Monopoly Money Replaced With Monopoly Visa Debit Card
from the sign-o'-the-times dept
If you thought that Western Union killing off the telegram was a sign of an end of an era, how about the end of monopoly money (via Engadget)? Monopoly money, after all, is such an iconic concept that it is often used to denote any kind of fake (dot com stock certificates) or amusing (Canadian money) currency. However, it seems that term may fade away into history with the news that the Monopoly board game is apparently replacing the colorful cash with mock Visa cards (branded, no less), along with scanner devices that can be used to debit and credit the card. Perhaps this fits right in there with teaching 8-year-olds how to take on debt to finance an automobile purchase. Might as well teach kids how to use debit cards as well. Of course, for those who just can't stand to be without the traditional Monopoly money, Hasbro still offers downloadable PDFs, so you can make your own.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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evil
On a second note, my kids will never play this version for two reasons.
First, I have tought them that the credit card companies are as evil as the tabacco companies. Both make addictive, self destructive products.
Second, the game lasts too long unless you can catch someone cheating as the banker ;)
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stupid idea
If they wanted to make the game more modern, then they should increase the cost of each of the properties by a couple of thousand instead!
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"Mayfair - the most expensive property on the board."
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Re: oops
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Re: evil
As for this upgrade, I don't support it, and I imagine it will fail. It seems like such a gimmicky thing. How many board games have you seen with some electronic doodad included? How many of those are still around?
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Corporate "Favors"
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Grar.
Now whatcha gonna do? Swipe your card and say "Yes, I'd like a 3 "Starbucks" on the blues!
:-p.
Branding and Commercialization sucks when it applies to our entertainment. Product Placement? Grar.
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Bankrupt
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I play with my wife and her friends, go bank rupt you do a lapdance get money and continue the game.
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Re:
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Yipes
well im not buying it, ill stick to the non frills one i have in my closet.
Ill see you on Boardwalk with a Hotel and fat stack of 500s.
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no more deal making?
Does every player have a POS to debit other player's cards when collecting rent and Chance/Community Chest rewards?
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Think of the possibilities for games like monopoly- no more cash OR credit cards to lose- to play the game you just swipe your arm over the board with the embedded computer chip that is the monopoly game.
- will be cool until the game malfunctions and tells everyone about your medical records- grandma would love to hear about the herpies you got in '97.
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next step
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Why? most of the Visas used to get the terrorists in the country are fake too....
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Monopoly game money changes
As one of the comments here so aptly stated: It is the sweet taste of winning by holding the paper money in your hands.
Monopoly will never be the same. I must now preserve my first Monopoly game that I acquired in the early 1950's.
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Continue the trend
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Besides, if you go to Hasbro's Monopoly website (http://www.hasbro.com/monopoly/) you'll notice that the card scanner is only in the LIMITED EDITION Monopoly: Here and Now game. Regular Monopoly and Original Monopoly (the old 30s one) are still availible. Monopoly: Here and Now is just a limited variation. It was made to represent Monopoly being invented today with modern tokens, modern money system, and inflated values.
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Maybe you should just teach them self control, financial management, proper planning, and personal responsibility instead.. they'd be a lot better off that way.
credit cards are great.. just learn to pay them off on time.
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Re: Reality Check
Ok,
This is my first post in a TechDirt article, but I could not pass up this oppourtunity to post.
To Reality Check: You do realize that there is a difference between VISA, as a company, and a visa that a foreign national would use to get into the country are two different things right?
VISA is a company that issues small plastic cards that are used to purchase items from stores or individuals with access to POS machines.
Visa's on the other hand are small pieces of paper issued to a foreign individual from the government of the country they would like to visit that allows them to enter said country.
Now on to the article.
I agree with most of the other posters in here. I feel that Monopoly needs to be played with money. The feel of your side of the board rising 5" or so off the ground and the bank empty of money and your brothers/sisters without cash and then landing on, name your favorite property, loaded with hotels, and having to end the game.
PRICELESS.
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The point is monopoly is a classic game which we all grew up playing. It shouldn't be changed to modern times. Little kids now should appreciate the goodness of an old fashioned game. I mean, there are silver diners and whatnot. It seems that old fashioned schemes are always being brought back.
