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* Hasbro kills Colonel Mustard in the corporate office with the marketing ploy

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yeah, right.

in other words... 

Gates Horns

they ripped the heart and soul out of a game so they could market it as "new and improved" when it neither. Typical really.

Bill, because it's his fault. Somehow.

Kimo

Strange... 

IT Angle

...I always thought the revolver was a pistol.

"And the revolver is now a pistol."

Mark Monaghan

Shame 

Coat

Part of the attraction of Cluedo is the timeless "Agatha Christie" setting.

Perhaps El Reg could introduce its own version...

"I think it was the PFY, in the Call Centre, with the Cattle Prod"

Mine's the one with the curious oriental dagger in the pocket.

Nicholas EGF Berry

Pedantry 

Linux

"...I always thought the revolver was a pistol."

True, but they're not the same thing. A revolver is a pistol, but not all pistols are revolvers.

Tux, 'cos I like bird meat.

AGirlFromVenus

Bit more imagination requitred 

Sexy Sara killed kinky MP by gagging him with a tangerine in the lounge

Richard Steiner

Wow. 

Unhappy

Guess I won't be buying that game. Unless it's an old copy on eBay. :-)

Chris G

Is it compatible 

With XBOX/Playstation/nintendo? No? Not many sales there then.

Magellan

If they really were to make "Clue" more topical ... 

It was OJ in the courtyard with the knife.

CeeTee

@ Kimo 

Coat

It depends on how pedantic we're being...

A pistol is usually defined as "a small firearm designed to be held in one hand", but also described in some dictionaries as "having its chanmber integral with its barrel", which strictly speaking, a revolver's chambers aren't.

Irrespective, why the heck do companies feel the need to mess with familar things all the time?

Mine's the one with the "Pedant" logo on the back.

Cee Tee

BGrant

Re : Strange... 

Gates Horns

In the US, a revolver always refers to a handgun that holds ammunition in the classic barrel (usually 5-6 shots). A pistol is a generic term for a revolver, a semi-automatic pistol, or any other type of hand held gun, typically one of the smaller calibers.

Bill - because it's all about the money & so is he

Barry Rueger

Not the Clue That I knew 

I was dismayed recently when playing Clue with some kids (the DVD version no less) that it no longer involves a murder! Instead you figure out who has stolen an item from the house.

Sigh... somehow it just wasn't the same when you weren't identifying a murder weapon and the place where Col. Mustard met his demise.

Kind of like those non-competitive collborative games that old hippies want their kids to play...

nick.se

So... 

Flame

A professor is not modern? I'd better give my old college a call, somehow I think they haven't heard this.

I could go on about kids these days but I won't; I'm getting an old game, in case the one we had when I was a kid has been ruined or lost.

(No "Die, Hasbro, die" icon so I took the next best one.)

Anonymous Coward

Clueless marketing suit in the parlor... 

Coat

...with a focus group.

Rod

They should've... 

...stuck with the Simpsons version that they published a while ago if they wanted to update it.

wiser mouse

Surely 

Flame

It was Osama Bin Laden in the cave with the poisonous gas

Adam Williamson

More pedantry 

Paris Hilton

Barry, in Cluedo, Colonel Mustard never dies. He may be the murderer, but he doesn't die. The dead guy is named Mr. Black, but he's not a playable character and doesn't really come up in the course of the game play.

Also, since Hasbro seems to be a giant multinational conglomerate, the obvious question is whether Jack Mustard played soccer or gridiron...

Paris, because I'm as confused as she is by *everything*.

l3bowsk1

"It was l3bowsk1, in the Hasbro Boardroom, with candlestick. . ." 

Paris Hilton

On behalf of us Americans, I apologize - I recall playing clue when I was a kid, and this just baffles me. Clue, without the old school revolver, without the lead pipe? How can you envision cold-blooded murder without a lead pipe?

I can just imagine some fat moron at Hasbro HQ thinking "We've got to punch this up for the LOL, OMG, interwebs generation. The kids eat this stuff up."

So now it's going to be "It was Paris, in the hot tub, with a night-vision camera." Or maybe "It was Lindsay, in rehab, with a Blackberry."

Siiigghh.

Anonymous Coward

@Barry Ruegar 

<pendant>

Col. Mustard didn't meet his demise - Mr Black did. Col Mustard was a suspect.

</pedant>

WonkoTheSane

@ CeeTee 

Paris Hilton

"Irrespective, why the heck do companies feel the need to mess with familar things all the time?"

So they can bring back the older, popular version as an overpriced "Classic Edition".

Me, in the Library, with Paris.

Rob Menke

Two words, Hasbro: 

Thumb Down

New Coke.

Don't mess with a classic.

Jason The Saj

Kindler, gentler world.... 

Pirate

Kind of like how they removed revenge from the game of "LIFE".

What I don't understand is why all this focus to make the games nicer. And yes, many of these companies are owned by conglomerates releasing violent video games.

I swear, what we need is a violent first person shooter "board game". Blow off parts of your opponent and see guts flying. *lol*

anarchic-teapot

A Suit said: 

"How much time do people have? Because we know that people have less time now than they did before."

Uh-huh. And board and card games are becoming increasingly popular. The fashion is to invite friends round and make an evening of it, so it sounds like they either made a pig's ear of their research (probable) or were absolutely desperate (also highly probable) to revamp a well-known game out of all recognition in the hope that people who own the original version would also buy the new one. Idiots.

Anonymous Coward

Now 

I could except if the replaced the lead pipe with a Machete or khukuri . The revolver with an HK MP5 chambered for .45 with a silencer .

Replacing Col. mustard with G.W. Bush.

Christoph

@ Adam Williamson 

Coat

The question is actually whether Jack Mustard played League or Union.

Neil Daniels

Revolver or pistol 

Paris Hilton

The picture on the Revolver card in my box is definitely of a semi-automatic pistol, and ditto for the actual playing piece itself.

Paris, just because.

Jodo Kast

And if you try to make a version of the old game... 

Joke

they will sue your pants off!

You simply 'can't has the classics'.

Unless, as one poster put it, you want a moldy board from eBay.

Anonymous Coward

Has(bro)nt a clue 

Coat

A board (Game) thats threatens the interests of HASBEEN Games. A murder most horrid as Jeff Black the companies chief Games designed is slaughtered using a pencil and bottle of Tipex while listening to JayZ in the Board Room, It is your mission if you plan to except it, to discover which one of the following m*rons did the evil deed.

Prof Plumbly Vermicelli - Chairman

Scalet Golddigger - President, Chief Executing Officer

Rev Hartheives - CFO,COO, Executive Vice President

Hagler White - Senior Vice President

Peacock Falsbooby - Senior Vice President, Treasurer

Dohberah Peach Senior Vice President, Controller

Steen Hive

Even more surely.. 

Coat

It was the Moderatrix in the basement with the cat-o-nine tails.

David D. Hagood

For an IT angle.... 

IT Angle

For an IT angle: it was Hans Reiser, in the garage, with a hard disk.

mount -t ext3 /dev/coat /media/coat && exit

Frank Haney

More Pedantry 

Unhappy

I also made my UK debut in 1949.

Please don't describe ME as a 60 year old.

John Savard

It May Mean Nothing to Brits 

but in the interest of trans-Atlantic comprehension, what Ludo fails to mean to Americans is Parcheesi. Actually, that particular spelling of the name of the old game Pachisi from India is a Selchow and Righter trademark, however. (People who have seen both, however, will note that there are slight differences in the rules of Ludo versus the Western version of Pachisi using six-sided dice.)

Rob Sked

It twas . . . 

Happy

The Hoddie, in the Bus Stop, with the MAC-10.

The lil'bastard.

Charles

In another 20 years, who's gonna care? 

So they jazzed up the looks a little bit. Does it play the same? I would imagine so. It simply may well be that the old posh look of Clue was in fact detrimental to its sales because today's people couldn't fit in (Who reads Agatha Christie anymore? We're more into watching CSI and the like--or whatever it watched across the pond.). If giving the game a face lift brings in more players, then bully to them.

Regis Terme

No clue 

Stop

Sounds like another design by committee

http://usedwigs.com/video-stop-sign-designed-by-committee/

A

It's just a cynical marketing ploy 

Flame

They're either going to announce that due to public outcry the plan has been shelved, after they've basked in their free publicity; or they're going to introduce Clue(do) Classic in a few months time, after they've basked in their free publicity.

Adam Foxton

@Charles 

Stop

It's a bloody classic! By all means come out with a "C21-luedo" but you shouldn't screw up a classic.

