Monopoly Uses Google Maps To Go Live Online 81
CWmike writes "Think you're a Monopoly whiz? Remember running the board and shaming your property-less competitors when playing board games on the living room floor? Well, the age-old game of buying property and making your rivals pay big for landing on your Railroad is now going global. The new, free web game will use Google Maps and Street View to make the whole planet the game board. The online version of Monopoly is set to launch on Wednesday."
But where's go? ...and my $200? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:One Of The World's Dullest Games (Score:1, Interesting)
Monopoly was not cut from whole cloth, you know. It may be a dull game, but it was popular for more than twenty years before it was popular [typepad.com].
Not necessarily boring with the right rules (Score:4, Interesting)
Risk on Google Maps instead (Score:5, Interesting)
1. Troops that travel (of course)
2. Ships that can attack by sea (new)
3. Topographic component (altitude matters in a battle)
4. Instant Messaging (language translation?)
5. Allies (allies are important... maybe they can give me stuff?)
It would have to be all AJAX. Flash slows everything down. Plus, Google Maps API is a great AJAX implementation anyhow. The graphics would have to be decent. It can't look like a web page... should look like a console instead... something like Starcraft. That would work.
Ballistic Missiles could make things interesting too. That would be a new concept. But, it would have to be something similar to Scorched Earth that requires players to refine their projectile settings. Maybe make things interesting depending on the warhead used?
Then, one guy can conquer the whole planet... I wonder how that would compare to Monopoly...
Re:Monopoly is a horrible game (Score:2, Interesting)
Not only do some people enjoy the game, but some people also modify the game a bit to be more fun. For instance, my family plays using two boards joined at "Go". Twice the monopolies. We add a rule where the utilities are counted as transports ("Railroad Tycoon"), so a person with the entirety of transports on one board gets $800 instead of a measly $200. There's all kinds of other rules we add, like larger/more dice, which works very well on the double-board game.
Re:Monopoly is a horrible game (Score:3, Interesting)
Not only do some people enjoy the game, but some people also modify the game a bit to be more fun.
Speaking of modifying the game. I got really really bored one day and started thinking about creating a monopoly themed game for my place of work.
Among other websites, one of the more interesting ones I came across was:
http://www.boardgamedesign.com/pages/games/custom-opoly.htm [boardgamedesign.com]
While things don't get resellably cheap until you make bulk orders, they do have a prototype service for low (even single) orders, which just costs a bit more. I believe the individual blanks can be ordered under the shopping page there.
There used to be a software package (official no less!) called something along the lines of "Monopoly creation kit" that also let you redesign some of the common elements, and then print out the pieces. But this program is a little hard to find. Personally I didn't think it was as full of an experience as a prototyping service, but ymmv.
I went through the work of making up a 'Custom monopoly check sheet' with the names and groupings of everything in the game listed out with blanks to fill in the new names of things, which makes design a lot easier.
It isn't exactly the cheapest of family fun activities, but could make for a very unforgettable game to a family with young children that already enjoy monopoly. I would have loved to have this ability when I was 10!