Monopoly (board game)
Monopoly is an American board game. According to Parker Brothers, it was designed by Charles B. Darrow in 1934. Originally distributed by Parker Brothers, Monopoly is now the property of Hasbro under the Parker Brothers brand. Monopoly is one the best-known American board games and immensely popular world-wide, having been published in 80 countries and 26 languages.
Contents
History
Monopoly's development has roots in Great Depression and earlier, where it was first developed to understand the adversarial process of finance, and then as a means to make light of the financial problems posed by real monopolists. A game called The Landlord's Game was an earlier board that is very similar to Monopoly.
The modern game of Monopoly was developed by Charles Darrow of Germantown, Pennsylvania who had trouble supporting his family during the stock market crash of 1929 and the Depression. He developed the game based on Atlantic City, New Jersey, where he spent summers at. He initially took the game to Parker Bros. and they rejected it because of "fifty-two fundamental errors" such as game length and complicated rules. He and a printer friend produced it in a Philadelphia department store. When Darrow could no longer keep up with demand, Parker Bros. took over the game. Royalties made Darrow a millionaire. The British agents of Parker Brothers decided to replace the American properties with ones based on locations around London. This version was sold throughout British Commonwealth countries, except for Canada, which used the American version.[1]
Gameplay
In Monopoly, two or more players take turns rolling dice and moving their tokens clockwise through boxes drawn around the edges of a square board based on the street names of Atlantic City. If the player rolls doubles, he or she gets an extra turn. Upon landing in a box, a player may buy the property from the bank if no other player owns it, auction the property through the Bank to the highest bidder, pay rent to the player who owns it, or draw a Chance or Community Chest card. Landing on Luxury Tax costs the player $75. For Income Tax, the player must pay either $200 or 10% of the total of (1) the player's cash and (2) the purchase price of all the player's properties and improvements. When the player passes Go, he/she collect $200. If the player lands on Jail or Free Parking, nothing happens. If the player rolls doubles three times in a row, he/she goes to jail. The player can also go to jail if he/she lands on the corner box marked Go To Jail, or gets a Chance or Community Chest card stating to go to jail. To get out of jail, the player must pay the $50 fine, roll doubles on his or her turn or use a "get out of jail free" card. Rent and property costs increase as one goes around the board. The purple and light blue properties are on the South edge, magenta and orange on the West edge, red and yellow on the North edge, and green and dark blue on the East edge. Rents are doubled if the player owns all of a color. Railroad rents increase for each additional railroad the player owns: one railroad is $25 in rent, two is $50, three is $100 rent, and owning all four will garner $200 in rent. Owning one of the two utilities will garner five times the number the player rolled on the dice, and owning both utilities will garner ten times the dice number. Building houses on the player's lot increases rents; after 4 houses, the player can erect a hotel instead. Houses and hotels are only bought from the bank, never from other players, and there is a fixed supply, which can lead to housing shortages. Not all deals are done with the bank. Players may sell or trade properties, which is often a key part of gaining a monopoly by buying all properties of a color group. A player wins the game by being the last one in the game and bankrupting his or her opponents. [2]
House Rules
Some players have added extra rules, called "House Rules", such as fines being paid into a kitty in the center of the board and collected by whoever lands on Free Parking and collecting double salary when landing on GO, traveling on railroads, double buildings, "free market" (not needing a monopoly to build), instant hotels, partnerships (two players form a monopoly), utilities are treated as railroads, uneven building, unlimited buildings, immunity from rent, game starting auction, double priced and rent properties, two game boards in play, no building, trading, or collecting from Jail, and many more.[3]
Board Variations
Overseas versions have cities appropriate for the their marketplace; for example, the British version of the game has squares based upon areas within London.
Several authorized and unauthorized versions have been created featuring different American cities, sports teams, comic book covers, and more.
Anti Monopoly
Anti Monopoly is a book by Retired San Fransisco Economic Teacher Ralph Anspach that apparently goes through the darker side of the History of the Monopoly Board game and its makers [4], and also the creator of a board game: Anti-Monopoly. The board game is a negative variant of the normal game, with more updated properties and most of the board initialy owned by a few players (The Monopolists) against the other players (Competitors) in an attempt to break down the Monopoly.
Sources
- History of the Monopoly Game at www.Hasbro.com
