back to article New Monopoly version features an Automatic Teller Machine

Iconic vulture capitalism trainer family-friendly property trading game Monopoly has adopted an automatic teller machine in a new edition of the game. Monopoly’s had a cash-free version since about 2014, when players were offered credit cards that, when inserted into a custom device, credited them with new cash for going …

  1. wolfetone Silver badge

    Well there goes my main strategy of being the banker and syphoning off cash for my own purposes without anyone realising.

    1. AMBxx Silver badge

      Hacks?

      Don't worry, someone will hack it soon enough with a special card that transfers extra money to the Iron.

      It'll be called the HSBC money laundering add-on pack.

    2. Glenn 6

      Ahh, you must be an American banker :)

  2. Roq D. Kasba

    Fiddle the LIBOR, gain £20.

    The Russian ATM version includes 'jackpot' codes, too.

  3. mdava

    Misses the point entirely

    Which, as I realised as an adult when I started playing with my own kids, is to teach children addition, subtraction while they learn some strategy and negotiation as well.

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: Misses the point entirely

      >to teach children addition, subtraction

      They will learn those skills quicker if they play darts.

    2. Ben Bonsall

      Re: Misses the point entirely

      It's supposed to teach kids the futility of capitalism- there's only one winner, who is an unscrupulous bastard (and usually your dad), and everyone else ends up bankrupt and in tears...

      1. leon clarke

        Re: Misses the point entirely

        I assume that whoever downvoted this is an unscrupulous bastard who regularly fails to give his young children a chance at Monopoly

        1. codejunky Silver badge

          Re: Misses the point entirely

          @ leon clarke

          I downvoted Ben Bonsall for the "teach kids the futility of capitalism" bit. It may not be perfect but its the best system we have. Teaching kids they have no hope because big bad man wont give us stuff for free brings a lot of attitudes which seem to make up the entitlement society. Instead of us all pulling together we end up with people dragging on us because they expect something for nothing from those greedy bastards who 'won the game'. Instead it is a good game to teach the value of something vs the price, strategy and negotiation.

          Only one person can win in sports but we dont cry how futile it is to go running.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Misses the point entirely

            @codejunky

            It's nice to have that view but alas capitalism is mainly futile, it's a system where lots of money makes lots of money and then that money lets the children of those people make even more money. Kids should be taught that the dice are loaded but you can win with lots of hard work, avoiding debt and not falling for the consumerism that capitalism so gayly embraces.

          2. phuzz Silver badge
            Facepalm

            Re: Misses the point entirely

            @codejunky Ben Bonsall was entirely correct, Monopoly is based on an earlier game called The Landlord's Game, which was created with the intention of showing that capitalism and rents are a Bad Thing.

            You might not agree that they are a bad thing, but that is the views behind the original version of Monopoly.

            1. Ben Bonsall

              Re: Misses the point entirely

              To be fair, I was mostly joking about my dad, who was an unscrupulous bastard when it came to monopoly. Mostly allowed because there is no official receiver, or monopoly and mergers commission in monopoly. So really, it teaches the futility of unregulated monopoly capitalism.

              If the receiver could ensure a fair sale of the assets to ensure the debt was paid, and the monopoly commission could regulate swap deals to prevent insider trading and monopoly building, the unscrupulous dads would have to play fair with their kids :)

              Still: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Game_(short_story)

      2. casaloco

        Re: Misses the point entirely

        No it's supposed to teach kids of the evils of landlordism. The game shows that no matter how many time you go round, collecting your salary, you eventually end up paying it all in rent, and the person who buys the most property wins. Even buying public utilities, which provide a service tot he public wont provide as much income as simply buying houses and charging rent. Landlordism, uncontrolled, eventually bankrupts society.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Does it have a function for the utilities so that when wholesale costs come down the price stays the same but you can increase them when it goes up?

    If not then it's not really very realistic.

  5. Bob Dunlop

    Player player trading ?

    How does it handle things like inter player trading. Swapping a utility for a street or station to make a set or to pay a big bill. No way you can define all the possible player transfers/interactions with a set of swipe cards.

    1. big_D Silver badge

      Re: Player player trading ?

      The swipe cards affect things like rents etc. But it doesn't affect player trading. That is still done either with cash or by transfering the relevant amounts from one credit card to another.

