North Battleford-Opoly puts a community-specific spin on the game of Monopoly, featuring many local area benchmarks. (submitted photo/Jared Clarkson, Outset Media)

By Martin Martinson

Game night fun

North Battleford-Opoly puts local twist on classic game

Sep 26, 2020 | 4:00 PM

As the weather begins to cool with a crisp autumn breeze, there’s never been a better time to gather the family together for a good old-fashioned game night.

However, while one cannot go wrong with the classic board games from the top shelf of the pantry closet, it’s a new twist on a classic that has caught the eye of many in the local Battlefords community.

North Battleford-Opoly is a recent addition to the community-themed Monopoly-style collection of games, made by Outset Media, in collaboration with Wal-Mart Canada.

Outset Media is a Canadian toy, game, and puzzle company that began making community-themed Monopoly games two years ago for a number of city centres across the country.

From the property names to the ‘community chest’ cards, and even the front-of-the-box artwork, North Battleford-Opoly is chalked full of local flavor. (submitted photo/Jared Clarkson, Outset Media)

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While the overall blueprint for the game remains the same as the classic Monopoly, North Battleford-Opoly features several specific benchmarks unique to the community.

Rather than Park Place or Boardwalk, the locally-inspired rendition features a number of prominent street names like Territorial Drive, Railway Avenue, and 100^th Street, along with landmarks such as the Civic Centre, Centennial Park, and even Finlayson Island.

“We try to make it really interesting for people of the community to enjoy, and to include more than just the streets,” Jean Paul Teskey, Senior Vice President with Outset Media said. “We try to make it really unique and research is done with our team who work across the country.”

Teskey said when the company first began making the community-specific games, they worked mainly with larger centres such as Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, and Montreal. However, he said it didn’t take long for them to discover it wasn’t necessarily the bigger markets that were flying off the shelves.

“We found last year that our best-selling games were smaller and mid-sized communities, so this year our focus has been on those communities in particular,” he said. “I think a lot of times people in smaller communities just tend to have a better sense of community pride than some of the bigger centres. I think the smaller communities really appreciate and embrace the idea.”

North Battleford-Opoly is available for a limited time only and is sold exclusively at Wal-Mart.

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Martin.Martinson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: MartyMartyPxP1