- Throughout this article, the unqualified use of currency denominations such as “£” or “$” generally refers to play money
in the context of the game.
Monopoly is the best-selling commercial board game in the world. Players
compete to acquire wealth through stylized economic activity involving the buying, rental and
trading of properties using play money, as
players take turns moving around the board according to the roll of the dice. The game is named after the economic concept of monopoly, the domination of a market
by a single provider.
It is published by Parker Brothers, an imprint of Hasbro. According to Hasbro, since Charles Darrow patented the game in 1935, approximately 750 million people have played the game, making it "the most played
[commercial] board game in the world."[1] The 1999
Guinness Book of Records cited Hasbro's previous statistic of 500 million
people having played Monopoly.[2]
Games Magazine has inducted Monopoly into its Hall of Fame.[3]
History
-
The history of Monopoly can be traced back to the early 1900s. In 1904, a Quaker woman named Elizabeth (Lizzie) J.
Magie Phillips created a game through which she hoped to be able to explain the single tax theory of Henry George. Her game, The Landlord's Game, was
commercially published a few years later. Other interested game players redeveloped the game and some made their own sets. Lizzie
herself patented a revised edition of the game in 1924, and similar games were published commercially. By the early 1930s, a
board game named Monopoly was created much like the version of Monopoly sold by Parker Brothers and its parent companies through the rest of the 20th century and into the 21st. Several
people, mostly in the U.S. Midwest and near the U.S. East Coast, contributed to the game's design and evolution.
By the 1970s, the game's early history had been lost (and at least one historian has argued that it was purposely suppressed -
see below), and the idea that it had been created solely by Charles Darrow had become
popular folklore. This was stated in the 1974 book The Monopoly Book: Strategy and Tactics of the World's Most Popular
Game, by Maxine Brady, and even in the instructions of the game itself. As Professor Ralph
Anspach fought Parker Brothers and its then parent company, General Mills, over the
trademarks of the Monopoly board game, much of the early history of the game was "rediscovered."
Because of the lengthy court process, and appeals, the legal status of Parker Brothers' trademarks on the game was not settled
until the mid-1980s. The game's name remains a registered trademark of Parker Brothers, as do its specific design elements.
Parker Brothers' current corporate parent, Hasbro, again acknowledges only the role of Charles
Darrow in the creation of the game. Anspach published a book about his researches, called The Billion Dollar Monopoly
Swindle (and republished as Monopolygate), in which he makes his case about the purposeful suppression of the game's
early history and development.
Rich Uncle Pennybags
-
The game's official mascot is Rich Uncle Pennybags, who first appeared on
the game's Chance and Community Chest cards in 1936. Since 1985, he appears on the second "O" in the word Monopoly as part
of the logo. Hasbro officially rechristened the character Mr. Monopoly in 1998.
Board
Atlantic City version
This is the original version produced by Charles Darrow, and later by Parker Brothers. The board consists of 40 spaces
containing 28 properties, 3 "Chance" spaces, 3 "Community Chest" spaces, a "Luxury Tax" space, an
"Income Tax" space, "GO," "Jail," "Free Parking," and "go to jail." In the U.S. version shown below, the properties are named after locations
in (or near) Atlantic City, New
Jersey.
A player who reaches the "Jail" space by a direct roll of the dice is said to be "just visiting," and continues normal play on
the next turn.
Marvin Gardens, a yellow property on the board shown, is actually a misspelling of the original location name,
Marven Gardens. Marven Gardens is not a street, but a housing area outside
Atlantic City. The housing area is said to be derived from MARgate City and
VENtnor City in New Jersey (emphasis added). The misspelling was introduced by
Charles Todd, whose home-made Monopoly board was copied by Charles Darrow and subsequently used as the basis of the design
by Parker Brothers. It was not until 1995 that Parker Brothers acknowledged this mistake and formally apologized to the residents
of Marven Gardens for the misspelling.[4] Another change
made by Todd and duplicated by Darrow, and later Parker Brothers, was the use of South Carolina Avenue. North Carolina Avenue was
substituted for this street on the board.
Atlantic City's Illinois Avenue was renamed Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in the 1980s. Saint Charles Place no longer exists,
as the Showboat Casino Hotel was developed where it once ran.[5]
Short Line is believed to refer to the Shore Fast Line, a streetcar line that served Atlantic City.[6]
The B&O Railroad did not serve Atlantic City. A booklet included with
the reprinted 1935 edition states that the four railroads that served Atlantic City in the mid 1930s were the Jersey Central, the Seashore
Lines, the Reading Railroad, and the Pennsylvania Railroad. The actual "Electric Company" and "Water Works" serving the city are
respectively Atlantic City Electric Company (a subsidiary of Pepco Holdings) and the
Atlantic City Municipal Utilities Authority.
