Monopoly

[Mandeville]

There is a new version of Monopoly coming out called the “Here and Now” edition. You can vote on what the properties will be, http://www.hasbro.com/monopoly/ and the location on the board will be determined by popularity.

There have been a billion Monopoly games with alternate properties but what makes this interesting are the other changes. Hasbro (who bought Parker Bros. fifteen years ago) is increasing the dollar amount of everything to reflect modern standards. They are also replacing a lot of the cards with modern day reflections. I mean…when was the last time a bank paid you $200 for their error? Now, just because I’m interested in seeing how this pans out does not mean that I think it is a good idea. I like Monopoly because it is easy. "Rent is $12? Here’s a twenty give me change." Or, “I want to buy the White House for $125,550 but I have to mortgage Disney World $45,000 first.” Ugh. It should be out late summer, I wonder how it will play out.

I love Monopoly. I never got a chance to play it to often though. My mother hated the game because my grandfather was a bad player and would lose his temper if he was losing. My brother just never liked to play any games and I didn’t get a computer version until 1996. Whenever the opportunity would present itself I would jump at it. About six years ago I saw an announcement for a Monopoly tournament in Stratford CT. The winner would go and represent Connecticut in the regionals then the nationals. It was five bucks to play. I got Maureen to drop me off and she told me she would be back to pick me up and she went shopping.

This tourney was held in a hotel and run by the local boardgame club. As soon as I walked in I realized that I had been there before; a few years earlier in college (1995?) I went to a Magic the Gathering tournament. I was also hit with the sudden realization that I didn’t like the place. I remember that I didn’t like any of the people who were there. This is a problem with boardgame players. I like to gather with them because they share my same interests, love to play a variety of games, are very patient with teaching rules to new people and are skilled so it is actually a challenge. Unfortunately we are all super competitive and more then half of them never learned how to lose graciously or that a wining strategy did not have to involve being a dick. Also their social skills are sorely lacking. I remembered the last time I was there being so disgusted with some of the people that I left and wandered around Stratford for a while. But this was Monopoly. It was going to be fine. I was looking forward to playing a few games.

The first round I played with a bunch of non club members that included a mother and her son, a couple of young guys probably still in high school and the club president. The game was great. It was a tight game and everyone was really shrewd with their trading. In the end I won and advanced. There was a worksheet that we were handed at the end of an hour and we totaled up our assets and come to a dollar amount for our worth. The top two advanced to the next round.

I was glad that we all apparently knew our stuff because the judge kept being called over to other tables frequently. I mean, why would you need a judge? The rules are only a few pages. Although, I am always surprised to find how many people NEVER have read the rules and play some cobbled together house-rule version that their parents taught them. So whenever I play someone is always shocked to learn that “free parking” gives you nothing, landing on “Go" does not pay you $400, landing on a property that is not owned and you don’t want it triggers an auction and that getting your property out of mortgage carries a 10% fee. So I supposed that was the reason for the Judges busy day.

So I go to the next round and I sit with a more seasoned group of players. There was an eight year old kid with his father watching him, Leonard Nimoy’s evil older twin, Comic Book Guy (CBG), Mike Seaver from “Growing Pains” and “ratty college team baseball cap guy”. We get going and get off to a slow start. I’m not getting any good property but I take my time and keep an eye out for trades. I prefer non direct trades anyway. For example; trading a monopoly to some one for two properties then using that to negotiated with a third player and getting a monopoly. So slowly I was looking out for who I could trade with to get leverage with a different player. The kid and the cap guy were kind of quiet but CDBG, Nimoy and Seaver were trading willy nilly with each other.

We had gone around the board a bit and I had something to work with, so I made an offer to CBG. He looked at his title deeds, squinted his eyes and pursed his lips. After a moment he exhales and says no to my trade. Ok. Next time around I offer Nimoy a trade and I get the same histrionics and the same no. I up my offer, no. I up it again…no. On his turn, CBG trades the property I wanted to Nimoy for FAR LESS then I was offering. Uh oh. I sat back and started to stew because it was dawning on me that CBG, Nimoy and Kirk Cameron/Mike Seaver were shutting me, the eight year old and ratty cap guy out of the game. This belief was reinforced when it came to light that those three were club members. So I tried to rally with cap guy and the kid, but to no avail; we couldn’t get on the same page and the kid was afraid to trade anything.

