Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200

Our good friends at Hasbro are at it again.  When we last heard from Hasbro, they had pulled the line of Pussycat Dolls dolls from their fall campaign.  Now, they're tampering with history.  In their British version of Monopoly, Hasbro has replaced the traditional play money with debit cards.  Yes, you heard me.  Debit cards in Monopoly.  The children on the other side of the pond won't know the joy of collecting and hoarding the yellow, blue, green, pink and purple paper money.

Hasbro said they started thinking about what Monopoly would look like if it was designed today, and they noticed consumers were using more debit cards and carrying around less cash than back in the day.  Hasbro is also considering a similar change for American versions of Monopoly.

In case you didn't know the history of Monoply, the game was invented in1935.  It offered people a form of financial escapism during the country's worst financial depression.  Players became pretend-like real estate magnates who competed for fictitious property named after real places in Atlantic City, New Jersey.  Even though the Great Depression was going on, Americans still scraped up enough cash to buy the game because it quickly became Hasbro's number one board game.

This just doesn't seem right.  Half the fun of playing Monopoly was messing with the play money.  We would use the play money from Monopoly in other games we would make up.  We'd also use the play money from the game when we played store or office.  Now when British kids play the game, they'll never know the fun of using play money.  Instead they'll have to use a debit card and be forced to pay a $2.50 transaction fee every time they use the card.

The British version has also been modernized in other ways.  Cards that once awarded players for winning a beauty contest now paya them for winning a reality TV show.  I'm guessing that they still have a card that says something about losing your job; I can't imagine they would have a card that said "You're fired!" but you never know.  In the American version, passing "Go" will get you $200.  In the British version, it's now worth two million English pounds.  I think I'd rather play the British version.