The other versions of the game have different property names, and the prices may be denominated in another currency, but the
game mechanics are almost identical. The income tax choice from the U.S. version is replaced by a flat rate in the UK version,
and the $75 Luxury Tax space is replaced with the £100 Super Tax space. The same is true of current German boards,
with a €200 for the Income Tax space on the board, and a €100 Zusatzsteuer (Add-on tax) in place of the Luxury Tax.
An Austrian version, released by Parker Brothers/Hasbro in 2001, does allow for the 10% or $200 for Income Tax and has a $100
Luxury Tax. Free passes may be issued if owner of property is using free passes as a transaction.
London version
In the 1930s, John Waddington Ltd. (Waddingtons) was a firm of printers from
Leeds that had begun to branch out into packaging and the production of playing cards. Waddingtons had sent the card game Lexicon to Parker Brothers hoping to interest them
in publishing the game in the United States. In a similar fashion Parker Brothers sent over a copy of Monopoly to
Waddingtons early in 1935 before the game had been put into production in the United States.
The managing director of Waddingtons, Victor Watson, gave the game to his son Norman (who was head of the card games division)
to test over the weekend. Norman was impressed by the game and persuaded his father to call Parker Brothers on Monday morning -
transatlantic calls then being almost unheard of. This call resulted in Waddingtons obtaining a license to produce and market the
game outside of the United States. Watson felt that in order for the game to be a success in the United Kingdom the American locations would have to be replaced, so Victor and his secretary, Marjory
Phillips, went to London to scout out locations. The Angel, Islington is not a
street in London but an area of North London named after a coaching inn that stood on the
Great North Road. By the 1930s the inn had become a Lyons
Corner House (it is now a Co-operative Bank). Some accounts say that Marjory
and Victor met at the Angel to discuss the selection and celebrated the fact by including it on the Monopoly board. In 2003, a
plaque commemorating the naming was unveiled at the site by Victor Watson's grandson who is also named Victor.
The standard British board, produced by Waddingtons, was for many years the version most familiar to people in countries in
the Commonwealth (except Canada, where the U.S.
edition with Atlantic City-area names was reprinted), although local variants of the board are now also found in several of these
countries such as New Zealand (see Localized versions of the Monopoly game).
In the cases where the game was produced under license by a national company, the £ (pound) was replaced by a $ (dollar) sign,
but the place names were unchanged.
For a list of some of the localized versions, including the UK "Here & Now" edition, and the names of their properties,
see localized versions of the Monopoly game.
Here and Now Editions
- United States
- The U.S. version of the Here and Now Edition replaces Atlantic City landmarks with legendary U.S. streets,
neighborhoods and national monuments. Fans were able to vote on the U.S. Monopoly website for their favorite landmarks
from 22 cities – including New York's Times Square,
Chicago's Wrigley Field,
Honolulu's Waikiki Beach, Bloomington's Mall of America, Beverly Hills' Rodeo Drive, Nashville's Grand Ole Opry, Phoenix's Camelback Mountain, Boston's Fenway Park and San
Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. Additionally, the votes determined where each
landmark appears on the game board; the city with the most votes landing on the coveted Boardwalk spot. The railroads were
replaced by airports, namely, New York's JFK, Chicago's
O'Hare, Los Angeles'
LAX and Atlanta's
Hartsfield-Jackson. Property values have been
increased, money is in higher denominations, and the Community Chest and Chance cards reflect more modern scenarios. Tokens in
the new game include a box of McDonald's french fries, a cup of Starbucks coffee, a Toyota Prius, a New
Balance tennis shoe, a Motorola RAZR cellular phone, an airplane, a labradoodle and a laptop.[7] A version for Microsoft Windows
based on the same board was also released on CD-ROM, produced by Encore, Inc. There is also an Atari downloadable version for
cell phones.
- McDonald's Monopoly
- See McDonald's Monopoly.
- Germany
- A German edition called Monopoly Heute (Monopoly Today) was released in 2005, with updated properties in
Berlin.
- France
- The French edition called Monopoly - Nouveau plateau was released in 2005, with updated properties in Paris.
- Similarly to the British second Here and now edition, a special release named Monopoly France was announced for
the end of October, 2007, featuring names of French cities chosen by a vote held on the Internet. A "buzz" soon appeared and put the small French village
of Montcuq on first position. The French pronunciation makes the name sound like "my ass".
- Australia
- The Australian edition followed a nomination process similar to the American edition, though with Premiers making the
nominations to Hasbro. Votes were cast to decide not only which landmarks from each state would qualify for the board but to
decide the order that the states would be placed. The order from most expensive properties, to least expensive properties is: SA,
WA, Vic, Tas, NSW, NT, ACT, QLD [8][9] The set was released in June 2007, voting was between January 8 - February
10 online.[10]
- Canada
- A Here and Now Limited Edition has been released in Canada around the same time as that of the US version. It includes
landmarks such as Niagara Falls, Percé Rock and Yorkville.[11]
- Norway
- The Norwegian Here and Now Edition replaced bank notes with ATM cards, and updated prices. Fans were invited to vote
for which Oslo streets were to be included in the game. The edition was released in spring 2006.