It’s My turn again and I want to be totally sure that the fix is in. I offer CBG the most ludicrous trade offer; I offer him four properties for a light blue and some change. The look on his face was priceless but in the end he steeled himself and declined. I was in a rage! It’s one thing to come up with this strategy during the game, but to come to a pregame agreement was crap. It gave no one else the option to come to such an arraignment until it was too late. It was not illegal, but it was certainly not cool. So I set my jaw and just stared at him. Nimoy shrugged his shoulders and asked why I was getting pissed off. I told him, I didn’t understand; if they didn’t trade with me they were going to lose the game. They laughed. CBG and Nimoy just shook there heads and laughed. So I turned to the eight year old kid and a said:

Roger: “You want to make a trade?”
Kid: “Ok…like what?”
Roger: “I’ll trade you all my property and all my money…for one dollar!”
(All Hell Breaks Loose)
Kid: “what?”
Kid’s Dad: “Say yes, say yes!
Nimoy: (coming out of his chair) “You can’t do that! You can’t do that!”
CBG: “Judge! We need a Judge!”
Roger: “why not? It states in the rules quite clearly that two players may make any trade for any agreed upon price.”
Nimoy: “it has to be reasonable!”
Roger: “that word doesn’t appear anywhere in the rules.”
Judge: (going through the rules and reading what I already quoted) “he’s right. He can do it”.
Nimoy: “well it may be the rule but it’s not right. It’s not the intention. It’s not fair.”
Roger: (big smile) “I know.”

I rolled the dice and was bankrupted. CBG and Nimoy kicked me from the table because I was out of the game. I went and made sure to point out that if the kid mortgaged this and that property he could afford hotels. I went to the hotel lounge and had a beer. When the hour was up I made my back to the room as people were filling out their work sheets. What I saw really pissed me off. Nimoy, a judge, CBG and some other clown were counting and recounting the kid’s money. They were going over his worksheet and rechecking everything. But they all came up with the same conclusion; the Kid beat Nimoy by several hundred dollars. I pumped my fist in the air and made sure the room knew I was pleased with the outcome. I pat the kid on the head and shook his hand and he smiled and ran off to the finals. CBG, Seaver and Nimoy slumped into the other room to find something else to play all the while talking about how Monopoly was not a pure game because of the random factor of the dice and the susceptibility of manipulation. (idiots) Maureen showed up and asked if I needed more time but I was done with this place and Monopoly for quite a while.

[ChaoZ]

Wow. That would've been a sight to see.
I wonder why they didn't counter with the same strategy you used when they saw the kid winning.

[Boudreaux]

This is a problem with boardgame players. I like to gather with them because they share my same interests, love to play a variety of games, are very patient with teaching rules to new people and are skilled so it is actually a challenge. Unfortunately we are all super competitive and more then half of them never learned how to lose graciously or that a wining strategy did not have to involve being a dick. Also their social skills are sorely lacking.

Well, that's a bit of a generalization. I'm a member of a pretty large boardgame group and nearly everyone is the complete antithesis of this. Everyone at our get togethers is polite, gracious, and play very competitively while still keeping the games fun.

I think your problems had less to do with board gamers and more to do with tournament board gamers. Gamers who compete tend to be much more like your description.

[tgb]

I have never had the patience for Monopoly. It just seems like a game lasts forever.

[Mr. Sparkle]

I enjoy Monopoly quite a bit... but could never imagine playing it "seriously"... I mean I've had some games that have nearly come to blows, but that was among friends and you just have another beer.

And I see no reason why it needs to be updated... is there really anybody complaining about the lack of "realism" in Monopoly?

[Dramatist]

Neat story. I think it was great what you did.

I love Monopoly, it's a great game.

