Monopoly: Here & Now
Hey okay so they just released yet another Monopoly product. This is a game with less strategy depth than roulette, whose only appeal is that you can imagine that you are living a poorly-realized fantasy. You already know what is wrong with the Monopoly concept, so let's not get into that.
But maybe you hadn't heard of Monopoly: Here & Now. I guess the idea was that partisans of various cities could call in to Parker Brothers headquarters and suggest their cities' landmarks. And then those landmarks would become properties in a new Monopoly version. And you could buy houses on them or hotels or something. I guess the kind of person who would call Parker Brothers is already a true believer, and doesn't need that explained to him, so whatever.
I keep up with these things as a public service, so I knew about the Great Monopoly Call-in while it was still happening. I honestly thought that Parker Brothers was going to choose the 22 most popular cities, and rank their monuments in some real order. I hoped, maybe the bridges and stadiums would be ranked by their actual land value, or the relative incomes of their cities*, or something to make this game relevant. Nope, they ranked the monuments by the number of votes they got. As it turns out, this game is actually just about how much Monopoly fans love Monopoly. Which is always a safe marketing technique for a big famous brand, but come on.
But! Not only is this game about sycophantic Monopoly fans, it's also about fun product placement. The tokens in the game are shaped like McDonalds and Starbucks, which as Parker Brothers charmingly puts it are "iconic to life here & now." Which, when you come to think of it, is an all-purpose lame excuse for product placement. It's not like they needed one. When everyone gets so caught up in new-Monopoly-board excitement, these things just happen. Frankly, it would look weird if they kept the Scottie dog. I'm not sure I've ever seen one of those things in the flesh. How here & now is that?
*Update: Cleveland came in last anyway. Awesome.
But maybe you hadn't heard of Monopoly: Here & Now. I guess the idea was that partisans of various cities could call in to Parker Brothers headquarters and suggest their cities' landmarks. And then those landmarks would become properties in a new Monopoly version. And you could buy houses on them or hotels or something. I guess the kind of person who would call Parker Brothers is already a true believer, and doesn't need that explained to him, so whatever.
I keep up with these things as a public service, so I knew about the Great Monopoly Call-in while it was still happening. I honestly thought that Parker Brothers was going to choose the 22 most popular cities, and rank their monuments in some real order. I hoped, maybe the bridges and stadiums would be ranked by their actual land value, or the relative incomes of their cities*, or something to make this game relevant. Nope, they ranked the monuments by the number of votes they got. As it turns out, this game is actually just about how much Monopoly fans love Monopoly. Which is always a safe marketing technique for a big famous brand, but come on.
But! Not only is this game about sycophantic Monopoly fans, it's also about fun product placement. The tokens in the game are shaped like McDonalds and Starbucks, which as Parker Brothers charmingly puts it are "iconic to life here & now." Which, when you come to think of it, is an all-purpose lame excuse for product placement. It's not like they needed one. When everyone gets so caught up in new-Monopoly-board excitement, these things just happen. Frankly, it would look weird if they kept the Scottie dog. I'm not sure I've ever seen one of those things in the flesh. How here & now is that?
*Update: Cleveland came in last anyway. Awesome.
posted by apk01004 at 11:11 PM
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