March 15, 2007

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  NEWS: Popular Board Game Now Takes Plastic

  Who hasn't played the Game of Life? This perennial favorite from Hasbro has all the hallmarks of a classic board game – competition to get the best stuff, a race around the board, and big stacks of cash, albeit fake. Well, now subtract that last one. Game players purchasing the newest incarnation of Life, "Twists and Turns," will, thanks to a partnership between Hasbro and the credit card giant, be purchasing their faux home and car and college education with a Visa card.
  
  Visa is touting its move into family entertainment as a way to educate kids on proper financial management. Apparently, the new game will incorporate financial factoids that are designed to be educational. Furthermore, by not pushing a certain product – credit, debit, or prepaid – Visa is hoping to further its reputation as an "electronic payments processor," rather than a mere pusher of plastic. One representative of the company indicated that Visa would like to be perceived as just another form of currency, just like cash or checks – only more technologically advanced.
  
  As for Hasbro, it's easy to see that switching the game's focus from cash to charge is a strategy designed to update the game –which is around a half century old- and modernize it for a new generation. In other words, Mummy and Daddy use more plastic than cash, so little Johnny and Susie ought to learn to do it from the get-go! Life is not the first board game to incorporate credit card products, however; at least one European version of Monopoly's new "Here and Now" game feature Visa credit and debit cards.
  
  The news really brings new meaning to the company's advertising slogan, ‘Life Takes Visa!'
  
  
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