I had a similar experience about a decade ago. Went over to a friend's house for to play some classic board games. He brought out Life [1], and I was immediately angry at what they did to that game. Instead of cash, each player now had a Visa-branded "debit card" [2]. To deposit or withdraw money, you inserted your card into a little card reader thing and entered the amount.

My anger was actually for two different reasons! First, for similar reasons as explained in the article. Maybe I was being a bit "too nostalgic", but I also thought it was gross to start advertising payment networks to the kids who'd be playing this game.

But I was also mad because one of the things I like to do with these games is brazenly cheat at them. Steal from the bank, evade taxes, etc. I have a reputation among my friends for this and so I have been banned from banking within Monopoly, Life, etc.

Because of my reputation, everyone was happy about the new payment system, and even happier that I was mad about it. They thought I was no longer a threat.

BUT! The "debit cards" used in this game weren't mag-stripes or chips or anything fancy. They just had raised bumps on them that actuated contacts in the card reader. After looking at my card for a while, then at Bob's—I guess I'm "Alice" in this story—I realized I could modify my card to look like his if I inserted a cocktail sword [3] into the slot right along with my own card. The card reader then saw Bob's card instead of my own!

I stole so much money that night, and struck a blow against The System in the process.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_of_Life

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_of_Life:_Twists_%26_T...

[3] https://cocktails.fandom.com/wiki/Cocktail_Sword