[Kelric]

I voted:

Boston - Fenway Park
New York - Central Park
Philly - Libery Bell
D.C. - White House
Cleveland - Jacobs Field (I wanted to vote for the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame)
Nashville - Grand Ole Opry
Atlanta - Centennial Olympic Park
Orlando - Disney World
Miami - South Beach
Chicago - Wrigley Field
St. Louis - Gateway Arch
New Orleans - French Quarter
Houston - Johnson Space Center
Dallas - Fair Park
Minneapolis - Mall of America
Denver - Red Rock Amphitheater
Phoenix - Camelback Mountain
Las Vegas - Las Vegas Blvd.
Seattle - Puget Sound
San Francisco - Golden Gate Bridge
Los Angeles - Hollywood
Honolulu - Waikiki Beach

[Orgull]

Thanks for the heads-up Grand_Director. I voted for my picks!

[Exodor]

I have never had the patience for Monopoly. It just seems like a game lasts forever.

I never knew that landing on an unowned piece of property triggered an auction.

Seems like that would really speed up the game.

[Mandeville]

This is a problem with boardgame players. I like to gather with them because they share my same interests, love to play a variety of games, are very patient with teaching rules to new people and are skilled so it is actually a challenge. Unfortunately we are all super competitive and more then half of them never learned how to lose graciously or that a wining strategy did not have to involve being a dick. Also their social skills are sorely lacking.

Well, that's a bit of a generalization. I'm a member of a pretty large boardgame group and nearly everyone is the complete antithesis of this. Everyone at our get togethers is polite, gracious, and play very competitively while still keeping the games fun.

I think your problems had less to do with board gamers and more to do with tournament board gamers. Gamers who compete tend to be much more like your description.

You may be right. I ran into a couple of these people years later at another event that was not a tournament. I never brought up the past and they were a lot more laid back.

[Peacedog]

I'm a member of a pretty large boardgame group

What's that like? How often do you play?

[Kraken]

When I was a child there were no computers, and so no way to play games by yourself. You needed human opponents. They were always hard to come by, and frequently less than satisfying -- incompetent, or cheaters, or bad losers. Still, the need for gaming opponents was the only real reason to make "friends".

Since mine weren't very good gamers, I sometimes used to play Monopoly by myself, moving around the board and playing each of four players in turn. I played each one honestly to the best of my ability. Since I was very evenly matched, my games went on forever. The best part? I always won.

Anyone remember Monopoly Tycoon for the PC? That game rocked.

And now, a shameless plug for Monopoly Super Add-On. To be honest, I haven't played it. No friends, remember? But I like the concept.

[Kobra]

I really wish they would for once and for all, bury Monopoly.. The fucking muppets keep milking that sorry ass game year after year.. "Golf Monopoly" etc.. Its like a right of passage to recieve 2-3 shitty versions of Monopoly at Christmas, that are destined for the VA Donation pile a few months later.

Mainstream US board game shit cracks me up. Imagine if the tards at Hasbro actually owned the rights to Ticket to Ride, we'd see endless "Ticket to Ride: The New York Edition" nonsense every year.

Gotta love corporate americas ingenuity and creativity.

[tgb]

I really wish they would for once and for all, bury Monopoly.. The fucking muppets keep milking that sorry ass game year after year.. "Golf Monopoly" etc.. Its like a right of passage to recieve 2-3 shitty versions of Monopoly at Christmas, that are destined for the VA Donation pile a few months later.

Mainstream US board game shit cracks me up. Imagine if the tards at Hasbro actually owned the rights to Ticket to Ride, we'd see endless "Ticket to Ride: The New York Edition" nonsense every year.

Gotta love corporate americas ingenuity and creativity.

OH NOES!!!!!!!

[jeansberg]

OI VEYZ!!!

[gameoverman]

Monopoly was big with my family when I was a kid. 3 brothers(counting me) and one sister was our usual group.

Some things I remember: We had to create a 'no quitting' rule, because my sister and one brother always wanted to quit if it looked like they might lose. This rule was intended to preserve the winner's 'glory' of taking someone's last dollar before they could leave the game. Since we all wanted to play, everyone agreed to it.

