That'll Be £200 (Monopoly)

Member Name:

Product:	Monopoly
Date:	06/11/00 (7 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Property Tycoon Entertainment

Disadvantages: Can last a long while

What would I have done for all those years without Monopoly.

In 1935 Charles Darron an unemployed engineer had a brilliant idea and from those humble beginnings the game was produced by hand in a front room for sale to the wealthy. Monopoly has progressed to becoming probably the most popular game in the world. It has netted the inventor millions and has been translated into dozens of languages and localised. It has been reported that more Monopoly money has been printed than all the legal currency in the world put together.

People have often wondered about the choice of counters to play the game and they were chosen because they were on the inventor's wife's charm bracelet.

Played on a large board, up to 6 players have the opportunity to progress around the board at the throw of two dice to buy any property that they land on, if they can afford it. If fortunate enough to own a complete street, the owner can build houses and hotels thus swelling the amount of rent he can charge when other players drop in.

A seventh player can play and act as the banker thus alleviating the need of one of the players having a duel role. A player cum banker can have a finger pointed at him especially if he wins. After all changing your own 500 note and accidentally giving yourself six or even seven one hundred notes is a possibility as is the possibility of giving yourself the wrong change when buying something from the bank. When I played we had the additional rule to the printed ones that a player cum banker is not allowed to do his own money changing and another player must do it for him. This gave rise to unspoken alliances developing between two players where each would return a "favour" to the other. To counter this we decreed that each time that the player cum banker wanted some money changing or had to buy or sell property to the bank, a different player would do the bank for him each time. This didn't actually stop the
"buddy favour routine" but it did cut it down a lot.

Properties can be bought and sold by the players from each other and even auctions can be held to get the best deal. With very few "safe" squares to land on a player can look forward to collecting lots of cash and also paying it out. Four of the "safe" squares are not quite as safe as the rest because a player is obliged to take a "Chance" or "Community Chest" card which can turn out to be a gift of cash, a small fine, a get out of jail free card, a go to jail card and the daddy of them all a card which fines the player according to the amount of property that he owns. This card comes in two flavours, a relatively cheap one and one often nicknamed "the road to bankruptcy".

One of the most contentious points in Monopoly is whether a player can collect rent whilst in jail? Strictly according to the rules he cannot but some people play so that he can. Well as long as everyone agrees BEFORE the game starts it doesn't matter.

The only drawback to the game is that it can last for many hours and because of this players should decide beforehand how long to play for. The winner being the player who has the most cash at the end in terms of cash and property valued at the purchase price.

Although luck, in throwing the required number on the die, plays a major role so does business acumen. A rash player with luck on his side can win just as easily as lose but then so can a prudent player with an unlucky die.

I wonder what ever happened to Totopoly - a horse racing game from the same stable as Monopoly?

Summary: