SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2010
KLMNO
EZ BD
The situation on the Korean peninsula is inching closer to the brink of war.” —Astatement Friday from the state-run Korean Central News Agency in North Korea
B3
Monopoly, left, is so 20th century. Settlers of Catan, right, is the game we should play now.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY THE WASHINGTON POST
Why Settlers of Catan is the game for our era I
BY BLAKE ESKIN
n 1935, the board game Monopoly arrived on themassmarket like the XboxKinectof itsday.Onecanimag- ine the appeal, in the middle of the GreatDepression,of adiversionthat
gave anyone the chance to become Uncle Pennybags for an afternoon. By the end the year, Parker Brothers had sold a quar- ter-million sets; in its first 18months, the game sold 2million copies. And for those whocouldnot spareacoupleofdollars for their own copy, former Parker Brothers executive Philip Orbanes explains in his history of the game, “Monopoly became a magnet drawing in friends and family to thehomes of thosewho ownedit.” Monopoly is celebrating its 75th anni-
versary this year inthebleakest economic climatesincethe1930s,anditsthememay fit our times better thanit did theDepres-
sion.After all, itwas at aMonopoly board thatmanyofusdiscoveredtheconceptsof mortgage and bankruptcy,wherewe first bought property that we couldn’t really afford. Then again, though its vocabulary is
depressingly current, the game is in other ways completely inappropriate today. In- stead, the great board game of this era is
The Settlers of Catan. That game, which came out in Germany in 1995, is not a householdnamelikeMonopoly,andgiven that electronic gameshave eclipsedboard games, it may never be. But it presents a world inwhich resources are limited and fortunes are intertwined, and serves as a model for solving contemporary prob- lems such as trade imbalances, nuclear proliferation and climate change. If we are reaching the end of a period ofAmeri- can supremacy, a winner-take-all game suchasMonopoly teaches badhabits. Morethan275millioncopiesofMonop-
olyhavebeensold, remarkable for a game that’s not particularly well designed. I don’t mean the graphics (which are bold andappealing)or the components (which I remember being sturdier when I was a child, before everythingwasmade inChi- na), but the experience of playing. In Monopoly,much depends on luck; strate- gic decisions are limited; once someone has Broadway and Park Place, it’s hard to beat them; there’s little to keep you occu- piedwhen it’s not your turn; and you can keepplaying forhours after ithasbecome clear who’s going to win. A game of Mo- nopoly can take three or four hours, and many players, especially adults, will be boredmuch of the time. Idlenessmay not havebeenanacuteproblemin1935,but in
2010, it’s a fatal flaw. As Hasbro, which acquired Parker
Brothers in 1991, has produced brand extensions for Monopoly and the other classic games it controls, smallerGerman companies have created hundreds of new board games that pay careful attention to strategy, pacing and interaction. Their attentiontoquality canalsobe seeninthe boards, which are made of thick card- board, andthe solid-woodgamepieces. Settlers of Catan is the pinnacle of the
Germanstyle. It is, likeMonopoly,amulti- player real-estate development game, in this case set on an island rich in natural resources to which players have limited access. You need ore to build a city, and if you can’t mine enough yourself, you can trade — but the wood you surrender in exchangemay help your partner, or boost or thwart someone else. In Settlers, the trading—and the interconnected fates of the players — keeps everyone involved even when they aren’t rolling the dice; there aremultiple ways to win; and play- ers are oftenneck-and-neck until the very end. The game has been constructed to last an hour, 90 minutes tops. And each timeyouplay, theboard,whichismadeup of 19hexagons, is assembledanew. Thanks to the Internet, Settlers has spread from Stuttgart to Seoul to Silicon
on
washingtonpost.com
DFor a video guide on how to play to
washingtonpost.com/outlook.
Settlers of Catan, go
Valley, where it has become a necessary social skillamongentrepreneursandven- ture capitalists (one tech chief executive calls it “the new golf”). Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg reportedly plays it with his girlfriend. It is popular among program- mers and college students, a set of for- ward-thinkers similar to those who played Monopoly years before Parker Brothers got in on the action.We think of Monopoly as a game celebrating capital- ism, but it actually evolved out of the Landlord’s Game, patented in 1903 to promote a high tax on property owners proposedby economistHenryGeorge. Settlers isnotamass-marketphenome-
non in America, though it has sold more than 15 million copies worldwide. Even Hasbro seems to have taken notice. This year’s Monopoly line includes U-Build Monopoly,which has hexagonal tiles that snap together indifferent configurations; the starter track promises a game lasting nomorethanahalf-hour.Youcanalsobuy Monopoly card games, iPhone apps and a
BlakeEskinedits theWeb site of theNew Yorkermagazine.
3-Dversionfor theWii. Monopolyremainsoneof thefewboard
games everyone knows, so it’s one that everyone buys. It will be easier to find in stores than Settlers this holiday season. And a gift of Redskins Monopoly or “Simpsons” Monopoly is likely to get a better initial reaction fromchildren than anunfamiliargameofGermanorigin.But what about what’s inside the box? Will theyplaymore thanonce? Try Settlers of Catan instead. It’smore
fulfilling and more fun. There should be moretolifethanrollingthediceandgoing in circles. Settlers teaches new ways of thinking and presents a different notion ofwinning: by a nose instead of by amile. The game is won by earning 10 victory points, but points are earned by a combi- nation of building settlements and cities, having the longest road or the largest army, or drawing cards. A Settlers win doubles as a lesson in a world where resources are finite and unevenly distrib- uted. It’s a game for a moment when no one — even Americans, happily playing board games—should expect a perpetual monopoly onpower.
blake@blakeeskin.com
She made America powerful. Now we can’t afford her.