We made a rule that everyone had to go around the board once before he/she could buy anything. This was so the person going first had no guaranteed advantage.

We started with a couple of hundred in Free Parking and ALL money paid due to those cards(Community chest, etc) went into it too. The reason? Hitting FP at the right time could put a losing player back in the game, so there was even less reason to quit.

At one point our original game got a little thrashed(missing pieces, stuff like that) so our parents got us another one. Since the original one was still mostly usable, we didn't know what to do with it, throwing it out seemed unwarranted. So we invented 'double-board Monopoly'. We laid the two boards together and made a sort of figure 8 'track' around them. Special rules included collecting double rents on properties when you owned both sets, including hotel rents. The utilities we increased to 100x the role of the dice if you owned all four(to make them more attractive).

I remember we had to make our own money because double-board Monopoly chewed up cash like no one's business. We got some from other games(like Life), and hand printed other money.

Oh yeah, and we made a rule: Only the person whose turn it is can make deals OR if it's not your turn, you can only make deals with the person whose turn it is. This was to prevent 'secret' deals where I might be busy talking a deal with one brother, while the other one was handing over property to my sister and so on.

It sucked making a deal with one person to acquire a property that you intended to use with another person, only to find that the second person was no longer interested in it because while you weren't looking he handed over his interest in those properties to someone else. With our rule, it was easy to keep track of who had what, and what you needed to make a deal with someone.

Just remembered: We also had a rule that if you were in jail you could not collect rent on any of your properties unless you paid your $50. This was to prevent anyone from 'hiding' in jail for 3 turns, you had to get out and take your chances landing on someone's hotels like everyone else...or you collect nothing.

Yeah, as you can probably tell, we took it seriously.

[Isgrimnur]

Death to the thimble:

Monopoly's venerable thimble is not passing Go and it won't collect $200. The sewing accessory has been part of the board game since 1935, but voters decided to ditch it during a recent contest for a more modern replacement.

The contest is part of Hasbro's ongoing effort to update its classic game. Voters chose eight finalists out of 56 new tokens and eight classic tokens, but we'll have to wait until March 19th to find out what made the cut. Hashtags, emojis and a rubber ducky are all possibilities. The winners will start appearing in Monopoly sets this August.

The last time the company asked fans to replace a token, they decided to exchange the classic iron with the internet's unofficial mascot, the cat. Knowing how the internet thinks, the next token will be a poop emoji. Or Harambe.

[coopasonic]

Boaty McBoatface!

[The Meal]

Quip from random radio station morning crew: "If they wanted to update the modernity of Monopoly shouldn't they start by renaming Oriental Avenue?"

[LordMortis]

Death to the thimble:

Monopoly's venerable thimble is not passing Go and it won't collect $200. The sewing accessory has been part of the board game since 1935, but voters decided to ditch it during a recent contest for a more modern replacement.

The contest is part of Hasbro's ongoing effort to update its classic game. Voters chose eight finalists out of 56 new tokens and eight classic tokens, but we'll have to wait until March 19th to find out what made the cut. Hashtags, emojis and a rubber ducky are all possibilities. The winners will start appearing in Monopoly sets this August.

The last time the company asked fans to replace a token, they decided to exchange the classic iron with the internet's unofficial mascot, the cat. Knowing how the internet thinks, the next token will be a poop emoji. Or Harambe.

So the commercials on TV this last week trying to sell you the new tokens aren't showing the real tokens? That's kinda shitty.

[Chaosraven]

Nuclear Monopoly forever!

[Pyperkub]

Nuclear Monopoly forever!

Nuclear War (+ expansions) was way more fun!

[Chaosraven]

Nuclear Monopoly forever!

Nuclear War (+ expansions) was way more fun!

Gaming group I was in mid80s made the rules to use that with Monopoly.

I still have a set.

[Isgrimnur]

NYT

Say goodbye to the thimble, the boot and the wheelbarrow, Monopoly fans. There are new tokens in town.
...
The Scottie dog, top hat, roadster car, cat, and battleship tokens will return. But the boot got the boot, and so did the wheelbarrow and the thimble.

