World's biggest online multiplayer monopoly game kicks off

Gamer alert: Monopoly uses Google Earth to go live online

http://www.monopolycitystreets.com/

A massive multi-player version of the popular property game Monopoly has been launched online. Monopoly City Streets, developed by toymaker Hasbro, will go live on 9 September for four months.

The free game uses Google Maps or the open source Open Street Map as the playing board. The toymaker claims it will be "the biggest game of monopoly of all time" and will allow players to purchase almost "any street in the world".

The goal of the game, like the real-world version, is to earn money on real estate and become the richest property magnate.

New players are given three million monopoly dollars to build their virtual empire. Every street in the world is, in theory, available for purchase. However, several high-profile locations have already been snapped up. Once a player has taken control of a street, they are able to charge rent and build new virtual properties. Streets can also be traded and sold with other players.

The game makers have introduced chance cards, which allow players to sabotage neighbouring rivals by building rubbish dumps, prisons or wind farms on their property to reduce the rent value of their neighbours.

Players can only remove a hazard by bulldozing it off their property, again through the use of chance cards. The game will close on the 31 January 2010.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8245700.stm