BY CHRIS MANTEUFFEL
AND RACHEL MANTEUFFEL IN PHILADELPHIA
T
heUSSOlympia, docked at the Independence Seaport Muse- um on the Delaware River since 1996, is no ordinary war- ship. Built for about $2.1 mil-
lion and commissioned in 1893, the vessel’s got Victorian-era ice machines. She’s got engines the size of 7-Elevens. If they fail, she’s got sails, too. She’s got a printing press, bathtubs,
furnishings fit for a gentleman’s parlor and a prototype of awater cooler called a “scuttlebutt” around which sailors gath- ered and talked. She’s gorgeous — a priceless artifact of American history, dominating Penn’s Landing. But pricelessness comes with a price.
To keep the Olympia afloat, the Seaport Museumneeds $20million, but it hasn’t come up with the cash. After spending more than $5.5 million in the past 14 years on the ship’s upkeep, appealing to federal agencies for help that isn’t com- ing and weathering a $1.5 million em- bezzlement scandal that landed its for- mer director in jail for 15 years, the museum announced in February that it can’t afford further maintenance. With- in three years, experts estimate, the Olympiawill fall apart. If it isn’t saved, it will be dismantled for scrap or sunk to build an artificial reef off CapeMay, N.J. And with it will go a symbol of
America’s age of empire. When the Olympiawas built, theUnited Stateswas redefining itself as a global power, taking on expensive, elective wars in ever-more-distant places. The Olympia was the first step toward an imperial navy, the first steel American warship
designed to cross an ocean to antagonize an enemy. If, in 1893, it wasn’t yet clear who that enemywould be, the Olympia’s design flaunted the symbolismof luxury — and the luxury of symbolism. Its grand, open spaces (skylights, a lounge areawith a settee andwicker furniture, a piano) equipped sailors for a splendid little war of choice far fromtheir homes and
families.The admiral’s cabin had a china cabinet. This was a ship befitting the world power that the United States wanted to be. The Olympia wouldn’t have to wait
long for a trial run. The USS Maine exploded in Havana harbor in February 1898, and though the cause was unclear, popular opinion blamed Spain. Ten days later, an ambitious young assistant sec- retary of the Navy named Theodore Roosevelt—whose boss, Secretary of the Navy John Long, had taken the day off— seized the opportunity to put the Navy on war footing. Roosevelt ordered Com- modore George Dewey, aboard the Olympia in Hong Kong, to attack Span- ish ships at their port in Manila, capital of the Philippines. That April, the Span- ish-AmericanWar began. From the stately Olympia, Dewey
fought a battle as much about optics — shock and awe — as firepower. The hapless Spanish navy had gone about a year without firing its guns and stayed anchored throughout the fight. Though Dewey was numerically matched by Spain’s fleet, he took only six hours to sink it, including a three-hour break for breakfast. He even ordered that the wooden paneling on the Olympia, an enormous fire hazard, remain in place during the battle. While 161 Spaniards perished, one American sailor died (of sunstroke). With news of the amazing victory,
EDWARD H. HART/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Above: TheUSS Olympia circa 1900. Below: The deteriorating ship at Philadelphia’s Independence SeaportMuseum.
Dewey was feted in New York, where a temporary arch in his honorwas erected in Madison Square. But back in Manila, the land war had just begun. After defeating the Spanish,U.S. troops stayed in the Philippines out of concern that Filipinos were not ready to build their own democracy. Insurgents fought a guerilla war to get the Americans out as Washington resisted granting the coun- try colonial status, statehood or inde- pendence. The insurgency intensified. More than 4,000 Americans were killed by guerrillas or disease, and one soldier was court-martialed for waterboarding. Mark Twain called the conflict a
quagmire. Rudyard Kipling wrote of such colonial struggles as “The White Man’s Burden.” An Army major de- scribed Filipino Muslims for a journal back home: “The only question with the average Moro is when he can kill a Christian. It is never a question of whether he will do so or not. . . . The Moro is a born fanatic.” In 1898, the United States annexed the Philippines but didn’twant tomake its residentsU.S. citizens or leave the country in chaos. America did not withdraw until 1946. In 1905, seven years after her victory
inManila, the Olympia became obsolete when the British Dreadnought was launched — a faster, larger warship that carried more guns. The Olympia didn’t see combat again until World War I; while newer American battleships fought the Germans, she engaged a lesser enemy emerging in Russia: the Bolsheviks. When the Olympia returned home in
1921, theUnited Stateswas no longer the little country with the big battleship. It was a world power, vying with Britain for the largest navy in theworld. In 1893, the Olympia symbolized American im- perial ambitions. When she was decom- missioned three decades later, she had seen that dreamcome true. Ever since, the ship has been a living
monument to American greatness abroad — a monument that in 2010, we can no longer afford and that may be turned into scrap.
manteuffelr@washpost.com
MATT ROURKE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
ChrisManteuffel is an engineer for a government contractor in Springfield. RachelManteuffel is on the staff of the editorial department of TheWashington Post.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158