And to answer your title, in another 20 years it'll seem hopelessly outdated rather than just "classic" or "old".

Finally, if you were going to create a decent modern one then CSI is an entirely unsuitable model as you'd make the game 100x more complex. Adn you'd lose your hearing every so often. On the upside, there would be killer robots.

Neoc

<sigh> 

Thumb Down

I have fond memory of the movie (Tim Curry did a *great* job as the butler).

Hmmm... I think the local toy shop still has the "bookcase" edition of the game (box made to look like a leather-bound book). I'll have to go pick up a copy before they "upgrade" their stock.

Lorenz Kahl

Even more pedantry 

Flame

"your mission if you plan to except it"

"I could except if the replaced the lead pipe with a Machete or khukuri "

The word is "accept"!!!!

Heather Landaker

God forbid children learn what a conservatory is 

This is sad. Part of what made the game so great as a child was its timelessness. Its nod to the classy yet murderous. To dumb it down for mainstream culture is embarrassing to all of us.

Anonymous Coward

PIstol - Revolver? 

Stop

Revolvers REVOLVE a chamber around to the firing pin. (standard police, 'can't hit a barn door with' type).

Pistols use the back compression of a cartridge to eject a round and chamber the next from a spring loaded clip. (Pistol-Piston - get the mechanics?)

There is no confusion, unless you think dum-dum's did not evolve from colonial India.

James Monnett

this bites 

but it was the Moderatrix, in the forums with the ban button

Someone bring back the REAL clue

Robert

It's a win-win situation (for them) 

Thumb Down

If the rejiggered Clue(do) sells, they win -- and they're already getting free PR via articles such as this. I mean, if they hadn't done this, none of us would be thinking about Clue(do) today.

If the bastardized game doesn't sell well, they just reissue "Classic Clue(do)" amid a PR frenzy ala Classic Coke. Again, they win.

Not saying I approve or anything. When I was a kid, the whole Agatha Christie environment felt period and foreign -- and cool. That was part of the whole mystique. It was called a pistol, not a handgun as one would have expected. It was a lead pipe for Heaven's sake -- after figuring out what they did to our brains, no-one has used lead pipes since the Romans. I've never seen a lead pipe in my life. So, back to what I said first. They're doing this just because they can and think it'll work. Not because it it's for the better.

Here's hoping it backfires and we get the Classic Coke scenario and the world is right again.

Alan Dougherty

RE: this bites 

Coat

There is no real 'Clue'.. it's just a bastardisation :)

Mines the one with the revolver, smelling slightly of cordite, in the pocket.

Kimo

@ Pedantry 

Go

"Pistol" refers to the form of the weapon (single-handed firearm), while "Revolver" refers to the method of moving fresh rounds to the firing mechanism. During the War of the Rebellion, Colt manufactured a revolving rifle for cavalry use (although the size would most often be described as a carbine), proving that not all revolvers are pistols, just as not all pistols are revolvers.

Unhelpfully, my copy of Chenhall's "Revised Nomenclature for Museum Cataloging" lists both "Revolver" and "Pistol" as related terms, but includes the more specific "Pistol, Semi-Automatic" for the weapon that I believe we are discussing.

Kimo

@ nick.se 

No, Professors are not modern. They have for the most part been replaced by adjunct instructors or graduate students.

Andrew Halliwell

Re:It's a win-win situation (for them) 

Pirate

> no-one has used lead pipes since the Romans. I've never seen a lead pipe in my life.

That's not true.

lead piping was used right up to WWII...

People are still ripping out lead piping and replacing them with copper or plastic to this day as they buy older houses and renovate them.

Anonymous Coward

Lead pipe gone? 

Joke

If these are Made in China, there will damn well still be lead in the game.

Ian

Half a Clue 

IT Angle

Mr Freeman, in the Large Hadron Collider facility, with the crowbar.

Nordrick Framelhammer

Lets face it 

Alien

It is just another attempot by those backwoods colonials to Yankify yet another great British thing.

Look at the turdpiles that most attempts at that turn into.

Black helicopters coz the yanks are trying to take over the world.

Michael Habel

Re: God forbid children learn what a conservatory is 

Stop

Surly you ment the "Music Room"?

I don't recall any [Glass] enclosed Patio's (ain't that what you Brits call Conservatoies?). Yeah I've been watching to many Home Improvement Show on Astra 3 (BBC & Channel 4)...

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