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Rīga takes second place in new Monopoly game
The World Edition of the Monopoly board game, in which Rīga represents the second-most expensive property, goes on sale Aug. 26. (Photo courtesy Hasbro Inc.)
August 19, 2008
Rīga earned the second-highest number of votes in six weeks of online balloting and will claim one of the most expensive slots in the new World Edition of the popular Monopoly board game, Massachusetts-based manufacturer Hasbro Inc. has announced.
While Baltic Avenue has been one of the cheaper properties in the classic version of the board game, Rīga will join Montréal in the top-priced dark blue property group in Monopoly Here & Now: The World Edition, the gamemaker announced.
A total of 22 world cities will be represented in the new edition. According to Hasbro, more than 5.6 million votes were cast for 70 world cities, which determined 20 of the 22 cities featured in the game. A number Web sites in Latvia and abroad provided links to the Monopoly site in an effort to boost votes for Rīga.
The World Edition will go on sale Aug. 26 in more than 50 countries and in 37 different languages.
Besides Montréal and Rīga, the cities on the game board—in the order of ballot results—will be Cape Town, Belgrade, Paris, Jerusalem, Hong Kong, Beijing, London, New York, Sydney, Vancouver, Shanghai, Rome, Toronto, Kyiv (Kiev), Istanbul, Athens, Barcelona, Tokyo, Taipei, Gdynia (Gdansk). The last two won a write-in contest and will represent the least expensive properties.
Voting took place during a six-week period earlier this year.
“We hope that fans of the world’s most popular board game will enjoy buying, selling and trading real estate from around the globe in the new Monopoly game that they created with their votes,” Helen Martin, Hasbro’s vice president of global marketing, said in a press release. “We are thrilled that the first-ever global game board includes an interesting mix of cities that showcases the dynamic cultures, sights and history of the planet.”
Andris Straumanis is editor of Latvians Online.
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Comments about this article
anita
woo hoo!
20 Aug 2008 (United States)
andrejs komendantovs
Gdynia (Gdansk)?? Why 2 names? They are different cities, formerly known as Gotehafen and Danzig, resp. They are situated nearby, but have their own administrations, flags, coats-of-arms, etc. Hurrah for Riga and for all who voted!
20 Aug 2008 (United States)
Andris Straumanis
The city in Poland chosen for the game is Gdynia. I placed Gdansk in parentheses thinking that many of our readers might recognize that name more so than nearby Gdynia.
20 Aug 2008 (United States)
andrejs komendantovs
Thanks for the explanation. Ironically, older readers might have a personal knowledge of Gdynia as it was the disembarcation port for many refugee ships leaving from Riga in 1944. But, as I said, it was called Gotehafen then.
21 Aug 2008 (United States)