Flopping "Battleship" to torpedo Hasbro?

Rihanna? Really?

 Probably not, although this Forces article suggests that the venerable toymaker can;t help but be disappointed by the failure of the high-budget Aliens vs. Navy flick to wow critics or audiences.

Hasbro has had high hopes that movie based on classics like Battleship, Clue and Monopoly might boost interest in their sagging board games, much like how the transformers movies have juiced that toy line.

I've wondered since I heard about the projects how this could possibly work, knowing the way Hollywood treats outside intellectual properties like books, plays and short stories. I think, for the most part, Hollywood adaptations of non-original screenplays do violence to the creative vision that's responsible for their success. This is why people were so pleasantly surprised by how well Peter Jackson handled The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I think I can speak for most fans when I say we were very relieved when the first movie came out because he didn't screw it up. Yes, yes, yes, the fans can quibble about decisions here and there, but everybody realized that there was no way to make a literal translation of Tolkien's dense books into movies. But Jackson understood and respected the books, and so was able to make changes that kept true to the good professor's vision, even when he had to depart from the story.

Battleship, however, is much more typical of Hollywood's treatment. They basically just kept the title and created a regular special-effects dominated aliens movie. Now, "battleship" the game, is hardly some high concept product, so there was a lot of room to work with. But it's not an alien themed game.

The key thing, I think, is to recognize that the heart of "Battleship" is the guess and outguess interplay and a movie that captured that dynamic might succeed. I think it would be possible to make a Monopoly movie -- but not  as a  remake of Wall Street.  No, the movie would need to highlight the wheeling and dealing of the game in the context of a cinematic treatment. I think of the way the musical Chess successfully captured the drama surrounding international chess matches during the Cold War to make an entertaining story.

Essentially, however, the classic Hasbro board games don't feature a strong in-game narrative that would translate well into a Hollywood style movie. Among the Hasbro game properties that DO have strong narrative potential would be Dungeons and Dragons, Diplomacy and even Axis & Allies, but none have the kind of wide public name recognition of Battleship or Monopoly and probably can't attract Hollywood interest.Some of the old AH titles like Monster Menace America might work.

I think Hasbro fundamentally misunderstood why the Transformers movies worked. The transformers are cool visual toys and the movies were able to  parlay that into a cool visual movie. Board games are more like books in that the action tends to be in the mind, not the eye.

I think Hasbro is barking up the wrong tree.

By popular request -- Family Game Night

My church actually anticipated this Hasbro ad campaign -- we had a Family Game Night months ago, but I'm glad to see Hasbro pushing this:

As a matter of fact. we're having another one on Nov. 15. I don't know if anyone will be playing Monopoly, but we did have a Scrabble game going on.

Games everywhere

Took a ride down to New Jersey today to visit friends. I happened to stop at a urban Dunkin Donuts in Plainfield, N.J. for an ice coffee and came across a bunch of guys playing chess in the coffee shop.

Aside from one older gentlemen, everyone else looked to be 20-something and 30-something African-American men. There were two games going on, each using a set that looks like the tournament sets you can get from the US Chess Federation, similar to this:


I'm not sure if the observers were there just to kibitz or to play. One game wrapped up just before I left and the same two players were setting up for another go. It appeared to me that this was some sort of regular gathering, from the way everyone interacted. It was a nice reminder of how you don't have to be a game hobbyist to get a lot out of gaming. Earlier that day while we were visiting I notice that there was a Monopoly game set up in our friend's living room (and they are definitely not gamers).

I know that Monopoly, and even chess, are looked down on in some hobby gamer circles, but I think it's nice to see any kind of gaming going on out there. There's a lot more to the board game scene than just Settlers of Catan or Tide of Iron

A weakness for tin

I have to admit I have a weakness for tin game boxes. Nothing is more likely to get me to shell out money for a game I already own than putting it in a snazzy tin box.

I'm not sure what the economics are of tin boxes. On the one hand, I do see them used to package some decidedly low-end products. It's not uncommon to see a tin box version of chess or dominoes in a retailer like Wal-Mart or Walgreens that doesn't cost a lot. These do tend to be public domain games where nearly all the cost in in materials and not in any creative design.

But Hasbro has put out some nice tin-box editions for games such as Scrabble, Clue and Monopoly as well that also have really nice game play components as well.

Tin boxes stand up well to the test of time, compared to paper boxes, although they still require proper storage. The weak point in game boxes are the seems, which tend to split with age. For tin boxes the biggest threats are dents and rust. Some tin boxes use hinges, which can break, but most tin boxes simply use a snug fit for the top.

