In-Game Advertising Comes to Board Games

Grooves writes "Monopoly is getting rid of paper money in favor of credit cards. From the article: 'The new card, which resembles a debit card, is inserted into a small plastic reader/writer that can display and update the balance on the card. Traditional money is gone altogether, though purists can still purchase the original version.' Does this mean the end of complex Monopoly games where I charge grandma interest to borrow money?"

Easier to cheat!

[celardore]

It's so much easier for the banker to 'accidentally' press the wrong key, than to stuff bright pink notes under something. And I'd be so pissed if the battery died halfway through the game.

stacks of money

[Anonymous Coward]

damn, one of the best things of monopoly is about having big stacks of money in front of you.

Absolutely Shocked

[KU_Fletch]

Sure a game with the name Monopoly would be above the influence of corporate interests like Visa!!

Mixed feelings

[Incoherent07]

On the bright side, we won't have to deal with those stupid 5s and 1s, which only serve to get in the way.

On the other hand, this is going to make a lot of rulesets more complicated... ranging from embezzlement to the more common and legitimate Free Parking "put $500 and any taxes/fines in the middle, pick them up when you hit Free Parking" rule.

Neat idea

[IceFox]

It is a neat idea that puts a spin on monopoly other then themed boards. Notice how it costs more. The company is trying to come up with ways for you to buy the same game you already own. And it will probably work. When you go to buy a board game odds are that you will buy a game you have already played. That is why we have the same dozen games, but with 50 themes (trivial pursuit star wars!). The sad thing is that Monopoly was a great way for kids to learn about money.

Finance Charges

[Ahtha]

Will the bank will also keep 2.5% per transaction like in the real world?

What will kids learn from this?

[soft_guy]

One nice thing about Monopoly is that children learn things like how to count money. With the credit card version it will be easier (and less time consuming) to play a game, but will there be the same educational value? Probably not.

Re:Blast from the past

[mustafap]

The game itself isn't important. It's simply a good way of bringing a family together.
When you have children, you'll understand ;o)

Re:Blast from the past

[Freexe]

"unless he/she makes an incredibly dumb trade or someone cheats"

And that is why it's not obvious who is going to win. It's a boardgame, you have to try and cheat and make unfair trades against the winner/person who screws you over most.

Big Mistake

[fm6]

Almost everyone plays Monopoly with unofficial rules, like putting fines underneath one of the card stacks, and giving the stash to whoever draws the last card. Of course, these changes make the game more about luck and less about strategy. But who plays Monopoly, anyway? Not strategy geeks, or at least not mostly. It's small kids and other people looking for harmless fun that doesn't require a lot of brain power.

It's actually the purists who will like the new debit cards, because they'll be able to play a strict game without the hassle of counting all those stupid pieces of paper. But the non-purists — and that's probably 90% of the people who buy Monopoly sets — will totally reject this. Not because it's high tech, but because it leaves less room for invention.

Re:Hmm

[vux984]

Uhh, no it doesn't. I get to pay later and get 1% cash back.

Uhhh... yes it does. The merchant gets to pay VISA say 4% for the priviledge of letting you pay later and get 1% back. Guess what, the merchant you bought from had to raise prices 5% or even more in order to afford allowing you to make purchases with VISA.

As long as I make my payments it is a smart thing to do.

Negotiating terms, buying on account, and paying by cheque is even smarter. Not something you can do when buying a roll of toilet paper at walmart... but then the quote referred to "businessmen" not "walmart shoppers".

We used to do something similar

[Schraegstrichpunkt]

I remember playing Monopoly with my siblings. At one point, we got tired to handing the paper money back and forth, so we each grabbed a cheap calculator, and used the "memory" feature to store our balances. It worked like a charm (or, rather, it worked very much unlike a charm, since charms have a tendency to do absolutely nothing but make the wearer look gullible)!

Re:Hmm

[drsquare]

If you've got money then you don't need to defer payment until a later date...

If you've got money, why wouldn't you want to make interest on it as long as possible. And why wouldn't you want to improve your credit rating?

If you've got the money in the bank, there's no reason to use a debit card over a credit card. You are more likey to be a victim of fraud, and you don't get any credit rating.

I don't think you really understand how credit cards work.

Re:Big Mistake

[Anonymous Coward]

Monopoly can easily involve lots of brainpower and strategy.

