In-Game Advertising Comes to Board Games

Grooves writes "Monopoly is getting rid of paper money in favor of credit cards. From the article: 'The new card, which resembles a debit card, is inserted into a small plastic reader/writer that can display and update the balance on the card. Traditional money is gone altogether, though purists can still purchase the original version.' Does this mean the end of complex Monopoly games where I charge grandma interest to borrow money?"

Comments

lame

[Anonymous Coward]

I grew up playing Monopoly, but I've come to realize that Monopoly is a terrible board game. It is sad that it is still played so widely when there are so many great boards games to come out just recently. Monopoly changing the names and adding an electronic gimmick won't save itself from poor mechanics.

At bare minimum families should be playing Settlers of Catan these days. *Maybe* Carcassonne. Puerto Rico and Reiner Knizia games for families that claim to know something about board games.

A good site for other games, review, and community check out Board Game Geek

Re:lame

[Anonymous Coward]

Risk 2210 A.D. isn't bad either. Conveniently, there are open source variants of both Settlers and Risk:

Invade Earth - Risk/Risk 2210/etc
JSettlers - Settlers

Re:Hmm

[Anonymous Coward]

LOL - It's compound interest working against you. Calculate it and you'll see. Most people only think in terms of the next few months of payments. The credit industry isn't a trillion dollar industry because they give people 1% cash back.

The credit industry makes its vast wads of cash on two things : (a) interest charged on that inconceivably large portion of the population who don't actually pay their cards back within the monthly term, and (b) the merchant fee.

The former is obvious, the latter is paid by the consumer by way of higher prices.

Unless they're getting 12%pa return on their investment, they're not making much by way of interest differential on those who pay their cards back monthly.

Re:Mixed feelings

[Rob Kaper]

1. That is not an official rule. I've quite thoroughly gone through every little tiny seemingly insignificant available rule when writing Atlantik/monopd.

2. Although obviously there's no physical money, I did of course write the ever-so-popular "Free Parking collects fines" rule as option. ;-)

Re:Hmm

[KeiichiMorisato]

If you've got money then you don't need to defer payment until a later date... If you don't have money, and put purchases on a credit card, you're pretty much unlikely to have that money at all on the due date... Therefore, you make small payments monthly, which seem reasonable, and you do a quick calculation in your head. $2000 at 15% APR, with minimum payments I should owe $2300 in total.. that's not bad - it's a small price to pay.

What are you talking about?

If I have money, of course I would want to defer payment as long as possible. As long as you pay your bill in full, then there's no interest charged on the bill, however I would've gained the interest with the money I kept in my account.

It's standard practice for companies to wait till the due dates to clear their accounts payable, just for that reason.

Now why would I want to pay upfront, when I can gain money through interest, plus earn speciality points for a particular credit card?

Re:Deadbeat

[trickonion]

I don't know if this is the FIRST place to say they are deadbeats, but where I know it from is the best show ever, Frontline. Specifically the episode "The secret history of credit cards". It was Ben Stein who specifically said that credit card companies call people who pay their balance in full each months are deadbeats
link for ya: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cred it/view/
People need to watch more pbs

Re:Deadbeat

[MajroMax]

Interesting... I pay my balance off every month, and they raise my credit line. So, is it because they like me, or because they hope i'll spend more and _not_ be able to pay it off in one month?

Both. By regularly paying off your bill, you demonstrate that you're a good credit risk. The bank is hoping that you'll be stuck with a running balance and pay their interest fees on it, but they're also confident that if/when you do, you'll make regular payments and not default.

Re:Hmm

[PurpleFloyd]

You have to use a credit card regularly to build a credit history, don't you?

No, credit history is built with every cent you borrow. It's true that, starting from scratch, it's very difficult to qualify for larger loans. Without a strong credit history, you probably won't be able to get a home loan, or a car loan with any kind of decent interest rate. In fact, pretty much the only large loan available to someone without a good credit history or collateral is a student loan.

Using a credit card, and paying the balance in full each month, is probably the easiest and best way to get a good credit score. However, it's certainly not the only way.

Re:Hmm

[LordKronos]

That's a violation of almost every merchant account agreement I've ever seen. You ARE allowed to offer a cash discount, but you may NOT charge a price higher than the displayed price for credit card purchases.

This is Just ONE variation of Monopoly

[shaneFalco]

The summary is mistaken. TFA is quite clear that this is for a British version of the game and that it is merely one of the 10,000 variations of Monopoly. I mean- we have Star Wars Monopoly, 'Cleveland in a Box' Monopoly, and my personal favorite Ghettopoly (which you can;t get in the U.S. now, google it sometime for the Department of Justice freaking out over it). This is simply Visa Monopoly. Nothing to see here- move along.

Re:stacks of money

[strikethree]

but as an American, I've never been to Atlantic City, either, and I've always wondered if Mediterranean Ave. was the dump the game portrays it to be.

It is. All of the properties generally reflect reality.

strike