Coming Soon to a Toy Store Near You . . .

My first reaction to the new Monopoly with a debit card instead of money was that this is a sign of the end of the world as we know it. Monopoly WITHOUT money. Just wrong. I'm not the kind of person who thinks that the classic games should never be tampered with. I have Simpsons Monopoly and Star Wars Monopoly and I play them whenever I can actually find someone willing to play. I think it's funny to be Homer or Han Solo and to be buying Moe's Tavern or a spot on the Death Star. But Monopoly, like most real games, is about winning, and man, when you have that big colorful pile of money in front of you and your opponent has a twenty and a few ones, you know you're winning. My coworker Greg pointed out that many children learn or practice counting skills with Monopoly, and that is absolutely true. Not much math needed when you just swipe your card. Of course maybe this is more "real" but come on, it's a game! And what about "house rules" like the Free Parking Money? Everyone plays that unofficial rule differently, can you even do that with the debit card? You wouldn't get the joy of raking that pile of cash over to your side after triumphantly counting yourself onto Free Parking. Now, the one upside might be that it's gotta be harder to slip an extra $500 from the bank when no one's looking. Still I don't know if a reduction in cheating possibilities is worth losing the glorious feel of taking your opponents last few paper dollars, or of learning to deal with the anguish of mortgaging something, and watching that money go directly to someone else. What's next - hide and seek using GPS? BTW - please come over and play Simpsons Monopoly with me. I promise not to steal from the bank . . ..