Traipse - Games Cycle - Monopoly

Monopoly is a perfect example of what happens when people who don’t understand the rules of a game begin to mess with it, and then complain that the rules they’ve introduced make the game less fun.

The two most popular house rules of Monopoly: eliminating the “auction” rule, and “all money from fines, taxes, etc. is placed in the center of the board, and is given to any player landing on Free Parking.

On the surface, these seem like good ideas. The auctioning rules are a bit confusing if you haven’t bothered to read them and don’t like the idea of being “forced” to buy a property you’ve landed on, lest it go to an opponent for a cheap price. Free Parking is a space on the board that literally does nothing, and giving it an ability feels like plugging the last hole of a lazy designer.

Unfortunately, both of these misunderstand what Monopoly’s core goal is: removing money from the player’s hands. One is ruthlessly and aggressively taxed, penalized, lawsuited, and rented nearly every turn. Players are encouraged to eliminate one another. The fantasy of holding on to thousands of fake bills and the deeds to fake property disappears.The less money introduced into the game, the fewer opportunities granted to players to hold on to their money, the quicker the game ends.

One of the reason’s most games of Monopoly drag on for so long is because of houserules like these. The faster every property is owned, the quicker rents skyrocket and money aggregates into the hands of one or two players. Without random and unrealistic windfalls of potentially thousands and thousands of dollars, the players go bankrupt faster. The game actually ends in a timely manner.

Now, of course, you complain, this removes any of the swingy elements that the latter rules introduces. The game becomes a foregone conclusion much quicker. The ruthlessness of having to mortgage properties and sell off everything you own to avoid bankruptcy, to stay in the game, to keep playing just a little bit longer... There’s so much less you can do to avoid it.

Which was the entire point. 

The game was intended by its socialist authors as an indictment of the real estate industry. In succeeded admirably is modeling the players treating one another abominably in order to “win”. Is the point the fantasy about being a millionaire real estate agent? or is it to expose the horrors of capitalism? In the end, neither turns out to be fun for most folks, and the former literally involves rewriting the rules to allow yourself to do so. There's a lesson there, I'm sure.

If only those lessons could be transferred into real life, and the game could get people to do something about it...