Subj : Re: Favourite Board Games
To   : Arelor
From : boraxman
Date : Mon Mar 21 2022 00:57:31

 Ar> The problem with Monopoly is that all the strategy and politics
 Ar> necessary to win are done very early on, and then players just move
 Ar> round and round and round for hours no end.
 Ar> 
 Ar> By the first half an hour everybody has all the properties they can get
 Ar> and has traded them with other players if possible. Past that point
 Ar> there is no more strategy. Just mindlessly wandering on the board.
 Ar> 
 Ar> Also, it has player elimination, which is ok for short games but awful
 Ar> for long ones. If Francisco is kicked out early, then he may have to
 Ar> have a long nap while the rest of the players keep at it having fun. If
 Ar> it can be called fun :-)
 Ar> 
 Ar> I never heard of the Doom boardgame.

I still find it fun, but I haven't played in a while.  Also, the start of monopoly is pointless.  You go round and round to collect properties.  The best strategy is to always buy the property you land on at the start, so really, it is just a very long winded way of distributing properties randomly.  You could just hand out the cards at random at the start and skip the many rounds where nothing significant happens.  Who cares about the $2 rent.  Also later on, when you have houses and hotels, people tend not to worry about paying that $15 rent, as those transactions are insignificant.

The more you think about it, the more you realise how flawed it is.

But Monopoly was likely based on a game called The Landlords Game, a game designed to promote Georgism and show how property can be used to build a monopoly, which leads to unfairness.  The game actually was DESIGNED to suck! The point of the Landlords Game was to how how holding a monopoly, or being propertied gave someone an advantage, and how those with less could never compete.  When people get irate, give up at having to keep playing against the guy who has 3 sets when they have no hope of getting into a position to negotiate for one, that is the point of the game.  To show how unfair the tax/economic system is.

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