It may very well be that tin containers are not an economic decision for low print-run products such as wargames, but I wouldn't mind seeing them used for some euros. Tin boxes may be too associated with U.S. producers, though, to appeal to the Euro crowd. And there may be less incentive for them to go that route because German-style game boxes are very sturdy.

Right now the latest editions of some Hasbro titles have gone low-cost, presumably to attract new players and keep sales up during tough times. But eventually there will be new "deluxe" editions of Acquire and Diplomacy and I wouldn't mind seeing a tinned version of either one.

Monopoly and Ouija movies, too!

More here: http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctmovies/2009/03/newsbites-the-hasbro-toys-and.html

Last Game of the Year: Monopoly

Gathered the family unit for the "Official Last Game of the Year." We were going to nominate and dice for the result until Mom announced she'd play if the game was Monopoly, so the prospect of mom playing brought out the old classic by acclamation.


We played using the tin-box deluxe anniversary set.


Given the wide disparity of ages and experiences the official game poobah (me) made a couple of house rulings. The first was that we'd only play until the second bankruptcy (to avoid the dreaded drawn-out end game death throes) . I chose the second bankruptcy just to make sure some fluke bankruptcy by one of the young players didn't end the game prematurely. The second house rule was to spot the younger players some extra cash in order of age, youngest with the most $500. Mom insisted on her cut of the 'youth' bonus, so she got $5.


There were seven of us, ranging from youngest daughter 5, first-grade daughter, fourth-grader son, pre-teen daughter's friend, pre-teen herself, mom and poobah.

With seven players it was hard for anyone to quickly build up a property group and Boardwalk-owning pre-teen's covetousness of first-grader's Park Place provided quite a bit of drama as she tried to cajole sis out of her blue property, Unfortunately her reputation preceded her and little sis may not have understood exactly why she should sell to big sis, she knew big sis well enough to know if she wanted it so badly it couldn't be a good thing. Generally nobody was all that willing to trade much, being content to cruise around the board collecting small rents. Grand Poobah had been lucky enough to land on two RRs and bought a third from son during a slight cash-flow problem. Pre-teen also eventually ran into a cash shortage and offered it to Poobah as well.

In game with no property groups, having the four Railroads makes you the top dog. And with six other players on the board there was a steady stream of income coming in.

The game was starting to drag a bit, though, so Poobah decided to try to break things open. Flush with cash he was able to offer very attractive terms to the two separate owners of Mediterranean and Baltic (like five times the purchase price). It doesn't cost much to build up those properties and now there Hotels on the board. This juiced things up as everybody but the littlest realized that they needed to get a property group developed. Only son and pre-teen daughter were successful , but in both cases it cost them so much to purchase the land they could barely afford more than a house or two. (First Grade little sis was finally persuaded to give big sis her blue for $1,000 when mom assured her that it actually was a good deal for her).

As it turned out, Poobah's head start was too much to overcome as the Railroads kept pumping in cash and a couple of visits to his hotels drained competitors of cash they needed for construction. Finally pre-teen sis readjusted her goals and decided her new goal was NOT to be bankrupted out of the game and make sure she had more money than her friend at the end, so she offered to sell her barely developed blues to Poobah for $1,500 in walking around money rather than risk landing on a hotel and being bankrupted out of them anyway. Poobah obliged and immediately built up those properties to the max.

Pre-teen's new strategy soon succeeded as her mom and her friend both bankrupted out in short order, bringing the game to a merciful close.

Poobah's railroad wealth was evident as he ended up with more than $11K at the end of the game. The only other surviving player with a profit was First Grade sis, who had more than $2.

Everyone had a good time. Making a couple of house rules can fix some of the game's potential downsides for family play. When the playersget a little older no doubt more competitive urges will kick in.

Game of the Week: Monopoly

Another old-timer this week.
My introduction to Monopoly came at my best friend's house when I was in grade school. Like most families, they didn't exactly play by the rules. Specifically, they were one of those families that played with money accumulating on Free Parking. It's well-attested that this rule tends to lengthen playing time by putting more money into circulation and I believe it, because the games never seemed to end!
It was great fun, however, and I still have fond memories of those marathon sessions.
Once I got my own copy later in life I realized that the rules didn't say that. Indeed. later versions of the rules are specific that free parking is just a free space. of course, late in the game a free space is a nice thing to find.
It is amusing, however, that the most popular family boardgame is played with the "wrong" rules more often than not. For many families Monopoly is the only game they may play. One of the slogans used by boardgame enthusiasts trying to spread the word is that there are games "Beyond Monopoly."
Still, as much as boardgame enthusiasts tend to diss Monopoly, there's no denying it's still on top of the heap in the general public's view, with no Chance that Puerto Rico or any of its ilk will take its place.