NEAL CONAN, host:
Real estate analysts saw 2006 may not be much of a seller's market, but thanks to a new edition of Monopoly out in stores today, would-be capitalists can gobble up red-hot properties just like the boom days of aught four. The game has been thoroughly revamped to fit the modern American marketplace, which means goodbye Baltic Avenue and Marvin Gardens, hello Las Vegas Boulevard and Times Square. The new edition also upgrades the player pieces. Instead of the old-fashioned thimble or the Scotts terrier, there's the New Balance tennis shoe and a Toyota Prius, amongst others. Game enthusiasts, here's your chance to weigh in. Does Monopoly need a makeover? Are you willing to retire old pieces for new? Do you think other board games could use a similar renovation? 800-989-8255, 800-989-TALK. You can also send questions to us by e-mail, talk@npr.org. Joining us now is Phil Orbanes, president of game-maker Winning Moves, Incorporated, and author of the forthcoming book Monopoly: The World's Most Famous Game and How it Got That Way. He joins us by phone from his home in Magnolia, Massachusetts. Welcome to the program.
Mr. PHIL ORBANES (Author, Monopoly: The World's Most Famous Game and How it Got That Way): Thank you very much, Neal, pleasure to be here today.
CONAN: And we should start by saying that the traditional Monopoly game will not be replaced by this new version, so put down those picket signs, if you will. It'll still be available. But Phil, what do you make of this new version?
Mr. ORBANES: Well, I think that the great message here is that Monopoly is the great game of capitalism, and the hallmark of capitalism is choice. And what Monopoly now offers you is the chance to either play the traditional game with the beloved tokens and property spaces that have occupied a warm spot in our hearts for 70 years or play Monopoly as if it had never been invented in the 19 - in the 20th century, I should say. It was a brand-new creation, and with that premise, what would it look like, and what the names of its properties be? And that's what the Here & Now edition offers you by way of choice.
CONAN: Well, one of the updates in this new 2006 edition is that property prices have increased just a little bit.
Mr. ORBANES: Yeah, by a factor of 10,000.
CONAN: And I guess that might reflect reality, or at least before-the-bubble-burst reality.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. ORBANES: Well, it's probably closer to the reality of property prices today.
CONAN: And there was a democratic makeover. Some people voted online for the city or the icon that they wanted.
Mr. ORBANES: Yeah, it was in a sort of - I think a very outstanding turnout, if you will, at the polls, something like 3.5 million people voted online to select the 22 landmarks around the country that would be represented on the game board.
CONAN: And what are a few of those?
Mr. ORBANES: Well, I think that you mentioned that the two choiciest properties, or the two choicest properties I meant to say, are Times Square and Fenway Park, but also the White House is represented, and you'll find ballparks from other parts of the country like Texas Stadium.
CONAN: Wrigley Field I think it's called.
Mr. ORBANES: Wrigley Field is on the board. You know, I think that the, you know, Las Vegas has a representation. I think the idea was to try to incorporate the top destinations for Americans when they travel and use those as the names of the 22 property spaces that we wheel and deal, trade, and try to turn into a Monopoly.
CONAN: And I gather instead of railroads we have?
Mr. ORBANES: Airlines.
CONAN: And instead of the utilities?
Mr. ORBANES: I think you'll have to correct me on the utilities. I didn't know the utilities had changed.
CONAN: I think they're cell-phone companies now.
Mr. ORBANES: Of course, now they're phone companies, yes. I'm sorry for the little miss there in the updating. Yes, you're right.
CONAN: So this is a new world, but is it product placement when the old little race car is replaced by a Honda Prius?
Mr. ORBANES: Well, you know, that's a controversial question. If you ask, I think, a number of people inside of Hasbro, they would tell you - the makers of the game - they would tell you that no, that there is no financial payment coming to them for the incorporation of these modern commercial symbols in the game, that in fact what they were really trying to do was just to reflect the icons from our lifestyle today. Obviously, I think if you were Toyota or maybe McDonalds, you'd be thrilled to know that, you know, your most impressive products were now represented by little tokens in the Monopoly game.
CONAN: We're talking with Phil Orbanes, author of the forthcoming book, Monopoly: The World's Most Famous Game and How It Got That Way about a revised 2006 version of the game. You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.
And let's get some callers on the line. This is Carmen. Carmen's with us from Fort Wayne, Indiana. Carmen, are you there? Hello, Carmen, last chance.
CARMEN (Caller): Hello?
