The game is up for cash
July 26th, 2006Monopoly money could become obsolete after the makers of the 70-year old game introduced a new version where players fund property purchases using a debit card.
The Visa-branded card inserts into an electronic machine where the banker taps in cardholders’ earnings and payments.
The Telegraph gets in on the press release recycling scam. Naturally you will pay dearly for the card version!
Unfortunately if this takes off a wave of children will grow up associating cards with financial purchases rather than cash – a salami slice off the (sometimes) untraceable economy. Another step towards the fully audited life, perhaps the Home Office should come up with an immigration control game with a biometric scanner included – they could get BBQ to give them away on Blue Peter.
Whatever happened to a nice simple game of dominoes?
July 26th, 2006 at 4:58 pm
This is exactly what I thought when I read this article on BoringBoring.
Perhaps the next super-version of Monopoly will contain an iris scanner for cash payments, and before you buy your property (say, Park Place?) you will have to submit to a DNA “verification” test, along with a full criminal record check.
You know, to get the kids USED to these TOTALLY NORMAL procedures.
July 26th, 2006 at 6:46 pm
I like cribbage. We’ve been looking for a nice cribbage board to use at home, but have yet to fill that particular gap.
Someone on ebay is making and selling boards from old 45s! Play ‘in the round’ with My Sweet Lord…
http://tinyurl.co.uk/iafg
Not quite what I’m after…
Cash… Use it or lose it.
Physical objects can be precious things. Already I have several-fold more music in bits and bytes than I do on vinyl, but I know what I value and which I treat with more seriousness and reverance. It’s a shame if cash, as a physical object, is absent from people’s lives. There is a beauty in cash. The 50 franc note preserved from a holiday in Paris with a commemorative image of The Little Prince on it, a few crumpled dollars here and there, a 5 kronor coin that lives in my camera bag… there is a value beyond mere currency.
And then there is the ritual, like putting a record on the turntable, of getting coins and notes out, selecting the combination you wish to pay with, and handing over something real
One more beautiful thing soon to be didus ineptus.