      That said, we bought the "VISA" card version back in 2010 - 2011. But it was so boring, that we went out and bought some Monopoly money and blacked out the trailing zero on each property on the board. It is just like life, it is much more fun, when you have the cold hard cash in the hand.

    2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: Player player trading ?

      How does it handle things like inter player trading.

      Well seeing as current economic fashion is dead against cash (can't force people to spend cash via negative interest rates, or spy on them as easily), you can assume that the game will get appified so that inter playing trading has to be handled by the bank, which will naturally charge for the service.

  6. Ali Um Bongo
    Facepalm

    Localised Versions

    *"...Monopoly’s owner, Hasbro, now churns out variants on the game regularly as it seeks to milk the franchise for all it is worth..."*

    Ain't that the truth!

    Visiting the rellies over Christmas, I was press-ganged into the traditional Yuletide game. They had one of those localised versions.

    Talk about tacky! —the board was so plastered with adverts for local companies that most of the squares were unrecognisable. For example a train station might have a tiny strip of text along the edge of the square, giving the name of the station, where the rest of the square might be an advert for a coach or taxi company. Community Chest or Chance likewise obliterated by nearly full-square ads for 'Ambulance Chasers 4U' lawyers, etc.

    Sadly, while the other oldies and I harrumphed and expressed our disgust, most of the younger generation playing seemed not to notice anything wrong. Another sad example of just how pervasive fucking adverts are there days.

    Anyone working on an Ad-Blocker for board games?

    1. Sir Barry

      Anyone working on an Ad-Blocker for board games?

      Yeah, it's called a Felt Tip Pen or Magic Marker.

      HTH.

      1. TRT Silver badge

        Re: Anyone working on an Ad-Blocker for board games?

        Yeah, I played one this Christmas that was just way over the top on the advertising.

        1. Haku
          Coat

          Re: Anyone working on an Ad-Blocker for board games?

          @TRT

          I found the advert free version of that game.

      2. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

        Re: Anyone working on an Ad-Blocker for board games?

        You can always make your own!

      3. VinceH
        Pint

        Re: Anyone working on an Ad-Blocker for board games?

        "Yeah, it's called a Felt Tip Pen or Magic Marker."

        Also, you don't have to pay Hasbro a penny to play Monopoly. You can make up your own Community Chest and Chance cards, and your own board. You can then put whatever properties you want on it. Play by the correct rules, but have some fun with the cards and properties (eg "You find a stash of hedgeporn and sell it to your mates - collect £10 from each player...")

        Or play a drinking game version - so whenever you pass go, instead of collecting £200 (or in addition to...) you also have to take a swig of your drink, and so on.

        Monopoly is fun.

        The only thing that ruins it is the money - specifically, that it's cash. Some players are in too much of a hurry, and start the next move when others are still sorting money from the previous move. It's that, IME, which causes the most problems and arguments. (The easiest solution is to grab the dice between each move and don't let the next player have them until the last move is properly finished.)

        1. mhoulden
          Mushroom

          Re: Anyone working on an Ad-Blocker for board games?

          There's an idea. How about mixing in a few Cards Against Humanity, or Exploding Kittens cards?

          "Why am I sticky?"

          "You have won second prize in a beauty contest"

          or

          "Go straight to jail"

          "Nope. The Pope of Nope has spoken."

  7. DeathStation 9000
    Stop

    Why was there an iron though, I can't explain.

    Never mind the money, what the smeg has happened to the player pieces!

    When I was a yoof our Monopoly board had plenty of small furrows where I'd been doughnuting the car while in jail.

    1. Ali Um Bongo
      Thumb Up

      Dog Nuts

      *"...our Monopoly board had plenty of small furrows where I'd been doughnuting the car while in jail..."*

      I was always the dog. Often, if participant numbers were low enough that the other piece was spare too, I'd be the dog, wearing the top hat.

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: Dog Nuts

        "I'd be the dog, wearing the top hat."

        Our version was too old for that. The players pieces were black wooden blocks with printed cardboard cut-outs glued into a slot. The bottom end rents on Whitechapel and Old Kent Road were £2 and £4 and even I thought that was cheap. God knows what the inflated values are on a modern set.