CONAN: Hi, there you are. You're on the air, Carmen, go ahead please.
CARMEN: Can you hear me?
CONAN: Barely, the line is not so good.
CARMEN: Well, I was just going to say what you addressed already, is that it seems really commercial to go with a Prius and (unintelligible).
CONAN: All right. Let me put it this way, Phil Orbanes. I think a good cell phone is indeed one of the tokens in the new game.
Mr. ORBANES: Yes that's correct.
CONAN: I'm sorry, Carmen, your phone is not going to cooperate with you, so we're going to have to let you go. I apologize for that. Let's see if we can get another caller on. This is Phil. Phil calls us from Springville in Utah.
PHIL (Caller). Yes, this is Phil Lawry(ph). Hey, I think that Monopoly has an educational component. My kids play it all the time, and putting in these modern-day icons, in my view, just makes the game a lot more relevant to them. They're in a commercial generation. They're inundated with commercialism all the time. And I think they recognize this stuff, and then they start putting two and two together. And they start seeing the game has some relevance to what actually happens in the real world and they start identifying these places, these companies, and these icons with real capitalism. I'm wondering what your guest has to say about the educational component of these games.
Mr. ORBANES: Well, I think you have hit a responsive chord here. Because this is the prime reason why Hasbro Games decided to introduce a alternative version of Monopoly was to make it relevant to, you know, today's new and upcoming generation of kids. You know, let's face it. As wonderful and traditional as regular Monopoly is and has been for a long time, it was based on the most important destination of Americans 70 years ago, namely Atlantic City. That was the vacation spot that people traveled to by the only real means available to them, namely the railroads.
Once air traffic became affordable to a large number of people, the rest of the country and then eventually the rest of the world was open up for travelers to see firsthand.
CONAN: Which is...
Mr. ORBANES: And I think that the logic behind this new edition is to represent on the board all the places that are contemporary and that are of interest, especially to younger people. And yes, the educational component of Monopoly is under-appreciated, in my opinion. It is, first and foremost, the most important means for younger people to learn the art of negotiating. If we as people can't work with other people, then we have a tough time in life, don't we? So the whole idea that Monopoly teaches you something about deal-making, about coming to agreement and learning that it's important not to browbeat but rather to use, you know, reason and intelligence with making your proposition - this is one of the most educational features this game offers.
CONAN: Phil, when you play the game, the old game, what piece are you?
PHIL: I'm the battleship, if I can get it. I have to negotiate with my children which piece I get. That also teaches the fine point of negotiation.
CONAN: Phil, thanks very much for the call.
PHIL: Thank you, bye.
CONAN: Bye-bye. Let's see if we can get Suzanne(ph) on the line, Suzanne calling us from Millington, Tennessee.
SUZANNE (Caller): Hello.
CONAN: Hi.
SUZANNE: I just wanted to say that we've probably got, I don't know, four or five different versions of Monopoly at my house, and the one that we always play is Star Wars Episode I. We don't even play the regular version anymore.
(Soundbite of laughter)
CONAN: And do they have racecars in that?
SUZANNE: No, it's different characters from the movie.
CONAN: And which one do you take?
SUZANNE: Well, I always have to be Queen Amidala because I'm the only girl in my household.
(Soundbite of laughter)
CONAN: Suzanne, thanks very much. Appreciate the phone call.
SUZANNE: Not a problem.
CONAN: I wonder. Phil, when you play, what piece are you?
Mr. ORBANES: Well, of late I've become the thimble, but I must say there is a special reason for that. Previously, for most my life I preferred the battleship, but the reason I've sort of taken a warm feeling toward the thimble is that in the very earliest editions of the game, it had this very strange and inexplicable saying engraved on it, and the saying was For a Good Girl. So here was this little thimble with these raised letters, For a Good Girl. And in the research that I did for my book, which comes out next month, called Monopoly: The World's Most Famous Game and How It Got That Way, I found the origin of this phrase, which really touched me.
Apparently, at the turn of the 20th century, it was very traditional to give young girls a little thimble that would fit their little fingers, and because this was very often given as a gift, the maker of the thimble inscribed these letters on it to symbolize the fact that it was a gift and it was being given to a good girl.
(Soundbite of music)
CONAN: Phil Orbanes, thanks for that information, appreciate your time.
Mr. ORBANES: Yeah.
CONAN: Phil Orbanes, president of Winning Moves, a game company based in Massachusetts. This is TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. I'm Neal Conan in Washington.
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