Classic Monopoly a firm favorite for all ages

By Mehru Jaffer

JAKARTA (JP): After two days of intense wheeling and dealing among 54 participants, Indonesia will on Sunday at last have its own national Monopoly Champion.

Soon after, the lucky winner will join more than 30 other Monopoly aficionados from around the world at the World Monopoly Championships to be held in Toronto, Canada's financial capital, on Oct. 23. Apart from bagging the world title, the player who bankrupts his or her four opponents in the un-timed final round will also win $15,140, the amount of money used in the game.

The final game to be held at 3 p.m. on Sunday afternoon in the Toys "R" Us store in Pondok Indah, South Jakarta, will mark the end of the first such competition in Indonesia although the world competition was started way back in 1973 and is held every four years, bringing together the best Monopoly players from far-flung corners of the globe. Here, national Monopoly champions will once more compete with each other to choose one from among their number to challenge current world champion Christopher Woo from Hong Kong, who bagged the title in 1996 in Monte Carlo.

"Monopoly has always been a popular game here but over the years we invented our own version which is still great fun to play but maybe not as international," said Nugraha Nicholas T, marketing manager, Hasbro Games, Indonesia, and joint sponsor of the competition along with Toys "R" Us.

This is also the first time that the original board game, already sold in 80 countries and produced in 26 languages, will be available here.

Nugraha does not fear competition from other forms of entertainment, such as Sega games and Pokemon, as so many trends have come and gone since 1934 but Monopoly's following still remains second to none. This is because Monopoly is not just a fad or a flash in the pan but rather is a classic game that is not affected by the passage of time. However, Nugraha agrees that it is up to parents to not just introduce creativity-enhancing games like Monopoly to their children but to also play it with them. Many parents prefer to leave their offspring in front of the television or to buy them sega games so that they then do not have to spend time with them.

The youngest participant in the competition this afternoon is Malina Dewani, an 18-year-old student of business management at Jakarta's Trisakti University. She was introduced to the game at the age of seven and although her parents did not join her, they were always happy to see Malina spend many hours playing the game with her brother and cousins.

"I love playing all kinds of games, including video games, but Monopoly remains my favorite," she said as she finds the furious activity of all the buying and selling very exciting.

Like Malina, oldest participant O. Chi Chong, 44, loves Monopoly because it gives him the illusion of being a big property tycoon and of being wealthy. His mother gave him his first set when he was 12-years-old and, with eight siblings in the house, there were always plenty of people to join in the game. His own children also enjoy the game, said the self- employed Jakartan.

There are 21 female contestants in the tournament. Although the minimum age for contestants worldwide is eight, the organizers here have raised the age to 18 as the winner will have to travel alone to participate in the world championships in Toronto.

"Next time when we are a bit better organized, we will throw the competition open to children as well. This is only our first time," said S.Elizabeth P. of Toys "R" Us, adding that 68 people applied to participate in the event, which is testimony enough to the popularity of the game. Of the above 68, only 54 were chosen after a draw held on the eve of the event.

Apart from bringing members of the family together, the game teaches players strategic, negotiation and, above all, financial skills, as well as to concentrate and solve problems. Invented in the midst of the great depression of 1934 by the unemployed Charles B. Darrow, Monopoly is based on the simple principle of being able to win over the assets of one's opponents so as to finally monopolize the entire capital in the marketplace.

Sitting idle, Darrow could only toy with the dream of becoming a tycoon when the economic crisis hit America. He invented the game of Monopoly and took it to the executives at Parker Brothers, leaders in child and family leisure. But 52 design errors were found in the game and it was rejected. Still, having little better to do, the enterprising Darrow decided to produce the game by himself.

Helped by a friend who was a printer, Darrow soon sold 5,000 handmade sets to a department store which soon found out that the game was selling like hot cakes.

As more and more people amused themselves by holding fake cash and becoming fun millionaires, orders kept pouring in. Since it was impossible for him to fulfill the demand on his own, he returned to Parker Brothers where he was treated much better this time around. In its very first year of 1935, Monopoly became the best selling game in America and over its 70 year history, an estimated 500 million people have played it with the longest game being said to have lasted for 70 consecutive days and the longest one in a bathtub 99 hours.

Watching the foundations of real conglomerates being rudely shaken here, the popularity of a game like Monopoly is expected to increase as more and more Indonesians will have to be satisfied in the future with being, perhaps, just paper monopolists.