4 ms·

The problem is that it's 99 percent luck. A game of monopoly is fairly straightforward: 1 hour of randomly acquiring properties. 30 seconds of trading bet

The problem is that it's 99 percent luck. A game of monopoly is fairly straightforward: 1 hour of randomly acquiring properties. 30 seconds of trading between other players. 4 hours of randomly resolving the winner with odds established by the last steps. If you could expand that (fun) 30 seconds of trading to the whole game, it would be a good game.

zipdog 16y ago
An hour to acquire? The only properties that matter are closest to Free Parking or on the sides touching Free Parking. In the first few circles of the board, whoever gets a set there (or closest to it) has essentially won.
hapless 16y ago
If you play monopoly by the rules written on the box, it only lasts 30-45 minutes, with intense interaction between players. It's much more exciting, but it's also a really miserable game because of its brutal zero-sum nature. (Bear in mind: the game's creator intended it to be unpleasant to play.) "House rules" like free parking, non-compulsory property purchase, non-auction-mortgage etc seem like very small changes, but they really terribly break the game balance. Putting money under free parking is all it takes to turn a 30 minute shouting match into a tedious three hour snooze-fest. In short: Monopoly is never "fun," but it can be very exciting. It's the house rules that seek less painful gameplay that make the game so very, very dull.
pessimizer 16y ago
I'm starting to think that maybe why my family enjoys it so much is because we're all constantly dealing, or putting out feelers about deals from the second the first property is purchased, and that when the game is obviously won, people just concede and the game starts up again. Also, a lot of our deals involve more than two people - like person A threatening to sell property X, that person B wants, to person C for a dollar, unless person B sells property Y to A. Or selling somebody a property that completes a monopoly for an amount of money determined purely based on that person not being able to afford to put houses in it quickly. Mortgaging properties before selling them for the same effect. Or two players trading each other into monopolies so they can either eliminate another weak player, or have a chance to compete with a player who got the first monopoly. Spending thousands on a $200 property. Making and breaking gentleman's agreements. Really a great time. When the trading stops with us, it usually means the game is about 20 minutes from being over while the last two battle it out with dice rolling. If that period was 4 hours long, I'd hate the game too.

zipdog 16y ago

An hour to acquire? The only properties that matter are closest to Free Parking or on the sides touching Free Parking. In the first few circles of the board, whoever gets a set there (or closest to it) has essentially won.

hapless 16y ago

If you play monopoly by the rules written on the box, it only lasts 30-45 minutes, with intense interaction between players. It's much more exciting, but it's also a really miserable game because of its brutal zero-sum nature. (Bear in mind: the game's creator intended it to be unpleasant to play.) "House rules" like free parking, non-compulsory property purchase, non-auction-mortgage etc seem like very small changes, but they really terribly break the game balance. Putting money under free parking is all it takes to turn a 30 minute shouting match into a tedious three hour snooze-fest. In short: Monopoly is never "fun," but it can be very exciting. It's the house rules that seek less painful gameplay that make the game so very, very dull.

pessimizer 16y ago

I'm starting to think that maybe why my family enjoys it so much is because we're all constantly dealing, or putting out feelers about deals from the second the first property is purchased, and that when the game is obviously won, people just concede and the game starts up again. Also, a lot of our deals involve more than two people - like person A threatening to sell property X, that person B wants, to person C for a dollar, unless person B sells property Y to A. Or selling somebody a property that completes a monopoly for an amount of money determined purely based on that person not being able to afford to put houses in it quickly. Mortgaging properties before selling them for the same effect. Or two players trading each other into monopolies so they can either eliminate another weak player, or have a chance to compete with a player who got the first monopoly. Spending thousands on a $200 property. Making and breaking gentleman's agreements. Really a great time. When the trading stops with us, it usually means the game is about 20 minutes from being over while the last two battle it out with dice rolling. If that period was 4 hours long, I'd hate the game too.