- New Zealand
- A New Zealand Here and Now Edition was voted on at a special website early in 2007. Voting finished on 10 February
2007, with a release date to be set in June 2007. The initial release was a success and sales are stable.[12]
- Ireland
- An all-Ireland Here and Now Edition was voted on at a special website in 2007.[13] The results will be made public online on 1
October 2007.
- United Kingdom
- In 2005, Hasbro launched the UK version of the Here and Now Limited Edition, updating the properties and prices to
reflect present-day London properties. The playing pieces were also changed to be: Mobile
phone, Roller blade, Hamburger,
Jumbo Jet, Racing Car, Skateboard and London Bus. This version was launched in
recognition of the game's 70th anniversary in conjunction with an online version.
In 2007 it was announced that Hasbro would publish a second Here and Now Edition,
featuring UK cities, following a selection process similar to the U.S. edition, listed below.[14]
The places on the final board are as follows -
| Position |
Place |
| Old Kent Road |
Liverpool |
| Whitechapel |
Leeds |
| The Angel Islington |
Middlesbrough |
| Euston Road |
Cardiff |
| Pentonville Road |
York |
| Pall Mall |
Colchester |
| Whitehall |
Manchester |
| Northumberland Avenue |
London |
| Bow Street |
Derby |
| Marlborough Street |
Plymouth |
| Vine Street |
Lincoln |
| Strand |
Dundee |
| Fleet Street |
Keele |
| Trafalgar Square |
Norwich |
| Leicester Square |
Birmingham |
| Coventry Street |
Oxford |
| Piccadilly |
Stoke on Trent |
| Regent Street |
Sheffield |
| Oxford Street |
Cambridge |
| Bond Street |
Nottingham |
| Park Lane |
Exeter |
| Mayfair |
St Albans |
Many well known locations are much further down the board - for example, London takes 15th place, Cardiff 19th, Edinburgh
makes 27th place, and Northern Ireland's capital Belfast reaches 56th, meaning that none of the capitals of the UK's four
constituent countries reach the top ten, however, Belfast is represented in one of the airport squares, making Edinburgh the only
capital not to feature on the board.
As well as the option to vote for major cities, there was the choice of voting for smaller towns or villages, known as wild
card locations. Three wild card locations (Keele - 10th; Colchester - 17th; and Middlesbrough - 20th) made the final board.
Keele, while being a small village of population less than 4000, managed to get high up on the
leaderboard and at one point, the top position, thanks to the local university named after it. One student at the university,
with help from others, rallied the student and staff population together to get Keele on the new board. The cause was called
"Keele on the Monopoly Map", and e-mails quickly were being sent around the campus email system. Keele University has a combined student and staff population of just over 13,000.
- Debit Card versions
- A Here and Now Electronic Banking Edition was released in the United Kingdom in 2006, which includes an
ATM and Visa debit cards in place of paper money.[15] Australia and Taiwan also distribute the UK Debit Card version.[16] A similar edition is available in Germany, France and Sweden where they are
known as Monopoly Banking, Monopoly Electronique and Monopol Här & Nu-utgåvan respectively. At the Toy
Fair 2007 convention, Hasbro announced that the Electronic Banking Edition will appear in the United States later in 2007,
along with a special DVD version.[17]
Equipment
All twelve tokens from the U.S.
Deluxe Edition Monopoly.
Each player is represented by a small metal token that is moved around the edge of the board according to the roll of two
dice. The twelve playing pieces currently used are pictured at left (from left to right): a
wheelbarrow (1937b edition), a battleship, a sack of
money (1999 editions onwards), a horse and rider, a car, a
train (Deluxe Edition only), a thimble, a cannon (1937b edition), an old style shoe (sometimes known as "the boot"), a
Scottie dog, an iron, and a top hat.
Many of the tokens came from companies such as Dowst Miniature Toy Company, which made metal charms and tokens designed to be
used on charm bracelets. The battleship and cannon were also used briefly in the Parker Brothers war game Conflict
(released in 1940), but after the game failed on the market, the premade pieces were recycled into Monopoly usage.[18] Hasbro recently adopted the battleship and cannon for
Diplomacy.
Early localized editions of the standard edition (including some Canadian editions, which used the U.S. board layout) did not
include pewter tokens but instead had generic wooden head-shaped tokens identical to those in Sorry!.[19] Parker Brothers also acquired Sorry! in the 1930s. Plastic versions of these tokens can be seen
in the German Monopoly set pictured at the beginning of this article.
Other items included in the standard edition are:
The dice in
the UK were replaced with a spinner because of a lack of materials during
World War II
- A pair of six-sided dice.
