Forget Video Games... Look At The Evil Influence Of The Board Game Monopoly

from the i-mean...-seriously... dept

Thu, Apr 23rd 2009 9:42am — Mike Masnick

While hardly a month goes by without yet another indignant opinion piece arguing about how video games are corrupting our youth, it seems that some are now exploring the moral panics around other sorts of children's entertainment. Jedipunk points us to a brilliant tongue-in-cheek parody of all those anti-video game "think of the children" stories... but applying the same logic to the board game Monopoly.

For all the modern angst about violent computer games, this innocent-looking board game has probably had a more corrosive influence on western morals. For starters, Monopoly brazenly encourages players to plunder their savings and put every last penny into property.... Most pernicious of all Monopoly's venal influences, however, is surely the Community Chest card that says, "Bank error in your favour, collect £200." There's no suggestion you should alert the bank to its mistake when you can buy a couple more houses and profit by some idjit's error.

Indeed. Alert the politicians!

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Filed Under: monopoly, moral panic, think of the children

36 Comments

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:Lobo Santo, 23 Apr 2009 @ 10:02am

Bank Error
Last time the bank gave me an extra $200, I kept it.

They were all like "Give it back!"

I was all like "No!"

And then, they blacklisted me and I couldn't get a new checking account for like 5 years.

I now blame Monopoly. ;P
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chris (profile), 23 Apr 2009 @ 10:24am

rolling doubles
my cousin rey-rey has been trying to get out of jail for years by rolling doubles. it doesn't work.

thanks a lot monopoly for destroying our family.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Apr 2009 @ 10:35am

Why are blog posts here apparently embargoed for nearly four hours? Reloading the front page a few times eventually showed up a "new" post -- timestamped nearly four hours before the reload BEFORE the one on which it showed up.
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- Anonymous Coward, 23 Apr 2009 @ 10:52am
  
  Re:
  Think...time zones.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Mike (profile), 23 Apr 2009 @ 11:06am
  
  Re:
  Why are blog posts here apparently embargoed for nearly four hours? Reloading the front page a few times eventually showed up a "new" post -- timestamped nearly four hours before the reload BEFORE the one on which it showed up.
  
  Not sure what you mean?
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 23 Apr 2009 @ 11:09am
  
  Re:
  Really?
  
  If this post is four hours old, how did you reply to it in 53 minutes?
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Cynical, 23 Apr 2009 @ 1:03pm
    
    Re: Re:
    It sounds like a technical problem. My posts show up immediately.
    
    Try browsing away from the page, flushing your browser cache and reloading it. It might also be your ISP caching the page.
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- DJ, 23 Apr 2009 @ 12:40pm
  
  Re: Blog post issue
  dunno, man. I don't have that problem.... your web browser screwy maybe?
  All my posts show up immediately.
  However, the replies usually just show up in sequential queue, rather than as reply strings.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Jim, 23 Apr 2009 @ 1:21pm
    
    Re: Re: Blog post issue
    Try clicking the "threaded" button at the top of the comments. It does amazing things.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - _Ǻъsїήтħę_, 23 Apr 2009 @ 2:13pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Blog post issue
      omg!! I never knew that either!!!
      
      It's truly amazing how we can repeatedly think "damn comment system, why does it work so simply and stupidly, why cant it be user friendly and show replies as replies!!" yet there's a button right there in front of our noses that makes it do just that.
      
      Which makes me wonder why on earth the 'threaded' view isn't the default?!?
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      - CrushU, 23 Apr 2009 @ 2:26pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Blog post issue
        I prefer to view sequential order. I like knowing the order they were posted in, not as much as who they were replying to.
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        Tom, 23 Apr 2009 @ 8:07pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Blog post issue
        go here and make it happen
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- Jan Hopmans (profile), 24 Apr 2009 @ 12:21pm
  
  Re:
  Different Time Zone?
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Tgeigs, 23 Apr 2009 @ 10:41am

Psshh
Plus, in what city do you EVER get "Free Parking"? Talk about setting an entire generation up for massive disappointment.
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- DJ, 23 Apr 2009 @ 12:35pm
  
  Re: Psshh
  Not to mention the funds from the parking meters going to "John Q. Public".....
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- Shawn Patrick Green (profile), 23 Apr 2009 @ 1:55pm
  
  Re: Psshh
  Vegas. Free parking virtually everywhere in Vegas. Vegas FTW.
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- Cipher-0, 24 Apr 2009 @ 7:14am
  
  Re: Psshh
  Plus, in what city do you EVER get "Free Parking"?
  In the heart of Quincy MA there's a parking garage that you get two hours free parking - just enough for a game of Monopoly!
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R. Miles, 23 Apr 2009 @ 10:42am

Heh. That's pretty cute.
Maybe Techdirt can forward this news item to idiotic, propaganda spreading rags like the New York Times, CNN, and Fox News and ask them to report on it.

But then again, they'll just come back to say "But Monopoly never killed anyone like GTA has!".

I think the fundamental idealism behind Monopoly is how U.S. businesses work.

Capitalism? Sure, once you use every means in your disposal to ruin the competition.

Oh, and reader... you just landed on Boardwalk with 1 hotel. That'll be $2,000, please.

I do accept Paypal.
:)
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- Spectere, 23 Apr 2009 @ 11:49am
  
  Re: Heh. That's pretty cute.
  Oh, and reader... you just landed on Boardwalk with 1 hotel. That'll be $2,000, please.
  
