By no means is Monopoly a thing of the past, as one might infer from my heading. However, it is a safe assumption that most children of today prefer to play advanced video games with their friends as opposed to board games. Monopoly board games are still made today as our the likes of Trivial Pursuit and Clue.
According to Wikipedia, Monopoly was first played in 1904, and it was originally called The Landlord's Game. In 1934, Charles Darrow presented his own version of The Landlord's Game to various executives, and by the Christmas of 1935, Monopoly games were being sold throughout the United States.
Monopoly consists of three Chance spaces, four railroads, including the Reading Railroad, and a 'Get Out of Jail Free' card.
Traditional American versions of Monopoly are based on streets in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Since the '30s, the names of several streets have changed including Illinois Avenue which became Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in the 1980s.
There are also popular college versions of Monopoly, including ones for the University of Alabama (pictured), Virginia Tech and the University of North Carolina.
In addition, there are international versions in many countries including South Korea, Japan and Russia. In the Australian version of Monopoly, a koala bear is one of the silver pieces.
There is also a periodic World Championship of Monopoly, which was last played in Las Vegas in 2009. The tournament was won by Bjorn Halvard Knappska from Norway.
Many parodies, including some that are unauthorized by Hasboro, the company which now makes Monopoly games, have surfaced over the years. Of these, the most recognized and infamous is perhaps Ghettopoly, which was released in 2003.
In Ghettopoly, railroads are replaced by liquor stores and a handgun is among the silver pieces. Hasbro successfully sued to prevent the game from being sold on the open market on the grounds of copyright infringement. The NAACP also found the game to be highly offensive.
As a result, the limited editions of Ghettopoly fetch between $120-300 on the Internet.
SIDEBAR: One of my favorite sports, women's college gymnastics, will be starting again soon. The University of Alabama, which was mentioned earlier in this piece, has the reigning NCAA title-winning team this year. They open their 2012 season at home on January 13th against their arch rivals from the University of Georgia at 7:30 p.m local time (8:30 p.m., eastern time).
The University of Georgia's team, which are also known as the Gym Dawgs (Georgia's athletic teams are officially called Bulldogs), has also won numerous NCAA titles in women's gymnastics, and the meets between the two schools frequently sell out.
Among the standout gymnasts for the Alabama Crimson Tide are junior Marissa Guiterrez and senior Geralen Stack-Eaton, who were key components of the team's national championship effort. For the Gym Dawgs, top gymnasts include senior standouts Kat Ding and Gina Nuccio.
The preseason national rankings have Alabama ranked second behind UCLA; Georgia is ranked ninth. The other SEC team in the top ten is the University of Florida; the Gators are ranked third.
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