Hasbro is holding a Facebook contest to eliminate one of the eight tokens that identify the players and introduce a new one. Possible new tokens include a cat, diamond ring, guitar, toy robot and helicopter. It's the latest effort by the toymaker to jazz up the game which debuted almost eight decades ago. - Mae Anderson, The Huffington Post
The makers of Chess have decided to "add a little spice" to their centuries-old game by replacing one of the pieces with either a helicopter or a death-ray. "We're probably going to dump the rook," a spokesman said, "not both of them just the one on the right. Our focus group says people are just sick of looking at it." The new piece would not move like a traditional rook either. In the case of a helicopter, it could fly overhead and either take reconnaissance or drop things on the other pieces. The death-ray would blast not only other pieces, but even the opponent. "Not enough to kill him," the spokesman explains, "but it would sure sting like heck. It'd make the game a lot more challenging."
Scrabble, which has had the same twenty-six letters for the last sixty years is due for a makeover, according to executives at Mattel. "We're rolling out some whole new letters this season. Smurg, for example, and Krowl. All in all,there'll be ten new tiles, and not just letters, but special messages like, 'punch your opponent in the arm as hard as you can,' or 'run around the house shouting, 'whoopee!'"
The Four of Clubs has outlived its usefulness, at least according to Hoyle, the leading manufacturer of playing cards. "The other fifty-one cards are dandy," a CEO says. "Even the Three of Clubs, which really is kind of a dud as far as I'm concerned, is used all the time by magicians. But the Four of Clubs. Feugh." Accordingly, Hoyle plans to replace it with something more "hip" or "dope," like the Twenty-Eight of Cats, or possibly the Jack of Nerds.
