For most people, Monopoly is less a board game and more a device that fuels family feuds. Almost every family breaks out the box around the holiday season, but it inevitably always ends in arguments and fallouts, followed by hours of not talking to each other.  A new study proves that it causes more fights than scuffed boats in an old west saloon.

On a creepy note, internet is replete with morbid tales of stabbings, break ups, and flipped tables after someone has stretched the rules (If you have heard of the 60-year-old New Mexican woman who repeatedly stabbed her boyfriend after accusing him of cheating at Monopoly.).

In an attempt thwart every Monopoly game from turning into fisticuffs, the Monopoly team recently conducted a survey of 2,000 board game players to find out the top ways fans cheat on the sly.

Monopoly decided to step up and turn the tables on avid cheaters. The upcoming Monopoly Voice Activated Banking Game, projected to be available by 1^st July, 2019, adds a voice-activated top hat that acts as an omnipotent banker who oversees the game’s financial transactions. Under its stringent scrutiny, even the most ruthless thieves don’t stand a chance!

Basic gameplay is the same; you skip around the board, purchase properties, and construct houses and hotels on which your fellow players pay a rent when they land on them. Only, here, you Press one of the buttons on the hat and utter a command like ‘pay rent on Whitechapel road’ and leave it to Mr. Monopoly to respond and transfer the payment to an opponent’s account.

Let’s say you just landed on Trafalgar Square, you simply press the button that represents you as a player and let the top hat know of your intent; it will automatically subtract the requisite amount from your balance. Same goes for when you pick up a community card that entails you to pay your taxes or when “it’s your birthday and each player has to part with 10”.

Hasbro promises faster and more infallible gameplay as players will be able to trade and buy properties as well as erect hotels and houses faster through voice commands.

From the product description, we know that the set includes a game-board, 22 Title Deed Cards, 16 hotels, 16 houses, four Reference cards, one Get Out of Jail Free card, two dice, four player tokens, and a game guide. The board game accommodates two to four players at a time and is suitable for ages 8 and up.

For me, the silver lining is not having to slag off the thankless job of “banker” on to a Math-nerd friend. Now, you can trust the voice-activated hat to manage all your money and properties. Oh and since it doesn’t connect to the Internet, shed off all worries about eaves-droppers at Hasbro listening into you sayig horrible things to your family in a rage. Thank God for that. Fortunately, the game doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, so it won’t hurt to try it out on your next family rendezvous and fingers crossed, our voices won’t carry two blocks!

Oh, and just like good old  Mr. Monopoly, or formerly Rich Uncle Penny bags, the disturbingly anthropomorphic hat shouts “bankrupt” at you unceremoniously! Now that’s hilarious; I mean if it’s happening to your sister… ahem, I mean any opponent!

Claire Liam

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