  Dammit! :(
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- Aidantheawesome, 23 Apr 2009 @ 3:18pm
  
  Re: Heh. That's pretty cute.
  But the hotel doesn't comply with safety regulations!
  Now me and my lawyer are going to sue you 2 million!
  (and you have to plea guilty, because i bought the judge and jury! =P)
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DS, 23 Apr 2009 @ 11:22am

I wish I could decide to pay $200 or 10% when it came to tax time.
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- Tgeigs, 23 Apr 2009 @ 11:46am
  
  Re:
  STFU, thimble...
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JGM, 23 Apr 2009 @ 12:50pm

Wired magazine had an interesting article on board games last month -- in particularly comparing Monopoly to German-style games. The article featured this quote from Derek Solko of BoardGameGeek.com:

"Monopoly has you grinding your opponents into dust. It's a very negative experience. It's all about cackling when your opponent lands on your space and you get to take all their money."

link to the article (hey, somebody tell me how to embed weblinks in comments):

http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/magazine/17-04/mf_settlers?currentPage=1
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- nasch, 23 Apr 2009 @ 3:10pm
  
  Re:
  Thanks, I'm going to order Settlers. :-)
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GHynson, 23 Apr 2009 @ 1:06pm

Out Of Date Pricing
The cheapest property should be like $1600 (adjusted to todays prices)
And instead of rolling doubles to get out of jail,..you should have the option to use a lawyer card, or if you have swindled more then $100mil from the community chest, you should be untouchable from the game rules.
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zcat, 23 Apr 2009 @ 1:51pm

Missing posts
Try holding the shift key when you click refresh, that often gets around caching problems.

Also some ISPs are just assholes and force everything to be cached even when it's specifically marked not to cache. If you have a *NIX shell somewhere else, you can use 'ssh -D 8080 remote.host.org' to create a proxy, then set your browser to use 'localhost 8080' as a socks5 proxy. That tunnels around whatever caching your ISP has set up.
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- zcat, 23 Apr 2009 @ 1:52pm
  
  Re: Missing posts
  Just to comment; my post showed up 'instantly' as soon as I posted it. The problem isn't techdirt (unless Mike has put some posters on manual review, but I don't think he would do that)
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Rob, 23 Apr 2009 @ 11:15pm

Why so serious?
I don't see why every body is getting so worked up about monopoly, after all it is just a game and evrybody knows that you shouldn't believe everything that you see in a game.
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- Anonymous Coward, 27 Apr 2009 @ 10:28am
  
  Re: Why so serious?
  I hope that you just suck at being sarcastic...
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- NotMyName, 29 Apr 2009 @ 5:18am
  
  Re: Why so serious?
  'Cept for the people and kids who think ninjas stil exist, or kids who wanna breath fire like Naruto and spend countless hours playing these games daily as life passes by. But, those people don't count, right?
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Clevgeme, 29 Apr 2009 @ 8:03am

I Don't Know, I think videogames are wrost than Monopoly
Monopoly has an evil influence? What about videogames full of crimanl violence? Monopoly can be a property oriented game, but also can teach something about business and commercial trasactions, in such videogames the player can kill other people, make robberies, and steal cars. what kind of message they sent to the people? Are crime and violence fun? Clever Games for Clever People
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centurion tem, 1 Jun 2009 @ 3:19am

know, what video games, promote fantasy, and to the last commentor, you can show that comment up yours, i am 26, and i am a father, and i hate, despise capitalism, well i dont hate alle americans, but i cant handle american culture and its ignorance, well its all about imaginary, and we as human beings are able to learn lessons through simulating other realities, well last but not least, economy can kill, and its killing millions of people today, so yes! monopoly is alot more dangerous than fighting or even sandbox GTA like games...

up yours!!!
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doug, 7 Jun 2009 @ 3:11am

Monopoly
The game was patented in 1906 by a Quaker woman as a teaching game on the evils of real estate speculation.
Her patent lawyer said the word "monopoly" could not be copyrighted, any more than the word "windows" (Bill Gates lost that one).
Atlantic city Quakers were supportive of an economy based on a single tax, developed by Henry George, who ran for mayor of New York City twice. He was defeated both times by the Pope in Rome, the largest NY landlord at the time.
If you have ever played the game, you learned that at the end, three people starve and have no place to live.

"To make people industrious, prudent, skillful, and intelligent, they must be relieved from want. If you would have a slave show the virtues of a free person, you must first make the slave free." Henry George,1879

P.S. My neighbor pays about $600 a year for a three bedroom, single bath home with a front yard and a large back yard, which she owns. Her neighbor pays $25,000 a year to "own" the same such house. Go Figure.
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sungod15, 29 Jun 2009 @ 12:12pm

fallensword.com
This Fallensword game is off the hook please join game its the best game ever http://www.fallensword.com/?ref=1754473
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, r4 nintendo ds, cartucho r4 para nintendo ds, 3 Jul 2009 @ 12:27pm

"violent computer games, this innocent-looking board game has probably had a more corrosive influence on western morals." yeah! most of the times, violent games sucks, though it gives fun, but it sucks! , r4 nintendo ds, cartucho r4 para nintendo ds
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hertez, 3 Mar 2010 @ 2:08pm

play games
Visit ShebaGAMES right now and Play!
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