  8. SecretSonOfHG

    Does it include ATM downtime?

    For added realism, from time to time the ATM should refuse to execute any transactions. When that happens you roll a special dice and the real cause can be either "we outsourced our IT and don't have a clue", "hacker intrusion and we don't have a clue" or "communication links are down" The funny part is that regardless of the dice roll, the result is the same: no transaction.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Does it include ATM downtime?

      It does in the RBS version.

      1. Haku

        Re: Does it include ATM downtime?

        Knowing my luck I'd get the junk Lloyds debit card version that at first allowed me to use it in any card machine, then it would only work in Lloyds machines for many years before the restriction was lifted.

        Bitter? Moi?

        You damn right!

    2. SolidSquid

      Re: Does it include ATM downtime?

      "Your debit card was eaten. Lose the ability to swipe your card for 3 turns"

      1. TRT Silver badge

        Re: Does it include ATM downtime?

        They ban two pieces on the same square now because of shoulder surfing.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Monopoly debt edition

    The whole game needs an overhaul. First make all the properties more expensive, and none of them relatively cheap. Players start with no money, but can borrow at very low interest rates.

    The upgrade path is house, house extension, excavate the basement, divide the house up into sketchy flats using plywood screens, the finally break though all the walls and use it as a hotel.

    The bank has hardly any cash, so at some point it runs out and collapses, then gets a bail out.

    Nobody can own the railways, they just lose the players £200.

    The tax squares are free to players with high net wealth.

    Jail is now the poor house, and free parking is congestion charge.

    The player with the highest credit score wins.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Monopoly debt edition

      "The upgrade path is house, house extension, excavate the basement, divide the house up into sketchy flats using plywood screens, the finally break though all the walls and use it as a hotel."

      "Your spouse filed for divorce. Liquidate all your assets and let the bank collect half of it."

    2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: Monopoly debt edition

      I like it! Certain properties could also be designated as tax havens.

      1. TRT Silver badge

        Re: Monopoly debt edition

        You failed to apply for planning permission to convert your class C3 & C4 properties into class C1. Pay £4,000 fine per hotel and demolish them at your own expense. If you do not have the funds to pay the fine, proceed to the class C2A property at the corner of the board, without passing Go and without collecting £200.

  10. codejunky Silver badge

    Wow

    Lots of sour people poking at the economy here. The grass doesnt seem to look any greener in Europe (in fact seems much worse) so cheer up.

    As for credit cards, it doesnt work for me. I do most transactions in cash in real life so it feels more real with cash in the game. Plus the psychological aspect of displaying the money + properties means a lot more to me when manipulating my opponents. However the idea of rents changing with chance cards sounds interesting.

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: Wow

      Lots of sour people poking at the economy here. The grass doesnt seem to look any greener in Europe (in fact seems much worse) so cheer up.

      We're moaning about an economy that is based around debt.

      1. codejunky Silver badge

        Re: Wow

        @ Charlie Clark

        "We're moaning about an economy that is based around debt."

        Unfortunately thats called giving people what they want. Bigger houses, newer cars, latest gadgets and we want it before we pay for it. Bankers used to be considered evil for only lending to people who had money and so the almost certainty of paying it back. Now the risk has gone up as have the interest rates to account for it. The insanely high APR on a credit card looks nuts until you see how many people cant pay back. But refuse them a card! Oh how dare we. It is now a right to go and buy whatever we want and worry about paying for it later (over many months for much more) but it is the people who want it, the people who do it, and the people who cry if it goes away.

        1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

          Re: Wow

          Unfortunately thats called giving people what they want. Bigger houses, newer cars, latest gadgets and we want it before we pay for it.

          This is explicit policy and is supposed to drive economic growth.

          Now the risk has gone up as have the interest rates to account for it. The insanely high APR on a credit card looks nuts until you see how many people cant pay back.

          From where I stand I see falling interest rates accompanied by a shift of risk from the banks to the taxpayer.

          The APR on credit cars is driven more by what the market can bear, especially in America, than by the real risks born. If credit risk was taken seriously chip'n'pin or ID required would have been introduced long ago.

          1. codejunky Silver badge

            Re: Wow

            @ Charlie Clark

            "This is explicit policy and is supposed to drive economic growth."