- A Title Deed for each property. A Title Deed is given to a player to signify ownership, and
specifies purchase price, mortgage value, the cost of building houses and hotels on that property, and the various rent prices depending on how developed the property is. Properties include:
- 22 streets, divided into 8 color groups of two or three streets. A player must own all of a color group (have a monopoly) in
order to build houses or hotels. A player can also be considered to have a monopoly by having both utilities and/or all four
railroads (or stations) during gameplay. However, the utilities and railroads cannot be improved or have houses and/or hotels
built on them. If a player wants to mortgage one property of a color-group, not only must any houses or hotels be removed from
that property, but from the others in the color-group as well.
- 4 railways/stations. Players collect higher rent if they own more than one railway.
Hotels and houses cannot be built on railways. These are usually replaced by railway stations in non-U.S. editions of
Monopoly.
- 2 utilities. Players collect higher rent if they own both utilities. Hotels and
houses cannot be built on utilities.
- A supply of paper money. The supply of money is theoretically unlimited; if the bank runs out of money the players must make
do with other markers, or calculate on paper. Additional paper money can be bought at certain locations, notably game and hobby
stores. In U.S. standard editions, the supply generally starts with $15,140. (The winner of the quadrennial Monopoly World
Championship receives the same amount in United States dollars.)[20]
- 32 wooden or plastic houses and 12 wooden or plastic hotels. (The original and the current Deluxe Edition have wooden
houses and hotels; the current "base set" uses plastic buildings.) Unlike money, houses and hotels have a finite supply. If no
more are available, no substitute is allowed.
- A deck of 16 Chance cards and a deck of 16 Community Chest cards. Players draw these cards when they land on the corresponding
squares of the track, and follow the instructions printed on them.
Hasbro also sells a Deluxe Edition, which is mostly identical to the classic edition but has wooden houses and hotels
and gold-toned tokens, including one token in addition to the standard eleven, a railroad
locomotive. Other additions to the Deluxe Edition include a card carousel, which holds
the title deed cards, and money printed with two colors of ink.
In 1978, retailer Neiman Marcus manufactured and sold an all-Chocolate edition of
Monopoly through its "Christmas Wish Book" for that year. The entire set was edible, including the money, dice, hotels,
properties, tokens and playing board. The set retailed for US$600.[21]
In 2000, the F.A.O. Schwarz store in New York City sold a custom version called
One-Of-A-Kind Monopoly for US$100,000.[22] This special edition comes in a locking attaché
case made with Napolino leather and lined in suede, and features include:
- 18-carat (75%) gold tokens, houses and hotels
- Rosewood board
- street names written in gold leaf
- emeralds around the Chance icon
- sapphires around the Community Chest
- rubies in the brake lights of the car on the Free Parking Space
- the money is real, negotiable United States currency
The Guinness Book of World Records states that a set worth US$2,000,000 and made
of 23-carat gold, with rubies and sapphires atop the chimneys of the houses and hotels, is the most expensive Monopoly set
ever produced.[23]
Rules
Each player begins the game with his/her token on the Go square, and $1500 (£1500, €1500, etc.) in cash divided as follows,
per the U.S. standard rules:
- 2 each of:
- $500 bills
- $100 bills
- $50 bills
- 6 $20 bills
- 5 each of:
- $10 bills
- $5 bills
- $1 bills
The British version has an initial cash distribution of:
- 2 x £500
- 4 x £100
- 1 x £50
- 1 x £20
- 2 x £10
- 1 x £5
- 5 x £1
Classic German editions (i.e., those pre-Euro) started with 30,000 "Spielmark" in eight denominations (abbreviated "M."), and
later used seven denominations of the "Deutsche Mark" ("DM."). In the classic Italian game, each player receives £350,000 ($3500)
in a two-player game, but £50,000 ($500) less for each player more than two. Only in a six-player game does a player receive the
equivalent of $1500. The classic Italian games were played with only four denominations of currency. At least one Spanish edition
(the Barcelona edition) started the game with 150,000 in play money, with a breakdown identical to that of the American
version.
All property deeds, houses, and hotels are held by the bank until bought by the players. Free passes may be issued if owner of
property is using free passes as a transaction.
Official rules
Wikibooks'
Monopoly has more about this subject:
Players take turns in order, with the initial player determined by chance before the game. A typical turn begins with the
rolling of two dice and advancing clockwise around the board the corresponding number of squares. Landing on Chance or Community
Chest, a player draws the top card from the respective pile. If the player lands on an unowned property, whether street, railroad
or utility, he can buy the property for its listed purchase price. If he declines this purchase, the property is auctioned off by
the bank to the highest bidder. If the property landed on is already owned and unmortgaged, he must pay the owner a given rent,
the price dependent on whether the property is part of a monopoly or its level of development. If a player rolls doubles, he
rolls again after completing his turn. Three sets of doubles in a row, however, land the player in jail. During a turn, players
may also choose to develop or mortgage properties. Development involves the construction, for given amounts of money paid to the
bank, of houses or hotels. Development must be uniform across a monopoly, e.g., a second house cannot be built on one property in
a monopoly until the others have one house. No merges between players are allowed. All developments must be sold before a
property can be mortgaged. The player receives money from the bank for each mortgaged property, which must be repaid with
interest to unmortgage.
