Patrick White
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail Published on Tuesday, Apr. 22, 2008 12:00AM EDT Last updated on Friday, Mar. 13, 2009 11:48AM EDT
All good Monopoly players have a few things in common: greed, malice and a heart of Pennsylvania Railroad coal.
Now you can add one more trait to the avaricious mix: friend of the environment.
The 73-year-old game is clearing the board of Water Works and Electric Company and replacing them with the more eco-friendly Wind Energy and Solar Energy in its forthcoming Monopoly Here & Now: World Edition.
"We just felt they were a little dated," Hasbro Canada spokeswoman Marisa Pedatella said.
The celebrated board game has taught the virtues of capitalism to more than 750 million people around the world, according to Hasbro, the game's maker, and the new ecology emphasis "made sense considering the global initiative to go green," Ms. Pedatella said.
The news came as a particular surprise to traditional utility workers, who've been cornerstones of Monopoly's mock society since Charles Darrow patented the game in 1935. "It just goes to show you that people take us for granted," said Mark Butler, chairman of the Atlantic Canada Water Works Association.
The two new green utilities will cost $1.5-million each, considerably higher than the inflation-defying $150 sticker price of Water Works or Electric Company. In the new game, a player who lands on an owned utility has to pay 10,000 times their dice roll.
For Monopoly purists, Hasbro will continue to sell its original No. 9 edition, based on the streets of Atlantic City, N.J.
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