As long as parents keep showing the games with their kids and brining them up to love the game we all do, things will stay the same, assuming they are not overtaken by video games.
Oh, and out of all the comments so far, I think i only saw 2 in 22 comments that were actually for this new version so i doubt it will stick.
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Re: Re: Reality Check
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Bad Idea
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Re: Re: Reality Check
You have a dictionary? Look up the following words:
humor
sarcasm
commentary
snide
tongue-in-cheek
:-)
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Re:
And no, credit card companies are NOT evil like the tobacco companies. Well, maybe in some ways, but you can't hold them responsible for your own stupidity if you go overboard with your spending.
Actually I think they are just as evil. You can't hold them anymore resposible for your ungodly debt than you can blame cigarrette companies for lung cancer (well the cases in recent years mind you). Even secondhand smoke (consequences that you suffer from the actions of others) can be compared to identity theft. But I assume you mean that cigs put your life in danger whereas credit doesn't.
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You're (mostly) All Wrong
First of all, this does NOT teach irresponsible spending, because these are not actually credit cards in the game but rather debit cards, from my understanding. You can't spend money you don't have, like you can with a credit card in real life.
Secondly, this teaches kids to learn to treat the number that represents their money as real money. It's easy to see the value of 20 dollars when you're holding it in your wallet in ones. But when its just a number, it can seem not as real when you're blowing your cash using a debit card. This system is more and more prevelent nowadays. For example, I put my paychecks straight into the bank, and never really carry any cash these days.
And if you do want your kids to learn math, I'm sure the older versions will be around or you can print the money using the PDF from Hasbro. For the rest of us that already know our math and don't want to hassle with all that cash, we don't have to! I once played a bunch outdoors at a place I was working and that money would blow all over the place in the wind. And even indoors, counting it all out to each player in the beginning takes forever.
I do agree that maybe they should have made it a fake company instead of using Visa, but it probably helped keep the cost of that new technology being included with the game down.
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New Version of Monoply = Dud
The old version of the game will still be available, and called "Monopoly Classic", and I predict the Coke scenario will occur -- where New Monopoly will die shortly.
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Its about time
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Re:
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It's a DEBIT card -- like an ATM card!
In other words, there's no interest being charged and you can't go into debt. Each player has a bank account and draws from the bank account to make purchases.
It's a good way to teach kids how to use an ATM card and teach them that there is not an unlimited flow of money coming out of that ATM.
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Re: Yipes
Yipes by Scuba Steve on Jul 25th, 2006 @ 6:19am
Whats next??? Politically Correct Guess Who??
I know what's next: Amber Alert for Carmen San Diego
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How about loans to other players?
And the big stack of cash in the center one can get by landing on Free Parking (or is that a toll bridge now?).
Not being able to snatch bills from the banker or other players is the real world reason why there are plastic cards, and saving paper is a great thing, but what happens when the magntic strip wears out, or you lose the card? Is there a provision for identity theft?
This new version maybe more devious than we realize.
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Re: Raising a nation of morons
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Woohoo.
BTW, just out of curiosity. Who all here learned to balance a checkbook in school? (outside of accounting).
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whoa
damn.
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Re:
On to the game, are any of you investors in Hasboro? No, then shut up. They have a new target market, do you have any other answers that will help them sell more of their products. Because this is the best idea they had. I think it is a pretty good idea, better than any other post I saw with ideas. Oh, I forgot, this isn't a message board, but a complaint department.
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Re: Paper savings
Monopoly is a great tool - giving basic math (and more advanced real world math with interest rates) in a fun way.
Parents need to spend time playing with and educating their children. ATM Monopoly takes away the math. Isn't that a huge part of the fun?
And whilst I can see educational advantages to a credit card (lets face it - you can already mortgage and bankrupt in mooppoly!) I do not like this level of branding. What is next? The Viagra addition of 'Operation!'?
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The success of the new Monopoly game...
We can all hate it or not, but if it sells...there's nothing we can do about it.
My personal opinion is this is a dumb idea, I hate it, and I will keep my original version for my children. I will not let them "play" with credit cards, letting them know that you should always pay with cash, or a debit card, and credit cards are only for dire emergencies.
