Who likes Monopoly (the game, of course)?

The Game Room
1

Was about to pose this question on the Reading Railroad thread, since the original question had been answered, and people were getting into general discussions about the game, but I realized that it would go beyond thread drift to hijack, so I decided to start a new thread.

It rambles a bit, but it’s just thoughts on the game: what makes it fun, and what makes it not fun, and what strategies I like to use to win.

Welcome any responses, or further thoughts. Nothing is a hijack really, other than talk about a different game, or thread-shitting, and even talk about a different game probably could be valid if it’s a comparison and not “I hate monopoly, but I love Risk; here’s why.” Just saying-- hope this is a very broad thread-- pretty much any talk about monopoly is welcome, including criticism, as long as it’s supported criticism, if that makes sense.

Personally, I love this game.

I always insist on playing by the rule, and can kind of be an ass at the beginning of the game, but it’s because I know that folk rules are what make the game go on forever. Most folk rules, like $400 if you land directly on Go, or $500 if you land on Free Parking put too much cash into the game, and no one ever goes bankrupt.

If you want to speed up the game, you need invented rules like $200 ONLY to those who land directly on Go, and nothing to those who merely pass it, or -$75 every time you pass Luxury tax, even if you don’t land on it (-$100 to those who land on it).

I’ll brag a little that I tend to win the game. It’s partly because I’ve read a couple of books on strategy, and know that the best monopolies to have are the orange and red, because they are the most oft-landed on.

Free Parking is landed on most (which is why $500 for anyone who lands on it is such a bad idea), and how often spots are landed on radiates out from Free Parking, to the corners (Jail, and Go to Jail), but then the first quarter board (Go through Jail) is more often landed on than (Go to Jail through Jail) because of Chance and Community cards that send you to Go and Reading Railroad.

So the orange and red are landed on a lot, and the green and dark blue, which are expensive and so slow to develop, not so much.

A really bastard strategy I found on my own is “house-hoarding.” It’s really a dick move, and I use it mostly against computers, but if I’m facing someone else good at the game, I might try it. First, play be the rules, which means a limited number of houses. Second, acquire the light blue moniopoly, easy and cheap to develop, easy to get, because other players are happy to trade “up” for them-- if you offer a single green property for two light blue ones, you almost always get a bite.

Then, you fill them up with 12 houses, but don’t upgrade to hotels.

Take any other monopoly you can get quickly-- orange is best, and easy to get unless you are playing with a really experienced player, but since you are getting some cash coming in from the light blues, any one will do, other than the ones with only two properties.

Fill the second monopoly with houses and don’t upgrade to hotels.

Now, there are only enough houses left for the monopolies with just two properties to upgrade to hotels, and the dark purple/brown makes very little money, while the dark blue is not landed on much. Besides, it more than likely someone with a 3-property monopoly will buy some of the houses. At that point, no one but you can get hotels, and unless you get a 3rd monopoly, you don’t.

Really dick move, but it wins games. It also makes the game take about 45 minutes.

I don’t think I’ve even played a “rules” game that lasted more than 90 minutes, and those were games with lots of players, and lots and lots of haggling, which is where the time went. Time should never go to rolling dice and moving around the board collecting bottom-level, undeveloped rents for an hour, the way kids play who don’t know how to haggle or conduct auctions.

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I found the Blue Marble Game (부루 마불 게임) to be similar enough to Monopoly and also speedy enough to be enjoyable. The link goes to BoardGameGeek. Scroll down to files and you can download an English translation of the rules.

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I don’t like board games where the goal is to make the other players stop playing the game and wander off to do something else (Monopoly and Risk both fall in that category).

I guess they are less bad if the game is short, but I still don’t care for them.

4

Monopoly was deliberately designed to be a bad game, in order to make the political point that monopolies (in the real world) were bad.

The part I can’t understand: Most folks hate Monopoly. Even if that’s an unfair judgement because the things they hate are the result of houserules, it’s still an accurate statement. So why is a game that most folks hate still so popular? Everyone who owns any board games at all owns a copy of Monopoly, and everyone is familiar with it (even if they’re familiar with a wrong version of it).

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I don’t know if that’s a fair statement, because I can always find lots of people who like to play it and want to play it. The biggest enthusiasts are like me, though-- follow the rules!

The biggest complaint I hear from people who do not like the game is that it goes on forever.

I have never played a “rules” game that lasted more than 90 minutes, and as I said before, those were ones with lots of players and lots of haggling.

Usually, the games I play last an hour or so, and once one person goes bankrupt, the rest start to fall quickly. No one wanders off, because they know there isn’t much time left, and they want to see who wins.

The does happen with Risk, I concur, albeit, I also like that game.

6

Risk has an entirely different set of issues. It’s a computer game that had the misfortune to be invented before the computers to run it. Risk games take a long time just because the mechanics are complicated. Let a computer handle all of those complicated mechanics at a single click of the mouse, and suddenly a full Risk game with six players lasts a half hour or so.

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You know, the Parker Brothers took time to think this all out. I think we should respect that.

</Bobby Baccalieri>

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I own ~150 board games. I do not own Monopoly. If played with rules it is slightly less bad, but most folks do not play by the rules.
IMHO there are so many better board games out there.
Brian

9

I used to absolutely love it as a kid, but as an adult I now know why my parents were so reluctant to play it! I think the ‘playing with fake paper money’ was what I loved. These days it is just a bit dull. As a maths nerd I do find the strategies about what property groups to go for quite interesting though. The orange ones get landed on more primarily because they are 6-9 squares away from Jail, for example. They also do novelty sets based around other localities, so it was entertaining to own one set in my home town.

