"More than 60 years ago, George Orwell wrote his famous book, "1984,'' which portrayed an onerous society dominated by mind control and constant surveillance.
Until last week, I wasn't convinced his prophecy would come true in America, not even with wiretapping at home and the abuse of prisoners abroad.
Now I am convinced. A game maker has defaced a shrine of my youth, the board game Monopoly. The world as I know it has ended.
Hasbro announced recently that it has come out with a new version of Monopoly for the video-game generation. It's a game controlled by a computer.
Instead of throwing dice and moving your marker -- mine was always the battleship -- you now cover the marker with your hand and the computer tells you how far to move.
Instead of handling money and forgetting to give your friend the right change, you cover a decal to buy property. You insert a bank card into a slot to check your balance.
In the new "Monopoly Live,'' the computer enforces the rules. If you land on a property and don't buy it, the little infrared tower auctions it for you."
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2 comments:
I was always the dog. And it seems like this may have eliminated the fun of quasi legal dealings and hostile corporate takeovers
NYT agrees http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/opinion/20lipsyte.html?_r=1&hp
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