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Lots of games use fake money (Monopoly is the canonical example). Instead of using cheesy, low-quality "play money", game publishers should buy up the now-worthless low-denomination bills for currencies which have suffered hyperinflation.
Wouldn't it be a lot more fun to play Monopoly (or perhaps
a more interesting game) with the baht or the lira instead of lame Parker Brothers money?
cheap ass games
http://www.cheapass.com
Founded on the idea that you can find play money someplace, so you shouldn't have to buy it in a box. [tenhand, Mar 25 2001, last modified Oct 17 2004]
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And in return, these countries could start using the comparatively valuable Parker Brothers money. I'm quite prepared to offload a handful of pink £500s for a reasonable lira equivalent. Offers ? |
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This might be a self-defeating plan. If the lira is suddenly subject to high demand for use in Monopoly sets, wouldn't its value go back up? |
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Well, the game publishers could use a variety of devalued currencies, filling boxes with whatever was cheapest at the moment. |
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How many Monopoly games are produced yearly? How much devalued currency is available in the world at near or below its production cost? |
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The (Turkish) lira might be a good choice. Most places have low enough inflation these days that they manage to begin printing higher denominations before the paper is worthless, unfortunately (for game-money-supply purposes -- not such a bad thing from other perspectives, I suppose). The smallest Italian note, for instance, is a thousand lira -- not practical for monopoly, I think, and that particular currency's high-inflation days are certainly over. Twenty (or eighty) years ago might have been a better time. You might have been able to furnish the original Monopoly with Weimar marks. Could take advantage of residual anti-German (or new anti-Nazi) sentiment in the marketing, too. Hm. |
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Actually any side effect of making valueless money valueable again would be welcomed by the country that the money comes from. You could call it "Game Aid" with the motto "Play the World". |
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Better still. Rather than play with real but basically worthless money, make the rules of Monopoly legally enforceable. You will pay that rent you owe. You will go to jail etc. |
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OK - so there can be several currencies supplied with each monopoly set. And perhaps a multi-layered board representing the countries where each particular currency is valid. Naturally, each country would want its own bank, unless agreements were made on an individual basis to use the same currency. But hold on... on a large enough scale this would effectively constitute European monetary union - but on a "bottom-up" basis rather than imposed "top-down" by power-hungry federalists. |
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The trick is to find a currency unit that ought to be a coin, but represents less than the intrinsic value of a coin's worth of metal. The lira and rupee are nice, but they can't compete with the Nicaraguan centavo. 75 centavos buys you a mango, and they come in 5, 10 and 50 centavo bills. |
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Lubbit: I got the 50th anniversary version of the Monopoly game a long time ago, and it came with a history booklet...One of the things mentioned was that language students would often play with several boards in multiple languages, and when you hit 'Go' on one, you went through customs, and ended up on the next board. All transactions on each board were conducted in that board's language and currency, as a study aid. |
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I love this idea. They have Monopoly for virtually every major city and university, etc. in the United States. Star Wars monopoly too. Why not expand into the international realm with this idea?
I for one would buy Chechan Monopoly or Russian Ruple Monopoly. Thailand, Vietnamese, etc. You could market it as a game AND an investment. If the country's currency goes up, you actually make a profit.
It might actually be cheaper to make the game this way than spend the money on colored paper and printing for the fake money. |
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