MOORPARK : City Coming Out With Own Board Game

The city of Moorpark is poised to join more well-established communities such as Malibu, Chatsworth, Beverly Hills and neighboring Ventura with its own customized version of the popular board game Monopoly.

Between 1,500 and 2,000 copies of “Mooropoly” will hit the city this fall, featuring local merchants and professionals instead of the more-familiar street names ranging from Baltic to Boardwalk.

The games, manufactured by the Chatsworth-based Hometown Games under contract with the Chamber of Commerce, will sell for $19.95 and are being produced as a chamber fund-raiser and to mark the city’s 10th birthday.

“The game also reinforces the ‘Shop Moorpark’ theme,” said chamber President Francis Okyere. “As people play the game and spend their money, they can also imagine themselves spending their good hard-earned money in the city of Moorpark.”

Businesses pay $240 to $840 for a space on the board, depending on the property’s value and prominence. Advertisements are printed on “Chance” cards and the money used in the game.

Hometown Games has produced similar games for Pasadena, Malibu, Chatsworth, Beverly Hills and El Segundo. A Santa Barbara entrepreneur produced a version for the city of Ventura--called “Venturopoly”--in the late 1980s.