The three tokens will be replaced with a Tyrannosaurus rex, a rubber ducky and a penguin, the company said. The announcement came just before World Monopoly Day on Sunday.

The most popular token in the voting was the Scottie dog, the stout little pup that has clattered its way past Go countless times on Monopoly boards worldwide since it was introduced in the 1950s. The T-rex was the second most popular option among the voters, followed by the top hat and the racing car, which have both been in circulation since the 1930s, when the game first made its appearance on American living room tables.

The rubber ducky and penguin were the final inductees, joining the cat and the battleship.
...
The competition was fueled by online campaigning from outside forces, Hasbro said. Zipcar, the car-sharing company, advocated for the survival of the car token by asking fans to #SaveTheCar. The New England Aquarium got in the spirit by tweeting photographs of their penguins to #VotePenguin, and hosting a Facebook live event to Monopoly’s nearly 11 million Facebook fans.

[LordMortis]

Cat? I don't remember cat.

http://www.cbc.ca/comedy/monopoly-updat ... -1.4008841

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ—In a bid to appeal to millennials, Hasbro recently announced several changes to the iconic board game Monopoly, including replacing the thimble game piece and dropping the concept of property ownership from the gameplay.

"We've found that players aged 30 and under no longer identify with certain elements of the game," explained Michael Borowitz, Hasbro Games' Vice President of Marketing.

"Especially with concepts more relevant to earlier eras, like the 1930s-era thimble token or the possibility of upward social mobility."

[Isgrimnur]

Cat? I don't remember cat.

http://www.cbc.ca/comedy/monopoly-updat ... -1.4008841

"It's now a 'Get Into Jail Free' card," explained Borowitz. "Jail is the only space on the board where you don't lose money, so it's actually a pretty good deal."
...
"Now instead of just one player winning, the entire proletariat wins – which is nice," observed Borowitz.

[Kraken]

I'm surprised the top hat survived the cut.

[Isgrimnur]

I'm surprised the top hat survived the cut.

They should have changed it to a trilby.

[tgb]

If you have to have a huge "COMEDY!!!!!!!" stamp across the top of your humor piece, you're doing it wrong.

[Isgrimnur]

USA Today

Hasbro is launching a new version of the iconic board game that celebrates female trailblazers and is the first "where women make more than men,” officials shared exclusively with USA TODAY.

The new game – which includes several modern updates including ride shares instead of railroads and Wi-Fi instead of water works – goes on sale this month at major national retailers for a suggested price of $19.99. The game is available for preorder at Walmart.com.
...
The banker doles out $1,900 in Monopoly Money to each female player and $1,500 to each male. The gap continues every time a player passes go with women collecting $240 and men $200.

Instead of investing in real estate properties like the classic game, players invest in inventions and innovations made by women, including chocolate chip cookies, bulletproof vests, solar heating and ladies’ modern shapewear.
...
Other updates to the game include new tokens including a white hat, a watch, a barbell, a glass and a jet plane.

While the white hat might conjure up thoughts of Olivia Pope from "Scandal," Boswinkel said it's to symbolize Mr. Monopoly passing his top hat to his niece. The watch is to symbolize that it's "about time for some changes," she added.

[coopasonic]

I can't wait to hear the backlash.

I'm still not playing Monopoly.

[Jaymann]

How much do you get if you're a transgender?

[wonderpug]

So...in all previous games of Monopoly and other games played, female players have always made less money than male players?

[gameoverman]

edit: Dumbass me didn't check to see how old the thread is, I already posted here, sorry.

[coopasonic]

So...in all previous games of Monopoly and other games played, female players have always made less money than male players?

No, only real life.

[Jeff V]

So...in all previous games of Monopoly and other games played, female players have always made less money than male players?

If you were a female, any time an event called for you to receive money, you multiplied it by 70% for the actual amount. It was an obscure rule often omitted because math is hard.

[Isgrimnur]

[Isgrimnur]

[The Meal]

Meh. Not enough spaces on each side.

[Hrothgar]

How would llamas ever defeat magical, apparently flying, unicorns?