MONOPOLY

This page archived in August 2008

Monopoly was originally based on Atlantic City, USA, but the classic UK version is based on streets in London. Tim Moore's excellent book: 'DO NOT PASS GO' is an exploration of those streets. A humorous quotation is to be found in the LONELY PLANET guide to EXPERIMENTAL TRAVEL.

Of course, there is now a plethora of themed Monopoly games: I have a copy of YORKSHIRE Monopoly. Monopoly recently went online with MONOPOLY LIVE. This linked technology with geography by equipping a number of taxis with GPS units. These log the routes that the taxis take. Players (free - just register...) have some money to spend buying virtual property, and putting virtual hotels and apartments on them. Depending on where the taxis go, money is added to your account. I am currently doing rather poorly at it....

Some games are very localised. I have a copy of the CHATSWORTH board game for example - who knows, it may be a collectors edition. Based on the gardens of Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, to which I was a frequent visitor as a callow youth...

Why not get your students to create a monopoly board of the area where you live / teach ? They could justify why certain streets are worth more than others. What criteria are they using to establish the value of the place ?

This task will be aided by using the rather wonderful resource available from MONOPOLY LIVE. It features a checklist for you to plan your 'replacements' for the classic properties.

Download the information from the UK MYMONOPOLY site.

Recently wanted to develop this further, and discovered some useful additional sites: check out my new MONOPOLY page.

A load of different versions of the board game

http://www.etailgifts.com/monopoly.asp

The original game was apparently invented by a Quaker, and was aimed at teaching the evils of monopoly.

To read more go to http://www.antimonopoly.com/

You can now get an EXPRESS version which can be played in just 20 minutes: another sign that young people today have no attention spans....

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