Playing monopoly the Malaysian way

The Star, Thursday, January 7, 1993

Playing monopoly is always fun but Waddington International has gone further by giving it a Malaysian touch.

Malaysian Monopoly, as it is called, carries the entire layout with a touch of Malaysian flavour in the streets, utilities and car names to give you a more familiar feel to the game.

You can expect to see names of famous places like Jalan Sultan Ismail which replaces Mayfair and Dataran Merdeka which replaces Trafalgar Square.


Another interesting change in the outlook of the game is the cover which was done by artist Reggie Lee.

His involvement in creating the cover came when Waddington International (Singapore) regional manager Andrew Wetton noticed a similar painting by Lee.

The cover portrays about 50 people who collectively make the Malaysian flag.

The rules of the game, presented in both English and Bahasa Malaysia, remain the same as the original version.

The concept of localizing the game was first adopted following the introduction of the Hong Kong version and later the Singapore version.

The company's public relations consultant Chen Hui Cheng said the company consulted various newspaper editors, real estate and local housing agents and the public for appropriate names.
The replacement, she said, was carried out based on property value and also on similarities in activities around the chosen streets to that in the British version.

Chen said the names for the streets were picked from the ones most popularly suggested by the public through questionnaire.

She said the game also contained utilities like the Ipoh Railway Station, Gurney Drive in Penang and Jalan Tebrau in Johor to give it a more national outlook.

The game is priced at RM58 per set.