New Monopoly game

Schuhart

Some idle entertainment, if you've a mood to vote.

http://www.monopoly.ie/index.aspx

lady_j

Roscommon are top of the leaderboard.
:eek:

Ruen

Jaysus, the Dubs need to get voting on this thing

Schuhart

Its actually moderately interesting from the point of view of illustrating a different outlook between Dubliners and the rest of the country. Come from any other county, and you pretty much back anything with your county name on it - even if its just how high up the Monopoly board its going to come. But Dubliners just don't have that same reflex.

It sort of reflects itself in the political process. Dubliners don't really campaign as a group, hence we've got an airport that's simply too small for the amount of passengers passing through while the West coast is paved with airports.

Ruen

Yeah I suppose, you'd expect Dublin to be leading because of their numbers alone but obviously there's some reason why they arent interested in things.

Feral Mutant

There have been a few threads already here about this but since Dublin needs us, I'll say it again:"Vote early and often". I'm serious about the often bit, you can just type blahblahcrap@yorema.com and it'll be counted, so you can vote as much as you like.

Schuhart

I see the Indo picked up the story.

DUBLIN may not feature in a new version of Monopoly.

Makers Hasbro, who launched a new All Ireland version of one of the world's most famous board games last week - the old one features the capital city only - has asked the public to vote on the internet for the 22 counties they wished to see taking their places on the board.

And with over 50,000 votes cast to date, Roscommon and Donegal look likely to replace the capital's plush Shrewsbury and Ailesbury Roads while Leitrim could take the place of Grafton Street.

Trailing yesterday with 1,186 votes, Dublin hadn't made it into the top 22, thus raising the very real possibility that the final board game might exclude the capital city when the votes are tallied on May 26.

Occupying pride of place at the top of the league is Roscommon with 4,115 votes, followed by Donegal with 3,371 and Leitrim with 3,203.

Trailing at the bottom are Westmeath with 711 votes, Fermanagh with 803 votes and Louth with 958.

wyndham

I don't see how they can produce the game without Dublin. It would be a nonsense. Who is going to buy it? They would be removing about a third of their possible market at the outset, on the basis of Dublin's population share?

Schuhart

wyndham wrote:

I don't see how they can produce the game without Dublin. It would be a nonsense. Who is going to buy it? They would be removing about a third of their possible market at the outset, on the basis of Dublin's population share?

Possibly they're changing because of the usual culchie whinge about 'Dublin get everything'. I know its sort of bizarre to think about someone objecting to a board game on the grounds that all the streets are in the capital, particularly as they'd probably happily use a set based on London without even seeing a problem.

In any case, hopefully you picked up that what the games makers have determined is whatever counties get the most online votes will be on the board, in the order in which they attract support. Dublin, despite its population base, actually isn't doing so well. The basic reason is ballot stuffing - as Feral Mutant points out you can vote as often as you like so long as you manufacture a bogus email address.

Current Dublin is at 15 - hardly in keeping with its national significance. But here, as I see it, is the interesting phenomenon. Throw a competition like this out there, and the culchies all go nuts for it. Do a google for the www.monopoly.ie web address and you'll see bloggers and GAA sites calling on people to vote from Cork, Tipperary or whatever. Dubs just don't think like that - which to my mind explains why the city is effectively used as a cash cow by the regions.

But on more ordinary matters, if you want Dublin on the board the best thing to do is get voting and, at this late stage, get viral about it and exhort others to vote often too.

Ruen

Yeah I'd say so.

spurious

From the Monopoly site:
If the residents of Dublin fail to vote it is entirely possible that the country’s capital will be left off the board.

Translation: We at Monopoly are not stupid, and no matter how many times the rural types vote to get Westmeath or Louth or some other God-forsaken place mentioned, we will stick Dublin on anyway, since without Dublin, it's nothing.

Ruen

spurious wrote:

From the Monopoly site:
If the residents of Dublin fail to vote it is entirely possible that the country’s capital will be left off the board.

You must have read it wrong

spurious

Ruen wrote:

You must have read it wrong

From this page on their site: http://www.monopoly.ie/news.aspx?id=8

According Hasbro’s National Sales Manager, Anne Dermody: “We have always been amazed at the level of interest and passion that surrounds Monopoly. Now it’s up to the people of Ireland to have their say and to ensure that their county is included on the new board. Those who don’t vote will find that their county will be left out. If the residents of Dublin fail to vote it is entirely possible that the country’s capital will be left off the board.”

