News > August 28, 2008

By Natalie Ranck | Asst. news editor

Tensions rose and hearts raced as students at the university participated in an attempt to break the Guiness World Record of most people ever playing the classic board game Monopoly at the same time. The university is just one of many locations worldwide rallying people to play the game.

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Students will be playing at different universities around the United States, from Arizona State University to University of Florida to Syracuse University, but that’s not all.

Other major U.S. and international cities will also be playing host to this historic event. Monopoly fans in Atlantic City, Las Vegas and even London and Tokyo will be participating.

The event took place at the university on Aug. 27 from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. in Shorty’s in Benson and is hosted by the Pi Omicron Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. It celebrated the release of a new edition of the board game, called Monopoly Here & Now: The World Edition, which represents 22 different cities from around the world on the board.

This is the first time there has ever been a world edition of this classic game and the represented cities were voted on by Monopoly enthusiasts from around the world.

More than five million votes were cast, and the results of the vote were released Aug. 20.

Other changes to the traditional board game include the replacement of “Water Works” and “Electric Company” with “Wind Energy” and “Solar Energy,” updated Community Chest and Chance cards, and the tokens, houses and hotels will reflect a wide range of cultures from around the world.

The conventional game that the world knows and loves was created in 1935.

The updated game aims to reflect adaptations to fit the changing (and international) world and is now available in stores.

The university is one of only seven campuses asked to host this event.

This unique opportunity was brought about by a simple e-mail and some alumni connections.

Senior Maya Yette, a member of Delta Sigm Theta Sorority, is very involved in the planning of this event.

“We got the opportunity because the office of Greek Life sent out an e-mail,” Yette said.

“One of the girls who works for the company’s PR firm used to attend Wake, and we’re one of only a few schools that they asked to host this event.”

There is no need to convince any Monopoly enthusiast how important, not to mention fun, this event will be.

“It’s an important event because it’s a game that many of us grew up playing and loving,” Yette said. “The World Edition just came out and this was just a fun way for us to get involved and get students out and involved in campus on the first day of classes.”

Besides the fact that it was a fun way for students to be involved on campu on the first day of class, this event also gave students the opportunity to get their names in the record book and make Monopoly history.