Monopoly Introduces Cat Token

SCOTTIE dog has a new nemesis after Monopoly fans voted to add a cat to the game and eliminate the iron token. From now on, a cat will round the board in iron’s place.The online contest to change the tokens was sparked by chatter on Facebook, where Monopoly has more than 10 million fans. https://www.facebook.com/monopoly. The initiative was intended to ensure that a game created nearly eight decades ago remains relevant and engaging to fans today.

The vote on Facebook closed just before midnight on Tuesday, marking the first time that fans have had a say on which of the eight tokens to add and which one to toss. The pieces identify the players and have changed quite a lot since Parker Brothers bought the game from its original designer in 1935.

“We put five new tokens out for our fans to vote on and there were a lot of fans of the many different tokens, but I think there were a lot of cat lovers in the world that reached out and voted for the cat to be the new token for Monopoly,” said Jonathan Berkowitz, vice president for Hasbro gaming marketing.

The 5 pieces that contested for a spot on Monopoly included a cat, robot, diamond ring, helicopter and guitar. Fans from more than 120 countries voted. The cat received 31 percent of votes for new tokens. The results were not entirely surprising to animal lovers.

By visiting Monopoly’s Facebook page, voters chose which piece they most wanted to preserve in the nearly 80-year-old board game. The eight tokens are an iron, racecar, Scottie dog, a shoe, thimble, top hat, wheelbarrow and battleship and their fates hung on the click of a button.

In the final hours of voting, the shoe, wheelbarrow and iron were neck and neck for elimination. They were each sitting at 8% of the total votes, just a few hundred votes separated your favorite token from the bottom of the list. This sparked passionate efforts by fans to save their favourite tokens, and the social-media buzz created by the Save Your Token Campaign attracted numerous companies that pushed to protect specific tokens that reflect their products.

Most of the pieces were introduced with the first Parker Brothers iteration of the game in 1935, and the Scottie dog and wheelbarrow were added in the early 1950s. The Scottie Dog was the most popular of the classic tokens, and received 29 percent of the vote. The iron got the fewest votes and was kicked to the curb.

In the end, Monopoly fans locked the iron in jail forever. Hasbro will immediately cease production of the piece, Berkowitz said.

“Tokens are always a key part of the Monopoly game … and our fans are very passionate about their tokens, about which token they use while they play,” Mr Berkowitz said.

Monopoly’s iconic tokens originated when the niece of game creator Charles Darrow suggested using charms from her charm bracelet for tokens. The game is based on the streets of Atlantic City, New Jersey, and has sold more than 275 million units worldwide. To make the game relevant to fans abroad, the names are changed to well-known streets when it is introduced to a new country.

The Monopoly vote was covered world wide by different news crews. You can read more about this in The Age, ABC News, News.com.au, and several other news sources.

Versions of Monopoly with the new token will come out later this year.