House rules
Wikibooks'
Monopoly has more about this subject:
Parker Brothers' official instructions have long encouraged the use of house rules, specific additions to or subtractions from
the official rule sets. Many casual Monopoly players are surprised and disappointed to discover that some of the rules
that they are used to are not part of the official rules. Many of these house rules tend to make the game longer by giving
players more money. Some common house rules are listed below and many more can be found via links at the end of this article):
- Free Parking jackpot, which usually consists of an initial stake (typically $500) plus collections of fines and taxes
otherwise paid to the bank. A player who lands on Free Parking wins the jackpot, which may then be reset with the initial stake
(if any). The jackpot is usually put in the center of the board. Since the jackpot forms an additional "income" for players in
this set of house rules, games can take a much longer time than under normal rules.[24]
- Players in jail cannot collect rent, build houses or conduct trades. This can be combined with increasing the price to get
out of jail considerably (normally $50). Together, these rules make jail a far more significant burden than that listed in the
normal rules.[24]
- A bonus for landing directly on GO by dice roll (commonly an additional $200). This may or may not include cards that send
the player to GO.[24]
- Delayed Start: Players must pass GO (or circle the board at least once) before they can buy property.[24]
- A bonus for rolling snake eyes (a pair of ones), often $100 or $500.[25][26]
- All properties are handed out evenly to all players before the game begins, or one or two are dealt to each player. (This
variation is in the official US and UK rules as a short game option.)
- In trades, players may offer "rent immunity" from their own properties (someone does not have to pay rent for landing on that
property) as part of a deal (this can be good for a certain number of landings or the entire game).[24]
House rules, while unofficial, are not wholly unrecognized by Parker Brothers. George S.
Parker himself created two variants, to shorten the length of game play. Video game and computer game versions of
Monopoly have options where popular house rules can be used. House rules that have the effect of introducing more money
into the game have a side-effect of increasing the time it takes for players to become bankrupt, lengthening the game
considerably.
Strategy
Wikibooks'
Monopoly has more about this subject:
Monopoly involves a substantial portion of luck, with the roll of the dice determining whether a player gets to own key
properties or lands on squares with high rents. Even the initial misfortune of going last is a significant disadvantage because
one is more likely to land on property which has already been bought and therefore be forced to pay rent instead of having an
opportunity to buy unowned property. There are, however, many strategic decisions which allow skilled players to win more often
than the unskilled.
Property square probabilities
The layout of the "special" squares on the board (that is, the non-property squares), as well as the dice-roll probabilities,
mean that not all squares have an equal probability of being landed upon.
According to the laws of probability, seven is the most probable roll of two dice, with a
probability of 1 in 6, whereas 2 and 12 are the least probable rolls, each with a probability of one in 36. For this reason, Park
Place/Park Lane is one of the least landed-on squares as the square seven places behind it is "Go to Jail".
Also when you are in jail, you are likely to get out by rolling a double only one in every six rolls. A "Get Out of Jail Free"
card can be sold to any other player.
In consequence, some properties are landed upon more than others and the owners of those properties get more income from rent.
The board layout factors include the following:
- Jail: Since players are frequently directed to "Go To Jail," they will move through the purple, orange and red
property groups immediately after leaving Jail. The two properties with the highest probability of being landed upon after
leaving jail are the two cheaper orange properties (St James Place and Tennessee Avenue in North America, Bow
Street and Marlborough Street outside North America). This makes the orange property set highly lucrative.
- Go to…: One square — Go To Jail — plus a number of Chance and Community Chest cards will cause
the player to advance a distance around the board. Thus, the squares immediately following Go To Jail and the take-a-card
squares have a reduced probability of being landed upon. The least-landed upon property in this situation is the cheaper dark
blue property (Park Place or Park Lane) because it sets in the lee of both Go to Jail and Community Chest (the
Chance directly before it would not affect its odds because it is impossible to roll a one).
- Go to (property): Several properties are blessed with Chance cards which draw players to them. St Charles
Place (Pall Mall), Illinois Avenue (Trafalgar Square), Boardwalk (Mayfair), all of the
railroads except Short Line (Liverpool Street Station), and both of the utilities benefit from this feature.
Reading Railroad (King's Cross Station) has the fortune of having both a "go to" dedicated card plus the card
advancing to the nearest railroad.
- Advance to Go: A player may be directed to the Go square by a Chance or a Community Chest card,
thus lowering the probability of being landed-upon of every square in-between. The properties most affected by this are the
yellow, green, and dark blue sets. It also marginally raises the probability for each square in the wake of Go, including
the purple and orange sets which will be reached two or three rolls after being on Go.
