美国艺电（Electronic Arts）在Facebook平台发布了《百万大富翁》（Monopoly Millionaires），而我对这个消息的第一反应是：这个游戏为什么这么久才登陆社交网站？

Monopoly Millionaires

当我仅以“Monopoly”为关键词搜索该相关网页时，这个游戏的EA版本排名第八位，而前几位的搜索结果导向的游戏页面或者与传统大富翁桌游无关，或者像是外链占位符，链接到该游戏在其他网站的版本。一个叫做Play Monopoly的页面有个横幅广告则导向大富翁在Pogo.com的版本，Pogo.com是美国艺电的一个分支。

大富翁的掌机、电脑及Mac版本已经问世多年，EA曾在2003年第三季度发布了该游戏在Xbox 360、PS3和Wii上的最新版本，大约就在那时，该公司旗下的Pogo.com首发了名为《Monopoly Here and Now: The World Edition》的在线版本。

推测起来，EA从原始开发商Parker Brothers获得了大富翁的授权，其母公司孩之宝（Hasbro）在公司网站上运营这个已诞生75年的游戏的官方版本。以下是维基百科中的一些有趣的解释：

大富翁是一个根据前身《The Landlord’s Game》重新设计的游戏，由Quaker和政治活动家Elizabeth Magie首发。该游戏目的在于教导人们垄断是如何令大多数人破产，而把财富集中于一个或少数几个个体手中。

该游戏自创建以来，超过10亿人的玩家群体让它成为了“世界上最多人玩的桌上游戏”。1999年的《吉尼斯世界纪录大全》引用了孩之宝公司早前的统计数据：5亿人玩过大富翁游戏。游戏杂志也将大富翁收录进它的明人堂之中。该游戏的吉祥物是一个留着胡子的老者，名为Mr. Monopoly或Rich Uncle Pennybags，他穿着常礼服、戴着礼帽，持有一根手杖。

据游戏邦所知，为何大富翁游戏的官方版本直到现在才登陆Facebook，这个问题目前还没有明确答案。但相信应该还有人记得《Scrabble》和所谓的山寨游戏《Scrabulous》之间发生的事情——由于前者的母公司孩之宝的起诉，现在你只能在社交网站上玩到这个游戏的EA版本。从这一点上看，有可能是这个戏剧性事件影响了EA的《百万大富翁》在Facebook社交游戏领域的发展进程。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

What Took Monopoly So Long To Get On Facebook?

Electronic Arts has debuted Monopoly Millionaires on Facebook, and my first reaction to the news was: What took so long for that game get onto the social network?

When I searched the site for applications using just the word “Monopoly,” the EA version of the game shows up eighth, and the preceding results lead to pages with games that either don’t work, have nothing to do with the traditional board game, or appear to be placeholders for outbound links to versions of the game hosted on other sites. A page called Play Monopoly has banners linking to a version of Monopoly on Pogo.com, which is a division of Electronic Arts.

Monopoly has been available on gaming consoles, PC and Mac versions for years. EA released its latest version for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii during the third quarter of 2003, and that’s around when the game company’s Pogo.com division first launched the online version called Monopoly Here and Now: The World Edition.

Presumably, EA licenses the rights to Monopoly from its original creator, Parker Brothers, whose parent company Hasbro hosts an official version of the 75-year-old game on the company website. Now here’s some interesting trivia from Wikipedia:

Monopoly is a redesign of an earlier game “The Landlord’s Game,” first published by the Quaker and political activist Elizabeth Magie. The purpose of that game was to teach people how monopolies end up bankrupting the many and giving extraordinary wealth to one or few individuals.

Since the game was created, more than one billion people have played it, making it “the most played (commercial) board game in the world.” The 1999 Guinness Book of Records cited Hasbro’s previous statistic of 500 million people having played Monopoly. Games magazine has inducted Monopoly into its Hall of Fame. The mascot for the game, known as Mr. Monopoly or Rich Uncle Pennybags, is an elderly moustached man in morning dress with a walking cane and top hat.

None of this explains why it took so long for an official version of Monopoly to reach Facebook. I’m remembering what happened with Scrabble and the so-called impostor, Scrabulous — the former’s parent company Hasbro sued and now you can only play the EA version of the game on the social network. That whole drama likely influenced the evolution of EA’s Monopoly Millionaires.（source:allfacebook）