BP, the Board Game
It’s not an Onion article, this is apparently real (HT2 Sam T.):
The game was developed in the ’70s, hoping to give players “the thrills of drilling,” along with its “hazards and rewards”.
Nearly 40 years later, life is imitating art.
Look familiar?
The only things missing are artistic renderings of dead pelicans and oil billowing out of the ocean floor.
The article says the game allowed four players acting as “would-be tycoons” to compete for oil, “building platforms and laying pipelines to their home countries.”
Apparently not many of the BP games sold.
Oh, really? I can’t imagine why.
Who wouldn’t want to “lay pipe” instead of play Battleship, Risk, or even The Game of Life?
Speaking of the game of life…
In what may be the most ironic part of the story, “Offshore Oil Strike” reportedly included “hazard cards”, like one which says “Blow-out! Rig damaged. Oil slick clean-up costs. Pay $1 million.”