- Go Back Three Spaces: This directive comes from a Chance card. A quick look at the board shows that there are
three Chance squares and hence three other squares which are 3 spaces behind (one being a Community Chest space,
another being Income Tax, and the third being the leading orange property). The leading orange property (New York
Avenue or Vine Street) gains the most benefit from this card since the Chance square nestled amongst the red
properties is itself the most landed-upon Chance square.
In all, during game play, Illinois Avenue (Trafalgar Square), New York Avenue (Vine Street),
B&O Railroad (Fenchurch Street Station), and Reading Railroad (King's Cross Station) are the most
frequently landed-upon properties. Mediterranean Avenue (Old Kent Road) and Baltic Avenue (Whitechapel
Road) are the least-landed-upon properties.[27]
Limited number of houses and hotels
In order to put a cap on total development of property sets in the game, there are only 12 hotels and 32 houses. This
limitation is in place to ensure that property sets cannot be developed unless there are houses or hotels available to purchase
from the bank. This cap allows a certain amount of dominance to be developed by some players, because if every set of property
were fully developed there would be enough rent collected between different players to allow the game to drag on for an extended
period. This limitation on numbers of houses and hotels leads to an advantage for one player. Simply building each lot out to a
maximum of 4 houses and then refusing to upgrade to hotels ensures that nearly the maximum amount of rent is collected for each
property, and the monopolization of the houses from the game prevents opponents from developing their property. It is conceivable
that a single player could end up owning all 32 houses near the end of the game, and the refusal to upgrade to hotels makes these
houses unavailable for opponents to purchase for any property they may own.
Dealing and bargaining
Much of the skill comes from knowing how to make the best use of a player's resources and above all knowing how to strike a
good bargain. Monopoly is a social game where players often interact and must "deal" with each other in ways similar to
"real world" real estate bargaining. Note that the best deal is not always for the most expensive property; it is often
situational, dependent on money resources available to each player and even where players happen to be situated on the board.
When looking to deal, a player should attempt to bargain with another player who not only possess properties he or she needs but
also properties the other player needs. In fact, offering relatively fair deals to other players can end up helping the player
making the offer by giving him or her a reputation as an honest trader, which can make players less wary of dealings in the
future. What is more, most people play Monopoly with the same group repeatedly. For this reason, such a reputation can
have effects far beyond the game being played.
The end game
One common criticism of Monopoly is that it has carefully defined yet almost unreachable termination conditions. Edward
P. Parker, a former president of Parker Brothers, is quoted as saying, "We always felt
that forty-five minutes was about the right length for a game, but Monopoly could go on for hours. Also, a game was
supposed to have a definite end somewhere. In Monopoly you kept going around and around."[28] However, the problem of time can be resolved by playing with a time limit and
counting each player's net worth when the time is up. In fact, tournament play calls for a 90-minute time limit.[29] Two hour time limits are used for international
play.[30] The Lord of the Rings edition gives players the option of creating a random time limit
using the included One Ring token and specialized dice.
Played strictly to the rules, many games will be effectively decided when one player succeeds in bankrupting another because
the bankrupt player gives all his property to the one to whom he could not pay his debt. A player who thus gains a fistful of
properties will virtually control the game from that point onwards since other players will be constantly at risk. On the other
hand, if a player is bankrupted by being unable to meet his debt to the bank (e.g., a fine or tax or other debt that is
not rent), then his property is auctioned off; this can open up new possibilities in a game which was evenly set or in which a
lot of property sets were divided among the players.
The Monopoly Mega Edition is geared towards faster play by incorporating more squares and enabling players to build
without the full color-group.
Another path to a faster ending is by a key property bargain, whether it be a very shrewd trade which sets one player up with
a well-positioned set or a very rash trade where an inexperienced player gives his experienced opponent an underpriced gem.
Either way, a deal which pays off for one player is most often the turning point of the game.
A third way to finish the game is to wait for all of the property to be bought. Once this has occurred, the player with the
most money is victorious.
Another way is to remove the £200 bonus gained by passing "Go". This ensures that players run out of money quickly.
Some players, in an attempt to lessen the huge advantage gained by the first player to bankrupt another player, have the
bankrupted player pay what he can to the player he is indebted to (including the money from mortgages), and then forfeit the
properties, so that they are back on the market and open to purchase by other players.
Hasbro states that the longest game of Monopoly ever played lasted 1,680 hours (70 days).[31]
Add-ons
Numerous official and unofficial add-ons have been made for Monopoly, both before its commercialization and after.
Three such "official" add-ons are discussed below.
Stock Exchange
The best-known expansion to the game is the Stock Exchange add-on, originally published by Parker Brothers in 1936
(wikibook). In the Stock
Exchange add-on, the Free Parking square is replaced (covered over) with the Stock Exchange space. The add-on included three
each of Chance and Community Chest cards directing the player to "Advance to Stock Exchange."
