Over the past few weeks, enthusiasts of the venerable board game, Monopoly, have been engaging in a contest to spruce up the game a bit.
It had been about 60 years since the company had introduced a new game piece to go along with the collection of tokens including the top hat, the race car, the thimble and so forth. The Scottie Dog, the most recent addition, came ‘on board’ in the early 50s.
The online contests allowed Monopoly lovers to take matters into their own hands. They were allowed to vote from a list of contestants while, at the same time, they also were able to eliminate a piece.
And the winner is…the cat.
Meanwhile, the flat iron was voted off the board by a narrow margin. It’s possible none of the voters have even used such an item.
The financial feline – which, as of yet, does not have a name – will make its debut later.
Monopoly has some historical relevance in our family as it does with many families. We used to play the game a lot when I was a kid. But, I will admit I haven’t played the game in years. Maybe 20 or more?
I’m sure that is one reason why the Monopoly folks established the contest…to remind folks like me about all the fun I used to have playing this board game (and others).
When I came home this evening, I immediately went looking to find our game. I guess the ‘classic’ rendition is at my folks’ house. I’m sure it doesn’t shock you to learn that the version we have is the baseball edition. Instead of hats, shoes and cars the baseball adaptation has caps, gloves and umpire masks and the 'properties’ are MLB teams.
Growing up, though, the original was a part of a classic lineup that included Sorry, Yahtzee and The Game of Life. Later, I added many of the football games I have told you about before. Then, there was the Trivial Pursuit craze of the 1980s.
Of course, when personal computers became more prevalent and, after the advent of video games, some of the classic parlor games took a back seat. We still have many of them in the family collection. They just don’t make frequent appearances.
Perhaps that was the driving force behind the online campaign – to give the wheelbarrow, the thimble and the horse some relevance in an electronic world. Or maybe it serves simply as a nostalgic reminder of the more simple fun we all enjoyed as tots and teens.
No matter the cause, the campaign certainly spiked interest. You couldn’t buy this kind of publicity. Well, you could, but it would just cost as much or more than a Super Bowl advert.
And in the final tally, potential tokens like the guitar, the diamond ring, the robot, and the helicopter came up a little short this time. Cats rule.
Roger never doubted it for a minute.
JG
Originally posted 2/6/2013
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