly games I have.
Ok,
1. Circular Board – eh… I kind of like it, though I will surely miss ordering my husband to move my piece for me since I have short arms and can’t reach across the table to do it myself… hee hee.
2. Colors – again, eh… definitely more modern, and possibly something I could get used to, but… eh…
3. Pieces – Flat out, no. I want to actually HOLD my little bag of money piece… especially when I win and get to say that the credit goes to me having had the bag of money piece.
4. Money System – Again, flat out no. Yes, in real life I use credit/debit cards, but my kids don’t, and though some people say that chores may teach them more realistic money-management skills (and I tend to concur), it’s still teaching my Kindergartener basic math and counting skills… addition, subtraction, multiplication… THOSE educational skills are still present in the “Classic” game. Also, it completely prevents the House Rule of putting all the taxes and fines on Free Parking for an added bonus of who lands on it, which is always fun to celebrate over when you land on it and another player missed it by one space… not to mention the under-the-table team-ups and shady deals that frequently occur in mutliplayer gameplay… at least until your “team” is the only one left and you subsequently stab each other in the back to win… hee hee hee…
5. – “Zones” and property renaming – Firm no. I could understand it with the “themed” versions of Monopoly; the military versions, the Disney versions, the Spongebob version… I can get that, since it’s a theme and the property names go with the theme, but for flat-out Monopoly? No. “Boardwalk” and “Park Place” are Monopoly icons in and of themselves. Even the McDonalds Monopoly they do every year still uses those names. Why? Because they are Monopoly incarnate.
6. @ whoever said that this would appeal to the World of Warcraft crowd and not to 40-somethings… first off, I doubt anything would pull some of the WoW Kids away from the computer for a board game… even if there was a power outage. Secondly, there are plenty of 40-somethings that actually play WoW too. Thirdly, ONLY if they made a World of Warcraft Monopoly might my first point change… and then only if it was on the computer.
Conclusion: I’m not buying this. I’ll stick to my “Classic” Monopoly.
I am 16, so I can probably be considered the technologically-infected generation an electronic version of monopoly appeals to… but I don’t like it. The credit and debit cards look frustrating and would take longer than normal money, and monopoly is a long game anyway. And the futuristic look, and lots of 0000’s added to prices, won’t make me buy ‘new’ monopoly, but I suppose they did try to do something to get no people to buy Monopoly, almost everyone who likes board games owns a monopoly version, so they need to make it ‘new’ so people will buy this newer version too.
I wonder what futuristic scrabble will look like….
But…what will kids use as money for class skits/presentations now? My monopoly money got a lot of use as prop money in school. :/
The only reason (I speculate) that debit cards are being used is because the prices were inflated so much that it would be insane to count that much paper money. So…they could have inflated the prices more reasonably (honestly, 2million for passing go…wtf) and avoided the debit card situation.
Also, community chest and chance were some of the best parts of the game…I feel like it would get boring without those.
This makes me angry.
I am not sure about the change. I kind of like the round design of the board but do not like the pieces at all. The credit card system is not fantastic. I have played both ways and the credit card system has some advantages but loses the “feel” of the game. The zones aren’t renamed however. This isn’t the American version of Monopoly, this is the UK’s version. The names were changed for the UK version in the 1930’s to reflect location in the UK in hopes of improving sales by adding a “local” feel.
To those of you saying “QQ”: we know we’re complaining, thank you. It’s what the post asked for.
Plain and simple, I could live with all the changes except the Debit cards. Debit cards = batteries. When you’re at a family cabin in the woods, either you aren’t going to waste your batteries on this nonsense or you aren’t really at a cabin in the woods.
Board games are meant to be played without electronics. If we wanted electronics, we’d play on the computer or split-screen on our consoles.
Here is the official release for those looking for more info: http://www.hasbro.com/corporate/media/press-releases/HASBRO-CELEBRATES-75-YEARS-OF-MONOPOLY-WITH-ROUND-GAME-BOARD.cfm?src=endeca
Coke tried it, and now we have Coke classic. Monopoly was pretty successful. the new one might appeal to some, but vintage games done the old way should continue, or Monopoly has gone the way of the dinosaurs.
@Jeremy:
you say “the zones aren’t renamed” as this is the English version- I assume you mean the *properties*? The Zones concept (walking/cycle/car/rocket) are a new concept in this new version.
I’d have to play this game to be sure but I have a feeling it won’t be as playable or as popular as the original. Especially (I’d hope) among parents – who wants to be teaching their kids that credit/debit cards should be used in all situations, or that you should use a calculator for all financial transactions, even where the numbers are ridiculously simple as in Monopoly?
Greywolf convinced me. I wasn’t sure at first, but after reading his Old Man Franks-esque rant, I will DEFINITELY be buying the new Monopoly game.
Meh. I don’t mind inflation and updates and all that, but no paper money means no stocking Free Parking, no stealing from the bank, no hiding a stash. What fun is Monopoly without cheating?
2mill. is a little steep compared to the 200 in the O.G. but its all relative to the rest of the game
sheesh complain a bit why don’t you…obviously this game of monopoly is marketing to a different crowd of kids, who will grow up with their battery operated everythings and wallets full of plastic, not paper. Calm down, we can all still just pull out the classic monopoly. All is not lost.
Does everyone realize this is not a replacement for the original version of the game, but a revamp modern design to expand their market… Try taking this for what it is and all you nostalgic folks can continue to buy the original…!
Actually, if you look at the second picture, you can see that the space between the red properties is Gas, which sells for 1.5M. Looks as though they’ve added more utilities to this new version, meaning you need more properties for that monopoly. This means one of two things: Either they’ve bumped the rent for the utility properties up, perhaps made them work more like the railroads, since you need more for the monopoly now, so that the “balance” of the game is thrown out of whack; or the utility properties just suck even more now, which I never would have thought possible. I’m tempted to pick up a copy of this version just to find out how exactly the game play has changed.