Durban – ‘Do not pass go! Do not collect R200!”
Monopoly, the board game allowing players to run their own real estate empires, made phrases like these part of the common lexicon – while also showing an alternative reality where anyone can win R10 in a beauty pageant and score free city parking.
CNN reports that as part of the 80th anniversary of Monopoly’s first appearance in France, Hasbro is issuing a handful of special sets in that country with real euros in place of the colorful paper it usually offers.
Of the 80 special sets, 69 will have five 10-euro notes and five 20-euro notes, another 10 will come with five 20-euro, two 50-euro and one 100-euro bills, and one set will have a complete bank drawer of real cash, CNN says.
Brand manager for Prima Toys – currently charged with the game’s distribution – Delia Eybers said: ”Monopoly as a brand is very well established and continues to be so. It is the largest game in South Africa coming through as the number one game unit in sales, year after year.”
In an era where hi-tech gadgets rule and are most coveted by children, what has given the game its unique staying power?
For Dr Maheshvari Naidu, a social anthropologist and senior lecturer in the School of Social Sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the answer was simple.
“I think board games maintain their appeal despite the overwhelming competition from the several gaming platforms such as Wii and PlayStation… because, as ‘primitive and archaic’ as they may seem to many of the younger individuals, it is ‘play’ and competition with people directly across from you.”
She explained the celebration of a win, and the “whining after a bad throw of dice” or picking up a “go to jail” card, had an extra real-time and “live” fun element.
“So even though our kids will invariably say they prefer online gaming to board games, and avatars to tokens, when they do end up being cajoled into playing with the family, it is this element that they enjoy the most.”
She said that for the older generation, board games provided a link to tangible childhood memories and healthy sibling rivalry.
“We, in turn, attempt to re-kindle a new generation of memories with a family games night. And if we have super-competitive kids, they love the possibility of beating mom and dad!”
She said that playing a game like Monopoly also brought the entire family or visiting family brood together, as money and property changed hands until bankruptcy was declared by the players.
Naidu explained that Monopoly was able to gain international appeal, for although it started in the US and carried American street names, it soon licensed regional versions, making the appeal of the game relevant and local to young and old across the world.
“Monopoly was initially designed to teach economic concepts about taxation and property ownership and takes its name from the concept and meaning of monopoly or to monopolise.
“It has seen many subtle changes over the years, but the iconic tokens, colour scheme and design have remained, and evoke deep-seated childhood and family-time memories. In this period of unpredictable power cuts and load shedding, it can still be played without depending on electricity and plugging-in equipment.”
She said that while many parents also had a great time playing Wii or PlayStation with their kids, from a sociological perspective, this kind of time together saw each player focused on the images and graphics on the screen rather than with the human opponent.
“The fact that board games are still around alongside dominant gaming platforms, reveals there is still a large market being catered for. A game like Backgammon, as excavations in Iran show, has been played since at least 3000BC.”
Theorists and writers about gaming experiences, she said, had looked into the sociological elements of gaming as well as the embedded “experiences” in the popular games.
“Experiential elements, such as competition, risk, chance, fantasy and role playing, allow us to create alternative realities and to enact alternative selves within these worlds.
“We do this while trying to oust our opponents through healthy competition, and calculating when to take a chance and when to take a risk.”
Daily News