Being in England I like to do things that I otherwise couldn't do in the states. For example, today I went into Borders bookshop for some Starbucks coffee.
On my way though Borders, I was distracted by a new version of the classic board game Monopoly. It was called the Monopoly "Here and Now" edition and the entire game is updated. You can no longer buy any cheep purple property for $60, but £600,000. There is no top hat or iron, but a cell phone (mobile) and a laptop computer, and the train stations have been updated for the more popular and important airports.
The most interesting aspect of the Here and Now edition is that all the properties have been renamed using an online democratic system. Apparently over 1,000,000 votes were cast in the UK to determine what cities and landmarks a person would need to hold a true Monopoly on the UK. I would have assumed that London, being the capital of England, the capital of the entire United Kingdom of Great Britain, and the largest city by about 9,000,000 people would take the top square. But it did not. So then maybe the new Boardwalk would be a land mark like Stone Henge, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, one of the Museums, or even the confusing tourist attraction that is the London Eye. But no. They did not. After millions of votes were counted, the top square and pinnacle to a monopoly in the UK is the town of St. Albans.
Where? St. Albans. Formerly Veraluamium, and the small town where I live. This makes me think that I've been over looking my town. I mean, we have a Nandos and everything, but in about a day you can see all there is to see in St. Albans. It is a nice town, a really nice town, but more important than London? or Glasgow? or Edinburgh? or Leeds? Birmingham? Nottingham? Bath? Bristol? Cardiff? Dover? Manchester? For God's sake, even Liverpool had the Beatles!
But the people have spoken, and St. Albans is #1! People in the US chose Time Square as the new top, so I guess I live in the Time Square of England (although most people would consider that to be Piccadilly Circus).
This makes me wonder how skewed the new edition is from the old favourite. I wonder if Monopoly Here and Now still makes it possible for your big sister to cheat you as the banker, or for the game to carry on for hours beyond when anyone is still interested, and my personal favourite - the hidden ability Monopoly has to ruin friendships.
1 comment:
and to make snub out math skills even more in the face of technology that will do it for us--they have monopoly with no more paper money to count, but credit cards you can just swipe.
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