The add-on also included thirty "stock certificates", five for each of the six different stocks, differing only in the
purchase price (or Par Value), ranging from $100 to $150. Shares, like properties, can be considered to be tradeable material,
and could also be mortgaged for half their purchase price. Shareholders could increase the value of their shares by buying up
more of the same company's shares.
When a player moves onto Free Parking/Stock Exchange, stock dividends are paid out to all players with any unmortgaged shares.
The amount to be paid out to each player is determined based on the number and kind of shares owned. Specifically, a player
receives dividends from each stock based on the following mathematical formula:
- (purchase price of share / 10) × (number of shares owned)2
EXAMPLE: Owning one share of MOTION PICTURES (purchased at $100) pays dividends of $10. Owning two shares pays $40 ($10 x 2
x 2). Three shares pays $90 ($10 x 3 x 3). Four pays $160 ($10 x 4 x 4). All five pays $250 ($10 x 5 x 5).
The player who lands on Free Parking/Stock Exchange can also choose to buy a share if any remain – should the player decline,
the Bank auctions a share off to the highest bidder. The 1936 rules are ambiguous with regards to the stock that is put up for
auction, and convention has it that the winner of the auction chooses the stock to be received. [citation needed]
The Stock Exchange add-on serves to inject more money into the game, in a similar manner to railroad properties, as
well as changing the relative values of properties. In particular, the Light Purple and Orange properties are more valuable due
to the increased chance of landing on Free Parking, at the expense of the Red and Yellow groups.
The Stock Exchange add-on was later redesigned and rereleased in 1992 under license by Chessex, this time including a
larger number of new Chance and Community Chest cards.[32] This version included ten new Chance cards (five ADVANCE TO STOCK EXCHANGE and five other related
cards) and eleven new Community Chest cards (five ADVANCE TO STOCK EXCHANGE and six other related cards; the regular Community
Chest card "From sale of stock you get $45" is removed from play when using these cards). Many of the original rules applied to
this new version (in fact, one optional play choice allows for playing in the original form by only adding the ADVANCE TO STOCK
EXCHANGE cards to each deck).
A Monopoly Stock Exchange Edition was released in 2001 (although not in the US), this time adding an electronic
calculator-like device to keep track of the complex stock figures. This was a full edition, not just an add-on, that came with
its own board, money and playing pieces. Properties on the board were replaced by companies on which shares could be floated, and
offices and home offices (instead of houses and hotels) could be built.[33]
Playmaster
Playmaster, another official add-on, kept track of all player movement and dice rolls as well as what properties are
still available. It then uses this information to call random auctions and mortgages that will be advantageous for some players
and a punishment for others, making it easier to free up cards of a color group. It also plays eight short tunes when key game
functions occur, for example when a player lands on a railroad it will play I've Been Working on the Railroad.[34]
Speed Die
In 2007, Parker Brothers began releasing its standard version of Monopoly with a new addition to gameplay--the Speed
Die. First included in Winning Moves' Monopoly: The Mega
Edition variant, this third die alters gameplay by allowing players to increase their move up to 3 spaces (rolling one
of the 3 numbered sides); move immediately to the next unowned property OR to the next property on which they would owe money
(rolling one of 2 "Mr. Monopoly" sides); or "Get Off The Bus Early" (rolling the "Bus" side), allowing the player to use the
total from one die or both dice to move (i.e. A roll of 1-5-BUS would let the player choose from moving 1, 5 or 6 spaces). Usage
of the die in the regular game differs slightly from use in the Mega Edition (i.e. Players use the Speed Die from the
beginning in Mega; players can only use the Speed Die in the regular game AFTER their first time going past GO).[35]
Spinoffs
Film
On June 19, 2007, Ridley
Scott announced that he was directing a comedy-thriller based on the game, featuring a variety of young actors to generate
interest in the game. Scarlett Johannson and Kirsten
Dunst have been considered so far.[36]
Computer games
Besides the many variants of the actual game released in either video game or computer game formats, two "spin-off" computer
games have been created.
Monopoly Tycoon is a PC game in the Tycoon series that makes strategy
and speed into determining factors for winning the game, eliminating completely the element of luck inherent in the dice rolls of
the original. The game uses the U.S. standard Atlantic City properties as its basis, but the game play is unique to this version.
The game also allows for solo and multiplayer online games.
Monopoly Casino is also a PC game, simulating a casino full of Monopoly-based adaptations of various casino
games (most notably, slot machines). This program was released in both standard and "Vegas"
editions, each featuring unique games.
Monopoly Junior was a 1999 PC game based on the Monopoly Junior board game. It was originally available in specially-marked General Mills cereal boxes as part of a promotion with Parker
Brothers, as part of the promotion, Parker Brothers released PC games based on its original games within specially-marked
General Mills cereal boxes, Monopoly Junior being the most featured PC game. After its promotional phase, the game was
re-released in PC-carrying game-stores.
