‘Do not pass Go’ until you play Ram-opoly

By Mike Porter

Would you buy a Ram-opoly game? Use #ramopoly on Twitter to tell us what you think.

In Durham, people play Dukeopoly, and in College Park, the game is called Terpopoly. From Aggieopoly to Wisconsinopoly, there are dozens of Monopoly-inspired board games customized to reflect college campuses across the country.

But no Virginia Commonwealth University version of the popular “campus-opoly” games has existed – until now.

For the past three years, Reuban Rodriguez, Ed.D., associate vice provost and dean of student affairs at VCU, has been determined to develop a VCU version of the game. The end result is “Ram-opoly,” which features the buildings, landmarks, programs and atmosphere of VCU.

“It’s a cool idea for all of the right reasons,” Rodriguez said. “I wanted to capture pride for VCU in a format that’s fun and engaging.”

Rodriguez contacted Late for the Sky Production Company, the Cincinnati-based firm that has been producing customized “-opoly” games for campuses and cities since 1984.The company sent him a copy of Virginia Techopoly to demonstrate how the game can integrate local campus features.

“Once we saw it, I asked: Do people play board games anymore? And when I shopped it around, a number of people were keen on the idea,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez wanted to launch the game as part of VCU’s 175th anniversary, enlisting design help from the marketing team at the Division of University Relations and facilitation help from Kristan Cole, marketing, trademarks and licensing manager at VCU Business Services . Cole also researched and prepared text for each of the property cards.

“The back of each property card includes a history of the property,” Cole said. “I learned a lot about VCU by researching and writing the cards.”

The game is played just like Monopoly and includes properties from the Monroe Park and MCV campuses, VCU Qatar and the Rice Rivers Center. There are contingency cards, too, which can affect a player’s fortune, with messages such as “You win the Miss VCU pageant. Collect $100” or “You’re picking up the pizza. Collect $5 from every player and advance to Hunton Student Center.”

The first batch of 750 games, which arrived Dec. 12, will largely be distributed as holiday gifts for students in Residential Life and Housing. A small number of the games will be available for sale at the Barnes & Noble @ VCU  location on the Monroe Park Campus.

Rodriguez hopes that like Monopoly, which has been a popular pastime for American families since the Great Depression, Ramo-poly catches on with students, faculty, staff and fans. And that interest and enthusiasm from the initial production run could lead to additional Ram-opoly games being produced and sold online or in stores.

“This is sort of a pilot program. Depending on interest, additional games may be produced and sold,” Rodriguez said.

 

Photo above provided by Late for the Sky Production Company.

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