Ruen

Yeah but you're translation:

We at Monopoly are not stupid, and no matter how many times the rural types vote to get Westmeath or Louth or some other God-forsaken place mentioned, we will stick Dublin on anyway, since without Dublin, it's nothing.

lady_j

Feral Mutant wrote:

I'm serious about the often bit, you can just type blahblahcrap@yorema.com and it'll be counted, so you can vote as much as you like.

Well no matter what email address I put in it says 'Sorry you have already voted today' which I havent I voted last week!!

Gran Hermano

Let those outside the capital indulge in their own "my parish is better than
yours" debate. I haven't seen such pedantic tribalism since the "You're
a Star" tripe on BogTV1.

We've had a Dublin specific edition for years with all the squares part
of Dublin. In fact there are THREE editions just for Dublin if
Monopoly is the sort of game that floats your boat and you get your
kicks from 'supporting' your home county.

The culchies are voting for just one square for their county.
Me thinks us Dubliners are above it at this stage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Localiz..._Monopoly_game

Schuhart

I'm inclined to agree. In particular, I don't see the point of Dublin scraping onto the board as one of the two or three lowest priced locations. In that situation, I'd choose just not being on the board at all.

Plus, do you really want to be the county certified as having the highest incidence of people furiously manufacturing fake email addresses to pack the ballot? Read a book, or go out and talk to some people. Dublin will be all the richer if you do.

Schuhart

Curious. Dublin seems to be shooting up the leaderboard at a rate that makes me wonder if someone has found a way of automating the ballot stuffing. Still, I chucked in a few dozen ballots myself just to help it along. After all, it wouldn't do if Dublin had a position lower than Shrewsbury Road.

Feral Mutant

Schuhart wrote:

Curious. Dublin seems to be shooting up the leaderboard at a rate that makes me wonder if someone has found a way of automating the ballot stuffing.

On the contrary, I'd say that now that it's harder to ballot stuff, Dublin's larger population is shining through.

ixoy

I was commenting on this to my flatmates yesterday. I went to cast a vote and then saw I had to go to all the hassle of entering an e-mail address. I wasn't bothered - too much effort.
That attitude above is why Dublin languished. We don't really have the county pride. If there's pride in where you live, it's at the level of your town or suburb or what side of the Liffey.

It's a different mode of thinking - I can never understand the way counties get behind their "You're a Star!" contestant regardless of their talent. Always seems to be a "sure they're one of ours - they must be good!" Don't find the same mindset here. Maybe it's because in many matters in Ireland - socially often and certainly economically - Dublin is the focus of the country. We don't need that limelight because it's normally on us and so we don't scrabble at every little chance to put it on us.

Schuhart

ixoy wrote:

Always seems to be a "sure they're one of ours - they must be good!"

I think its even tighter than that - it's 'they're on of ours, it doesn't matter if they're crap/corrupt/biohazard'. As a general attitude, in contexts of more importance that who is on the monopoly board, I think it does actuall contribute to a lack of synergy in the country in general.

ixoy wrote:

We don't need that limelight because it's normally on us and so we don't scrabble at every little chance to put it on us.

You could be right, but I don't see it quite like that. I think its just Dublin doesn't mobilise on a regional basis - its not our only or maybe even our chief loyality. When faced with a country where other regions do, that makes for trouble. Consider the strong reaction in Cork to the backtracking on the decision to make Cork Airport independent and debt free. The revised deal they are disgruntled over actually involved Dublin carrying most of the debt - but there's no real regional lobby here about this despite Dublin Airport being crammed.

Take a more immediate example. I rarely post here, because when I visit boards.ie I'm not really thinking tribal by location. My usual 'center of gravity' here is the atheism forum and if someone was to ask me what's the thing that most influences my outlook, atheism is probably the answer. But I think we've all witnessed (given that most of us also have close family links to other parts of Ireland) that country thing of working out how to place someone by kinship and location. 'Where are you from? Are you one of the Ballintobber O'Muckers?', as if being a Ballintobber O'Mucker will simply define your social standing, political allegience and so forth.

All of which is a long way of saying I've regained my appetite for ballot stuffing and I'm off to invent a few dozen more email addresses. Only takes a couple of minutes.