First game day in the BorderWork(s) Humanities Lab

“Walls: the Game,” a BorderWork(s) tutorial,  had its first “game session” on January 28, with a brand-new copy of Monopoly (manufactured by Hasbro) and Dukeopoly(Late for the Sky and licensed by Duke University), one of dozens of Monopoly versions available world wide. We were lucky that Daisy, one of the students, had never played before. Both Alix and Katia, as well as the instructor, Robin, have logged many a long night or holiday break playing this real estate game with family and friends.

 

But this time, we are playing with a different purpose – asking if we can use Monopoly as a starting point for a game about the invisible walls that divide people in Durham (Duke vs. locals, rich vs. poor, black vs white vs Latino) and Belfast, where real-life walls still section off Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods. Monopoly is based on Atlantic City, New Jersey, though the easy translation to other cities, national parks and even TV and movies mean the link to place is tenuous at best.

 

From our readings, we know that Monopoly has a twisted history. Based on The Landlord’s Game, the board was originally meant to teach the values of socialism and community solidarity, after the teachings of Henry George. The board percolated until it came somehow into the orbit of Charles Darrow, who revised it and ultimately turned the purpose on its head: to create single owner monopolies and bankrupt other players.

 

As Chris Ketcham wrote in a recent article in Harper’s Magazine (“Monopoly is theft“):

 

The game’s true origins, however, go unmentioned in the official literature. Three decades before Darrow’s patent, in 1903, a Maryland actress named Lizzie Magie created a proto-Monopoly as a tool for teaching the philosophy of Henry George, a nineteenth-century writer who had popularized the notion that no single person could claim to “own” land. In his book Progress and Poverty (1879), George called private land ownership an “erroneous and destructive principle” and argued that land should be held in common, with members of society acting collectively as “the general landlord.”

English: Landlord's Game board, based on Eliza...

 

A number of other versions exist that we hope to play soon, including Co-opoly, to teach the virtues of cooperatives, and Kolejka, which mimics the hardships of Polish Communism.

 

For Dukeopoly, Alix used a shoe and served as banker. Daisy, our first-timer, was the pencil (a symbol of studiousness though most students have laptops and smart phones). Katia had the “swift bicycle,” as she noted, truly a campus unifier.

 

What the students immediately noticed was that a number of the “places” on the Dukeopoly board were out of date. None of us knew what “The Bog” was or “the Pit.” And a number of the places that most Duke students go —  like Shooters or Southpoint – were markedly absent. This raised questions about who this game is for.

 

Along with her swift bicycle, Katia was also swift on the keyboard and quickly discovered that the Bog was short for “a Bunch Of Guys,”  a collective living group that predates Wayne Manor (a current living group). Some places were generic (e.g., sorority row). More relevant to current Dukies than North Campus are the bus lines many use to traverse the increasingly spread out campus. As one student put it, the board is “a memory map” for alumni, not a contemporary snapshot of the place.

 

We also noted that classic Monopoly is laid out by streets, while Dukeopoly depends on place. Also, you could never understand what the places in Dukeopoly are with a copy of a campus map. You have to be an “insider” to get most of the place names. It’s interesting that although these are places because people meet and interact there, the game has little to no social interaction built into the rules.

 

We had a good time playing (and Daisy caught up fast). But we were left with some big questions. What is Duke’s role in designing Dukeopoly? How could we build social connections into the rules (a plus if you meet a friend who has the book you need or a minus if the professor who teaches the class you skipped because you were ill catches you lounging in the Perk). Would it be possible to have a fun game if the purpose was not to bankrupt others, but to build community, learn about history and help others?

 

The assignment for this week is to think up 3 new rules and 3 new sites for the game. What rules and sites would you pick for a revised Duke or Durham-opoly?

 

More soon!

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