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Re:
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Changing with the times?????
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Version's
in the uk the visa card edition will be around £24.99 while the normal paper money edition will cost £11.99
P.S I do not work for hasbro lol
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Here & Now
Great idea that will only get better.
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Re: It's a DEBIT card -- like an ATM card!
And I'm glad somebody pointed out that this was a seperate version of the game.
It doesn't seem like an awful idea, although I do think it would have been better to use a fake company. I would hope that the debit card version would allow for the little changes most people add to the games- trading, Free Parking collections, etc... I assume it would- I think the "machine" is similar to a calculator- you enter numbers with a keypad.
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no life
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Re: evil
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"You have been sanctioned by the Supreme Court. Surrender your property to the wealthiest player."
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hahahaha
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the idea from a teens point of view
i own maybe 7 differernt editions of monopoly and everytime i play it takes an extra 5 minutes for everyone to do the math each time its thier turn so that they can figure out what the have for money.
im just wondering have any of you parents out thier ever ask ur kids about the whole idea? because if u did i beat u that they would want it
i no that some of u are agenst credit cards but its not a real credit card its a game piece. and those of u that r aginst cards have u ever relized how many grems u get on urself by just touching a dollor bill. right now think about it:
1. ur going shoping
2. u find something u like
3. so u buy ur new thing that cost $23.34 and since u dont like cards u use cash but all u have is a $50
4. so u ask for change
5. u get ur change (remember that money did not come straight from the money printing place, it came from someone elses pocket)
6. u put it in ur walet (remember u also touched it with ur hands)
7. u get hungry
8. u go to mcdonalds and get a hamberger with fries
9. u eat it with ur hands
now that whole senario u cant tell me u havent done, unless ur a vegitariane, and u dont wash ur hands becuase it doesnt even occur to u that u should since all u did was pay for something useing cash. well if u took the change to a lab and had them show u all the bactiria and fiesis (ya thats poop) on it then im sure that u would be very very grossed out. well the same thing can happen with monopoly money becuse kids dont always wash thier hands after their dont with the bathroom. so the cards a a better way to just keep the game clean and less gremy.
so why dont u like the idea of useing credit cards in monopoly? 1. it doesnt have any effect on the childrens math skills and if thats the one thing that wories u u can still bye the origonal virsion. 2. its extreamly fun for kids and easier! 3. its keeps ur kids from all the germs on the money. i gave u three reasons why i disagree with u and i know that there are more but i just dont know them. so, now u give me some logical reasons why this new virsion is horrible.
oh and about the cards bieng visa, WHO REALLY CARES ABOUT THAT ITS A NAME!!!!!! NO KIDS CARE WHAT BRAND IT IS THEY ONLY CARE IF THE GAME IS FUN!!!!!!!!
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Great Idea
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Well...
Its good for a quick and effective game. but i think i will stick to the paper money version.
(For those concerned about the banker cheating, leave the Gismo in the middle of the board so that way everyone can see what amount they are putting in.)
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Re: Re: evil
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Re:
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Re: Grar.
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Re: stupid idea
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well i think
why airports, what wrong with stations!! why a phone, whats wrong with a top hat!! and do the hotels have to be that big?? and since when does a credit card start off with £15,000,000 on it! i want that credit card!
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Re: Re:
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I am going to say that if you are arguing about how it doesn't teach us anything or how it will brainwash today's generation, leave it be. If you call us "today's generation" you obviously aren't part of it so why in the world would you care. You are going to die whether you like it or not and you are not going to be all that much effected by whether we play with paper money or a credit card.
Secondly, I would also like to say that the majority of teens actually like this game and would appreciate it if you would stop deciding for us whether we want to play the old fashioned or "original" version of monopoly that teaches us the value of money, or the new "high tech" version.
Thirdly, I would like to say that I understand the feeling of holding all of that money and maniacally laughing, but we also like the feeling of swiping that piece of plastic. If you like one or the other, than stick with it and quit trying to criticize the other one in order to validate your position because in reality, your opinion on a message board is not going to convince people to see it your way.
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