GPS enabled Monopoly!

Hasbro (the board game company) has launched an online edition of Monopoly – but keep reading because it’s a lot more interesting than that! To play, you select a cabbie (I’m backing Brian), buy some properties, put a few flats and hotels, then press go. As the taxi moves around London, it’s tracked via GPS and each time it passes or makes a pick-up/drop at one of your properties your score increases. Here’s the blurb from Hasbro:

"We have turned London into a real-life playing board, and real taxi cabs into real-life playing pieces. All you have to do is make as much money from rent as possible, from five other cabs who are your opponents in the game. We’ve kitted out 18 cabbies with GPS (Global Positioning System), meaning we can pinpoint their exact whereabouts in London. They will be going about their normal day, picking up and dropping off customers all over town. All that you’ve got to do is spend the £15m we give you on properties from around the Monopoly Here & Now board, distribute your apartments and hotels and choose your cabbie. You are placed into a game with your cabbie and 5 other taxi drivers, all travelling around London. Every time one of the other cabs stops outside one of your properties, you get paid rent. Any time your cabbie lands on a property you don’t own, you pay up. Simple!"

What a cool idea!

(Thanks for the link Paul)