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Monopoly game gets hip to renewable energy

Posted at 4:31 PM on 23 Apr 2008

Photo: goat_girl via Flickr

Refuse to play Monopoly because you fear Electric Company sources its power from coal? Fear not! Game-maker Hasbro is updating everyone's favorite interminable game, and in the Here and Now: World Edition, Water Works and Electric Company will be replaced with Wind Energy and Solar Energy. It's "a nod to the efforts of countries worldwide to increase the effectiveness and availability of renewable energy sources," says Phil Jackson (the Hasbro executive, not the basketball coach). So Rich Uncle Pennybags doesn't need water anymore, huh? Says the chair of the Atlantic Canada Water Works Association, "It just goes to show you that people take us for granted." He'll feel better once he lands on Free Parking.

sources: Reuters, The Globe and Mail

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Comments: (4 comments)

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This would be impressive...

...were it not for the fact that there are already several thousand versions of Monopoly out there.

Still, interestin' concept.

by Tasermons Partner at 12:57 PM on 24 Apr 2008

Green Monopoly

When I saw this I thought that while its only a game, its a nice idea, it can help send a message, until the articlae ended with "Free Parking". Free Parking! What a missed opporetunity, because any self-respecting environmental game updater should know that a central tenet of smart growth, the urban development model that brings us better, more efficient communities, require that parking be paid. Paid at market rates no less, so that the car is not subsidized. So we have incentives to use other travel modes. Get it?
At the next game update, change Free Parking to somthing like "Free Biking" or "Catch a Free Breath".

by RogerD at 7:40 PM on 24 Apr 2008

futile

like this is going to do anything except make corporate execs feel better.

Writer/creator www.lumpyland.com/blog

by lumpy at 8:22 AM on 25 Apr 2008

ironic

The irony is that with distributed renewable energy there will be no tendency for consumer-unfriendly "monopolies". Wind and solar can be placed almost everywhere, that's why it hasn't been so attractive for the utility monopolies that do exist in the present real world to invest in yet. I hope the 'Community chest' drawing tickets include such items as:
Congratulations! You have just received a grant for energy conservation investments. Pay $200 into the center of the board, but now you can Collect $250 each time you pass GO for the rest of the game!!

Maybe instead of planting houses and motels on certain eco-sensitive properties, the players can plant trees and restore habitats with native species.

If the game pieces are made of recycled post-consumer paper (or how about recycled Tyvek!) , that would be even better.

Like the real life, the game would continue to be about making progress rather than outright victory.

Moving toward sustainability with hopefulness, one revolution at a time.

by 2wheeler at 8:56 AM on 28 Apr 2008

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