You have to form alliances and make deals with other players in order to win. The most common being forming joint partnerships over monopolies of colors; that is, one player with one orange for example gives his orange to another player who has the other two oranges and they agree to split all the costs and benefits of the monopoly and the "official" owner gives the other owner immunity from having to pay rent on those properties of course. So now those two players have gained a huge advantage over the other players. But when you form alliances or make deals you want to try to get the upper hand over the other party so that you stay on top. But then other players who are outside of the deal are going to try to convince your deal partner not to do it or to do something else, for example they'll make a counter offer. And there's where the real strategy and psychology kick-in because you have to wage propaganda wars against the other players, for example you can lure a potential counter-offerer into a bidding war and make him pay too much. Pretty much the possibilities and hence, brainpower required, are endless, as the rules of the game do not disallow any sort of deal-making.

Re:The old game is still there

[fermion]

It has nothing to do with a lack of appreciation for electro-nics, but rather a grasp of why monopoly is one of the better board games for children. I know most will think i am just being silly, but there are a number of skills taught in the paper money monopoly, things like organizing money, budgeting money, protecting money, etc. Many of these skill are not taught with a cash card. Children are not even going to have as much fun with a cash card given there is not concrete representation to signify a variable about of money, just a single card that could mean 0-1000000000000 dollars.

pretty much monopoly is just about perfect. The changing of the board does not affect it significantly. But if the money is gone, there is really no inherent benefit of monopoly over any other random game.

Re:Blast from the past

[a whoabot]

"The winner of the game is decided so early on in play, 80% of the time spent playing the game is virtually pointless because everyone can tell who is going to win (unless he/she makes an incredibly dumb trade or someone cheats)."

How so? If one player gets really good properties and is on top, then the other players, if they are interested in winning, are going to team up in order to bring down the top player, so that he doesn't win.

Re:Deadbeat

[Elminst]

Interesting... I pay my balance off every month, and they raise my credit line.
So, is it because they like me, or because they hope i'll spend more and _not_ be able to pay it off in one month?

Not alone, even among the estrogen-challenged...

[umbra_dweller]

I don't want gagets around me every single moment. I surf the net, play video games, watch TV, all electronic activities that I enjoy. But somtimes I want non-electronic enjoyment, and board games are one excellent alternative.

There are already electronic versions of monopoly the people play, it seems to me like the people who still fork out money for the board probably are after a differet experience - I know I am. But as long as there are paper versions out thre, I guess I can't complain.

Re:Great!

[drew]

Who doesn't charge their rent on a credit card?

And why not? I know people who pay their mortgage payment on a credit card (and I probably would if my bank allowed it), and my wife paid most of her college tuition on her Discover card. 1% cash back goes a long ways when you're turning over $1000 on the card every month.

The more important lesson is to make sure you pay it off every month.

Re:Hmm

[bnenning]

and outweight the annual fee you have to pay

Plenty of cards have no annual fee, and still give you miles/cashback/etc. Mine does 1% off everything and 5% off gas, which is especially useful these days.

Then again, I'm sure the credit card companies hate people like me, who are essentially taking advantage of the system.

Of course they'd rather we spend like typical consumers, but they still make a profit off the transaction fees.

Re:Hmm

[vux984]

That's a violation of almost every merchant account agreement I've ever seen.

It certainly is. That doesn't prevent it from happening.

let me explain

[way2trivial]

credit cards~ cost the merchant money.

I am a credit card merchant. if someone pays me cash, I get 100% of the funds
if someone pays me via cc, I get from 96-98% of the funds

if I wind up doing a return, I lose 100% of the return.

for some transactions, credit cards are NOT appropriate.

NIIIIICE summary.

[DjMd]

Bravo Slashdot submiter & editor... Bravo.

Let's see first of all RTFA. It is ONE edition of monopoly. Not all future editions.
Secondly, the title of the slashdot post. "Advertising comes to Board Games."
Really? Ok, hrmm lets read the summary.. Odd No mention of this advertising...


Yes, I know Visa worked with Parker Brothers to make a credit card swiper for ONE edition of monopoly (only in UK and parts of europe so far). And they have the Visa logo on it... Of course, I know that not from this summary.. I guess it was good that I RTFA before slashdot posted it, so I knew what this post was about before I read the summary that misses the point.

Re:stacks of money

[Mortanius]

And of course don't forget the demoralizing effect that having a big hefty stack of $500 bills has on the other players when they're looking at a sea of yellow, pink and white at their own sides of the board. Throw in a little trash talk and pity deals and it's great.

With the debit card though, the playing field is pretty much level, everyone's got a plastic card at their side of the board and no one has any clue how much is on the card, presumably. Aside from when it's being read anyway, but still. Commanding visual presence > fleeting glimpse any day.