VKAPADIA is the (virtual) owner of Marine Drive. A premium property in Mumbai, you would expect him to earn hefty rents from the buildings he has constructed on the road, which includesa ‘four-sided fortress’ next to Taraporewala Aquarium. Unfortunately for him, a rival built a sewage plant at Girgaum Chowpatty, and as a result VKAPADIA can’t earn rent from any of his buildings. A huge investment literally gone down the drain.
But such are the twists of fate you have to be prepared for while playing Monopoly City Streets, an online version of the popular board game. The scale of the game is huge: you start with 3million Monopoly Dollars and the whole world — more specifically the world as seen in Google Maps — is your board. The game that was launched on September 9 will go on till January 2010. You can compete with players all over the world and get a kick out of being the biggest property magnate (at least in the virtual world) in the world depending on how much you build and importantly earn.
But in what will be a dampener for Monopoly enthusiasts, the online version does not focus as much on making your fellow players bankrupt. Instead you concentrate on buying as many streets as possible and constructing buildings on them. Your skills come to test when you have to bid for streets owned by other players. And then there’s the luck factor.
Players randomly get three types of Chance Cards: Hazard, Bull-dozer and Bonus Buildings. A Hazard card allows you to construct either a prison, sweage plant, or power plant on your rival’s street. The moment you do that your rival stops getting rent. He can only hope to get the Bull-dozer chance card with which he can destroy the building.
But the online game does have an edge over the board version. It’s a different feeling to own a street anywhere in the world — in cities like Paris or New York and better still in your own neighbourhood. And that’s exactly what I did after registering for the game. I zoomed into Andheri where I live. Unfortunately most streets including the one where I live were already bought. Nevertheless, I placed a bid for it. The game requires the owner to respond to my offer within 7 days. If he/she fails to respond, then the street is mine regardless of the sum I quote. Only an obscure street was available in Andheri and I immediately bought it and constructed a Nova Tower Block (Cost 300,000, Rent 67,000 per day) and a Polyhedron Plaza (Cost 400,000, Rent 87,000 per day).
I also wanted to buy properties in hill-stations like Lonavala and Mahabaleshwar, and also in one of my favourite cities, Pondicherry. Unfortunately the game lacks the detailing to include any street in Lonavala and Mahabaleshwar. In Pondicherry, the game included only two streets. The situation thankfully was better in my hometown Bangalore (where I have bought two streets). The game is great when it comes to metropolitan areas — there are many streets you can buy — but in smaller cities there are many streets that you simply can’t buy.
And then there are other bugs with the game. Though the Google Map data is accurate, the Monopoly card says that the Andheri street I own is in Thane, Mumbai. A broadband connection and the latest version of your browser is a must for smooth gameplay. Of course this is a problem specific to India.