10

I’m a Snakes and Ladders man myself. It’s a game that truly captures the hard, cold realities of life. One minute you’re on a steady climb to the top, feeling like the king of the world, and then BAM! You run into a menacing viper, and down you go faster than a cat chasing a laser pointer. It’s not just a board game; it’s a life lesson for tough hombres. The kind of game where you learn that one wrong step can send you spiraling back to square one. It’s the universe’s way of saying, “Welcome to adulthood, kid!”

I used enjoy Monopoly, but trying to get my kids to play with me was like trying to convince a cat to take a bath. “A board game? That’s way too old-fashioned!” Instead, they roped me into playing video Monopoly. Sure, the graphics were cool and all, but I just couldn’t get into it. I’m not against video games in general; I was a bit of a Centipede and Galaxian champ back in the day. But board games should stay board games, and video games should remain the ultimate time wasters. Besides, nothing beats flipping a real board in a fit of Monopoly-induced rage!

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I’ve played it since I was a child. My dad would play with my two sisters and myself every Sunday afternoon, partly to give my mom a break. Since his passing in 1971 my sisters and I play a game every family gathering. It’s a great ego-boost: they’re both scared of my playing and warn anyone else who joins the game not to trade with me. It’s nice to be considered that much of a threat at a simple board game.

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Or- like the rules say- NOTHING if you land on Free Parking. Just do that.

Top 10 Most Visited Monopoly Properties.

Free parking is not that common to land on- it is not in the top 10.

The precursor to Monopoly was. Not the actual game.

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I totally agree with this. I played a version of Risk back in the ‘80s that was written for the contemporaneous classic Macs with the tiny black-and-white screens. You could play against other players or against the computer with whatever number of opponents you chose (with the maximum number of players set at six).

It went much, much faster than the board game. Attacking a neighboring country consisted of a mouse click. You could click “attack, attack, attack” repeatedly until they were either defeated or you ran out of armies, or decided to stop sooner to conserve strength.

The rampage across the globe by the most powerful player that typically signaled the end of the game typically took all of two or three minutes.

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So do you know of a good computer version of Monopoly that’s is currently available and true to the original board game? As was mentioned in the Reading Railroad thread, the “real” game seems to have disappeared.

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If I may, let’s talk about the auction rule.

IIRC (and correct me if I’m wrong) a player landing on an unowned property may buy it at face value. If they decline then it goes up for auction and anyone (including the player who passed on it) can bid on it. And there is no minimum bid, correct? So I could land on Boardwalk, decline to buy it, then say “I’ll bid $1.” And that’s a legitimate move?

I see how the “buying at auction” gets a lot of properties in play quickly, if people don’t spend all their money buying at face value.

It’s just odd that I played a lot of Monopoly with a lot of people when I was younger, and nobody ever played by the auction rule. Is it too complicated a rule that people just say “yeah, we’ll skip that rule”? Or are people just unaware of it because they’ve never actually read the rules and learned how to play from other people who never read the rules?

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Yep. It can be a great move if you see others are cash poor. Of course you wont get it for $1, but maybe cheaper than list price.

However, generally with 4+ players, the property goes for more than the list.

17

Most boring game in the world.

18

When you’re a kid, it’s fun. For adults, it’s a freaking bore.

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It just seems like minimum bid should be like 10% of face value or something, just to keep people from low-balling. But if, as you say, it often sells for more than face value, then a minimum bid is not necessary.

Personally, I don’t think I’d pay more than face value at auction, and if I didn’t want someone else to get it then I’d just pay face value to start with and take it off the market. On the other hand, if I don’t want someone else to get it but I’m not the one who landed on it, then yeah I could see going over face value being necessary.

I should go look on YouTube for Monopoly games and see how this rule plays out.

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Unfortunately, I don’t know where to get a good version now.

I bought a great version about 12 years ago that is no longer available. I was allowed to download it to 3 devices, so downloaded to my laptop I no longer have, my phone I no longer have, and just to have a 3rd device, and DH didn’t want it on his phone or laptop, to my son’s tablet.

The tablet still operates perfectly well, and I keep it because it has the game on it.

It has developed two glitches-- one has a workaround, and one does not. One is that when someone goes bankrupt, you cannot hit the END button right away, or the game freezes, and you have to hit the home button, bring the game back up, save it, and restart it. However, if you remember not to hit the button right away, and let it o to the next player turn, with the button still displayed, you can hit it and be fine.

The other is that while it does auctions fine when a player lands on a property and declines to buy it; however, when someone is bankrupted by landing on Luxury tax, Income tax, or Chance or Community Chest, the game freezes when it tries to go to auction. I can’t find a workaround.

Occasionally I want a quick game, and have all the properties dealt out at the beginning, and when I do this, I turn off auctions, since there is no landing on something a declining to buy it. With auctions turned off, if someone is bankrupted by the game, their properties become available to land on and purchase.

Since the game is no longer sold, I have looked for ways to pull the whole program off the tablet so I can transfer it (and maybe even fix the auction glitch), but I can’t. Have looked to see what is missing, and tried to download the missing dlls from other places, but that didn’t work.