Increasingly these days you hear the words “Google” and “monopoly” in the same sentence. There is no shortage of fears that the search giant is getting too powerful in the search and online advertising space. But today, the two words are being joined for an entirely different reason: The board game Monopoly is about to launch an online version with Google Maps.
All the details aren’t clear yet, as the game won’t launch until September 9. But it would appear that Hasbro, makers of the Monopoly game, is attempting to turn the franchise into a massively multi-player online game. Called “Monopoly City Streets,” here’s a brief description that is offered on the teaser site:
The goal is simple. Play to beat your friends and the world to become the richest property magnate in existence.
Own any street in the world. Build humble houses, crazy castles and stupendous skyscrapers to collect rent. Use MONOPOLY Chance Cards to sabotage your mates by building Hazards on their streets.
It’s also not clear if this game will be an official partnership with Google, or if Hasbro is simply using Google Maps APIs. But the tie-in goes a bit deeper, as is revealed on the blog it set up for the game (on yes, Google’s Blogger platform). A post from Friday reads:
We still need 3 new building designs and we’d like YOU to design them!
MONOPOLY and Google SketchUp fans worldwide be sure to check back from next Tuesday 8 September for entry details and the chance to show the world your ultimate 3D building creation.
So it’s not just Google Maps, but also SketchUp that Hasbro is utilizing for this game. The UK’s Guardian is reporting that the game will run for 4 months. They’re also reporting that players starting a new game will get $3 million to play around with.
Without seeing it in action, this sounds like a brilliant idea for a massively multi-player online game. You’ll apparently be able to buy an property in the world. Of course, the social element that links together will be key, and it’s not yet clear what that will be. The Monopoly City Streets blog uses Google Friend Connect, but perhaps the game will have its own social web.
This sounds like a lot of fun… goodbye farmville?
TC is sober these days.. Misleading and cryptic title. Over criticizing things at will and whim. I always believed MGS degrades TC standards and charm.
? Not much more I can say really.
i dont expect complete neutrality like bbc, esp in blogging, but continued biased-agenda for long is really bad. Over-criticizing things is not required, things are done by humans – not evils – with some minimum pre thinking.
Board game in title i first thought apple board seat of schmidt. little longer but straightforward title is what TC been.
here are a bunch of useful tools to play the game a way to embed your profile as a badge and some management tools im developing http://alpha.ca...opoly-city.html
The two important and different types of organizations have joined for an entirely different reason to launch an online version with Google Maps. Good! The makers of the Monopoly game, is attempting to turn the franchise into a massively multi-player online game with a different name. This is quite interesting.This sounds like a brilliant idea for a massively multi-player online game! We shall wait and watch how many takers are for the game.
But to give him credit, Droopy did manage to author an entire piece without raving about Apple…
Sounds like tons of fun. I would like to own Mountain View Googleplex.
And by the way, do people still play Farmville? According to me, it is a sucker game.
Farmville??? such a boring and lousy game… Absolutely no brainer!!!!…
Monopoly will be fun…
Google’s monopolization is ever increasing one. The integration of “Monopoly City Streets” and Google Maps will now monopolize the online game world for the next four months.
A gateway to realistic entertainment.
Awesome – if I win do I get a hair style like Trump? Please say yes!
Oh , and the plastic barbie doll wife too? (upgradable like Trumps too of course)
lol I’ll play that
LoL … second that!
This sounds like it will be highly addictive.
Very very clever – entertain to engage, create experience and economics follow.
SWEET … My favorite board game of all time.
Let’s just pray that I can get some work done once this game launches…
Definitely sounds like it would be fun
This sounds awesome. I wonder what sort of real-world scenario cards they’ll have in the Chance and Community Chest decks
Def can’t wait.
This will be huge. I can see a virtual currency developing from this. Brands wanting to get involved (build a starbucks cafe here, Hilton Hotel there). And people having fun.
At the very least, a great play for foursquare’s play+advertising model
Oh, I can’t wait. This looks like a lot of fun.
Wednesday will be a good day.
that sucks
OMG, i feel excited already!
it seems google will sell our homes
Google + Monopoly? That’s an interesting combination. Monopoly bores me pretty quickly, though Google is doing pretty well so far in my book.
I just wanted to point out that the Monopoly man’s hand is grabbing a particular letter of the alphabet in that logo. All your O’s are belong to us? Coincidence or have I just solved the puzzle that’s been keeping the TC staff awake at night?
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The views represented in this post are mine, only mine. I’m not sharing!
Google + Monopoly? That’s an interesting combination. Monopoly bores me pretty quickly, though Google is doing pretty well so far in my book.
I just wanted to point out that the Monopoly man’s hand is grabbing a particular letter of the alphabet in that logo. All your O’s are belong to us? Coincidence or have I just solved the puzzle that’s been keeping the TC staff awake at night?
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The views represented in this post are mine, only mine. I’m not sharing, not even with my employer!
Remember when Hasbro sent a cease and desist to an independent developer who put together a working Risk game using Google Maps? That was 4 years ago. See http://googlema...-maps-risk.html
And now, which is pretty much a geological era later in internet terms, they’re trying to do the same thing again.
A perfect example of using copyright law to hold back innovation for years.
Just wonder why they only want to run it for four months. Is this an open beta for another product or why should it stop after that time?
Very excited to see what they can come up with.
Our next game is somewhat related to google maps as well and will bring oldschool gamers much fun.
Cant wait…. should be fun to ground people in the dust
Hey – there’s already an amazing Google Pinball game.
http://bit.ly/Gpinball
Kind of surprised Hasbro didn’t snap this up… Okay it’s just a Flash animation, but it is actually a commentary on the board situation that led to Google’s antitrust situation.
damn thing won’t load. they should’ve used google servers.
Google is not a partner. Hasbro is just using the map API.
Nice and crazy
Progress cannot be stopped 
Once they sort out all the initial issues they are having, I think this will be a very cool game!
If you want to see the Monopoly competition buildings on your iPhone in 3D, you can do so with NaviCAD (http://www.navicad.com). Just type in “monopolycompetition09″ in the search interface and tap a result. Note that NaviCAD is only a viewing/navigating app. Any suggestions are welcome–send an email to feedback@navicad.com.
thanks, Chuck Han (one of the NaviCAD authors)
Interesting post at Webmasterworld about the issue:
http://www.webm...rds/4014279.htm
I have the impression that Google has changed its tactics in the following way:
- Past: They tried to show ads always, even when there was minimal keyword bidding competition, meaning that they would show plenty of ads, even the low CPC ones.
- Now: They are trying to push up minimum CPC, meaning that even in low competiton scenarios, they will tend to show only high CPC ads, decreasing the frequency of the low CPC ads. Sometimes not even presenting a single ad (even in situations in which there are bidders, low CPC bidders though).
You would think: Hey! Google is about maximizing revenue, therefore, they can do this in order to “convince” low CPC bidders that they should increase their minimum CPC, thus providing the revenue maximization that any business wants. The problem is that in classic economic theory, you can only do this when a monopolist controls supply. So, my impression is that Google is following this tactic, only because they have the weight of a cuasi-monopoly.
What do you think? Do you have a similar impression?
Now that I think a bit more about this, someone could actually sue Google basing the case on their behaviour. If they are behaving this way, that means that they must have some kind of internal documents that prove this point. People there are clever, they must have realized that the laws of monopoly economics apply to them. Someone must have done some presentation ,calculations, reports on the subject and concluded that they needed to tweak the Adwords algo to achieve this “monopoly maximization” situation.
These documents and the above mentioned practice, can actually prove in court that Google is a monopoly and order the payment of fines or the splitting of the company.