Move over Seattle, you’re not the only city with a Hasbro game edition based on your city streets and landmarks.
This month, the game company Hasbro released MONOPOLY: Bellevue Edition, where places from the popular original game are replaced with locations, parks and businesses on the Bellevue map. The game showcases Bellevue’s downtown, scenic views, and long-standing businesses nominated by community members. The “special edition” board also includes customized Community Chest and Chance playing cards that pay homage to the city. The new game is one of more than 300 “culturally relevant” official MONOPOLY editions according to Hasbro game distributing company Top Trumps USA.
The company relied on residents and leaders of Bellevue to capture the city’s spirit/
“We’ve spent months curating an accurate portrayal of the area and incorporated important feedback from locals to truly make this a fun and engaging game for Bellevue residents and visitors alike,” said Top Trumps USA representative Aaron Green in a release.
The new game retails for $44.99 and is available at Bellevue Collection, KidsQuest Children’s Museum, Amazon, toptrumps.us, and at several local retailers.
What about the Seattle edition?
The official Hasbro Seattle edition of MONOPOLY (circa1997) is no longer being produced and is now considered a collectible. But if local stops in an OPOLY-style game are important to your family, you might want to check out Late for the Sky Seattle-opoly which is packed with iconic Seattle stops. It also features Seattle-specific challenges like traffic jams and property taxes.
Did you know?
Most people are unaware of the history of the game. Although a man named Charles Darrow has been credited for creating the game and selling it to Parker Brothers (now Hasbro) in 1933, Darrow actually stole the idea. The game, originally titled The Landlord’s Game, was invented decades earlier, in 1903, by Lizzie Magie. And the intent of that original game was not to accrue money and power and stamp out your competition.
According to multiple sources, Magie believed that land monopolies caused inequality and designed the game to show how unfair rent and property speculation could be. In fact, the Landlord’s Game had two sets of rules. Under the Anti-monopolist Rules, everyone benefited when wealth was shared and the game was over when the poorest player doubled their starting money. Under the Monopolist Rules players sought to bankrupt each other by acquiring property and charging rent, which Magie meant to show how destructive monopolies were.
The original idea then was for players to feel the cruelty of monopolistic systems.
