POPULOPOLY

By: Chantal Barsoumian| Karim Soueid | Elissa Boudarwiche

Populism in Lebanon is a plague, mainly because the country does not just have one populist leader but (too) many — each one belonging to a different sect and/or tribe. These leaders are engaged in a never-ending struggle over power, control, and authority with the Lebanese people trapped in the crossfire.

In Lebanon, the medium is the message. Each station is owned by one sectarian leader who does everything in their power (monitoring, tampering, corrupting, etc.) to transform the news into self-serving propaganda. To address the misuse of weaponized news and other media narrative issues in our region, a board game was created with the goal of educating people about what is happening behind the scene in Lebanese politics. This board game gives complete power to the player to make decisions that will see him displace the corrupt leaders as he takes his rightful place as leader of Lebanon by being open, wise, and selfless.

This game board is interactive — For more info, just touch the big white toggles!

Using games to educate has been proven as an effective way to help students learn about serious topics by engaging them in a fun interactive experience. As such, we decided to explain Lebanese politics and abuse of media through a board game inspired by the Monopoly, called Populopoly.

Monopoly is the most famous board games and is known for its compelling and genius game play.

It is also a game in which players compete for a total ownership of the properties’ displayed available to purchase. It is a game of luck, but it is also about who has more money to buy property, or in this case, News and TV stations.

However, Populopoly has a twist to it. Players will not be permitted to buy a property until they respond to the scenarios presented through multiple choice questions that require players to give moral responses in order to earn money and purchase properties. The questions ask the players to make sacrifices for the community, for the people, and tries to teach players why populism may not be the right way forward. In other words, populist choices make you lose while good and selfless choices make you win.

Example of a “Populist Chest” card in Populopoly.

Monopoly is about capitalism; Populopoly is about populism. The only way to start dominating the game and own it all is to be deserving of it. Proving that you deserve to have power and control over things. The audience for this game would be high school students and it could easily be incorporated in educational systems where the educator would ask students to pair up to play the game as an in class assignment to give them an easy simple insight into the politics of today through practical gaming.

Example of “People’s Change” card in Populopoly.

Rules:

• On a player’s turn, he or she must roll the dice and move his or her token forward the number of spaces as rolled on the dice.
• If the player lands on an unowned property, he or she may buy it for the price listed on that property’s space ONLY after answering the right questions in the MULTIPLE CHOICE SCENARIOS. After answering the question, If he or she agrees to buy it, he or she pays the Bank the amount shown on the property space and receives the deed for that property. If he or she refuses to buy it for the amount stated on the deed, the property is auctioned.
• If the player lands on an unmortgaged property owned by another player, he or she pays rent to that person, as specified on the property’s deed. It is the property owner’s responsibility to demand rent, and he or she has until the beginning of the second following player’s turn to do so.
• If the player lands on his or her own property, or on property which is owned by another player but currently mortgaged, nothing happens.
• If the player lands on a Chance or Community Chest, the player takes a card from the top of the respective pack and performs the instruction given on the card.
• If the player lands on the Jail space, he or she is “Just Visiting”. No penalty applies.
• If the player lands on the Go to Jail square, he or she must move his token directly to Jail.
• If the player lands on or passes Go in the course of his or her turn, he or she receives L.L200,000 from the Bank. A player has until the beginning of his or her next turn to collect this bonus.

You can find and download the game cards in the link below:

Populopoly Board Game