            Yup. The idea that spending money now to generate the money to pay it back has been the case for some time. This is in anything from business and university education (UK). Credit cards/overdrafts/etc as far as I can see is so people can spend their next pay cheque before getting it. And it is very scary to see how many people do this.

            "From where I stand I see falling interest rates accompanied by a shift of risk from the banks to the taxpayer."

            Sort of. The problem I see with this is public policy screwed up the worlds economies and then public funds had to bail them out. Bankers made a mistake in judging risk but I am amused at the idea that the bankers are so powerful as to have caused the global meltdown, they contributed but the house of cards was already swaying in the wind. Anything from China attempting to better its economy, the EU/eurozone, labour spending everything and being caught with their shorts down, war on terror, etc. Of course we get the short end of the stick for it but when has that stopped a gov?

            "The APR on credit cars is driven more by what the market can bear, especially in America, than by the real risks born. If credit risk was taken seriously chip'n'pin or ID required would have been introduced long ago."

            Chip and pin is more to do with fraud (which must be a drop in the ocean for how little they seem to care) and APR will be based on what people are willing to pay, it is just another product people choose to pay for. But it also spreads the risk of the many who cant pay (pre-approved cards and the like being awful exploitation of this and the people who cant seem to help themselves).

            As I said it is a product that people want. If it is taken away the evil bankers only service the rich. If they do then the evil bankers want everyones money. Personal responsibility seems to exit quickly unfortunately

    2. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

      Re: Wow

      ‘The other Shaltanac's joopleberry shrub is always a more mauvy shade of pinky-russet.’ - DNA

  11. TRT Silver badge

    Three big games companies...

    Hasbro, Waddingtons and Parker Brothers, just dominate the market and now they might even combine. One hope though; the plan is to be referred to the Monopoly Mergers Commission.

    1. Sir Barry

      Monopoly Mergers Commission.

      And why is there only one of them?

  12. annodomini2
    Flame

    Don't like the digital versions

    Can't play different rules, can't change things up, can't steal etc.

    One of my favourites is to put all fines in the middle and if you land on free parking you collect the money.

    The other being land on GO and collect double.

    I'm not saying its realistic, its just a game after all.

    1. Barry Rueger

      Re: Don't like the digital versions

      One of my favourites is to put all fines in the middle and if you land on free parking you collect the money.

      This!

      Also, adding a nuclear bomb in Risk!

  13. hi_robb

    There's a learning Monopoly class in town today.

    I've just got to go...

    1. TRT Silver badge

      Proceed to go...

      Do not pass go. Do not collect £200.

  14. hatti

    Talk Talk edition

    Loses all the player data but claims it was just one players data that went missing.

  15. Graham Marsden
    Thumb Up

    Settlers of Catan...

    ... or Carcassonne, Alhambra, Ticket to Ride and many others are much better than the obsolete "roll and move" of Monopoly.

    Once you start playing games like these, you'll wonder why on earth Monopoly is still going after all this time and the only conclusion you can come to is "because people don't know any better".

    Seriously, play some decent Euro Games (ones that don't involve screwing everyone else over and forcing them out of the game) and you'll never look back.

    1. EddieD

      Re: Settlers of Catan...

      Head to boardgamegeek.com and have a look at the games there...

      Thursday evenings a few friends come round and we dig out one of the many games I have in the attic - Settlers, Carcassone, Discworld, and a few times a year we get together for a full day playing something like Through the Ages..

      Most familiar boardgames* seem a little 1-dimensional after playing these games. And they're easy to learn, with very simple rules that have subtleties. Sometimes it seems that the shorter the rules, the better the game.

      *The ones you find in Tescos/Walmart

  16. andy gibson

    How would Grandad cope without cash?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyBGlVTHA_0

  17. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    Any ideas

    for a El Reg edition?

    1. Psmiffy

      Re: Any ideas

      You have pissed off the Moderatrix, banned from the game for one turn.

  18. itzman
    Devil

    El Reg edition?

    GOTO CHROOTJAIL

    1. Captain DaFt

      Re: El Reg edition?

      WAITING FOR FAA APPROVAL - Lose all turns until you roll 12 consecutive double sixes.

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