Other board/dice/card games
Parker Brothers and its licensees have also sold several games which are spinoffs of Monopoly. These are not add-ons,
as they do not function as an addition to the Monopoly game, but are simply additional games in the flavor of
Monopoly.
- Monopoly Junior board game: A simplified version of the original game for
young children.
- Advance to Boardwalk board game: Focusing mainly on building the most
"hotels" along the Boardwalk.
- Express Monopoly card game: Released by Hasbro/Parker Brothers and Waddingtons in the
UK in the 1990s, now out of print. Basically a rummy-style card game based on scoring points by completing "color group" sections
of the game board.
- Monopoly: The Card Game: an updated card game released by
Winning Moves Games under license from Hasbro. Similar, but decidedly more complex, gameplay to
the Express Monopoly card game.
- Free Parking card game: A more complex card game released by Parker Brothers,
with several similarities to the card game Mille Bornes. Uses cards to either add
"time" to "parking meters", or spend the "time" doing activities to earn points. Includes a deck of "Second Chance" cards that
further alter gameplay. (Two editions were made; minor differences in card art and Second Chance cards in each edition.)
- Don't Go To Jail: Dice Game originally released by Parker Brothers; roll
combinations of dice to create "color groups" for points before rolling the words "GO" "TO" and "JAIL" (which forfeits all earned
points for the turn).
- Monopoly Express: A deluxe, travel-able edition re-release of Don't Go To
Jail, replacing the word dice with "Officer Jones" dice and adding an eleventh die, Houses & Hotels, and a self-contained
game container/dice roller & keeper.[37]
- Monopoly Express Casino: A gambling-themed version of the above game,
that adds wagering to the gameplay.
Game show
-
A short-lived Monopoly game show aired on Saturday evenings during the
summer of 1990 on ABC. The show was produced by Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! creator
Merv Griffin. The show was hosted by former Jeopardy! contestant Mike Reilly. Three
contestants competed by answering crossword puzzle-style clues to acquire the properties on the board and money equivalent to the
values of said properties (with bonuses added for getting monopolies). After the properties were acquired and players used the
earned money to improve them with Houses and Hotels, a timed "Monopoly Game Round" was played, allowing players to earn even more
money by landing on their properties and answering more word clues. When time was up, the player with the most money won the
game, and then went on to play the Bonus Game. In the Bonus Game, the contestant had to choose 4 properties on the board to
convert to "Go To Jail" spaces. Along with the actual "Go To Jail" space, the contestant rolled the dice up to five times (with
extra rolls added for each double rolled) and had to pass GO without landing on a "Go To Jail" space. If the contestant passed GO
before running out of rolls or landing on a "Go To Jail" space, they won US$25,000;
however if the contestant landed EXACTLY on GO, they would win US$50,000. The show
was paired on ABC with a summer long Super Jeopardy! tournament.
Gambling games
In North America, a variety of slot machines have been produced with a Monopoly
theme. In Europe, there were also Monopoly "fruit machines," some of which remain popular through emulation. The British quiz machine brand itbox also supports a Monopoly
trivia and chance game, which, like most other itbox games, costs 50p (GB£0.50) to play
and has a GB£20 jackpot, although this is very rarely won.
Other games
There was also a live, online version of Monopoly. Six painted taxis drive around London picking up passengers. When
the taxis reach their final destination, the region of London that they are in is displayed on the online board. This version
takes far longer to play than board-game monopoly, with one game lasting 24 hours. Results and position are sent to players via
e-mail at the conclusion of the game.[38]
Variants
Because Monopoly evolved in the public domain before its commercialization,
Monopoly has seen many variant games. Most of these are exact copies of the Monopoly games with the street names
replaced with locales from a particular town, university, or fictional place. National boards have been released as well. Many of
these are listed at "Localized versions of the Monopoly
game". Details, including box cover art, can be seen in the "List
of licensed Monopoly game boards". Over the years, many specialty Monopoly editions, licensed by Parker
Brothers/Hasbro, and produced by them, or their licensees (including USAopoly and Winning Moves Games) have been sold to local
and national markets worldwide. Two well known "families" of -opoly like games, without licenses from Parker Brothers/Hasbro,
have also been produced.
Related games
Several published games are similar to Monopoly. These include:
- Anti-Monopoly, created by Ralph Anspach in 1974.
- Chômageopoly, "Unemployment Monopoly", a board game created by the Lip
factory in the 1970s
- Dinosauropoly, a version using prehistoric motifs and rules.
- Easy Money, published by Milton Bradley, also in the 1930s.
- The Farming Game is a board game in which the goal is to run a financially
successful farm, and like Monopoly the heart of the game is economics. The game's website draws comparisons to
Monopoly.
- Fast Food Franchise is a board game by TimJim games which
shares Monopoly's core mechanic, but through careful design guarantees that it will actually end.
- The Fascinating Game of Finance, later shortened to Finance, first
marketed in 1932 by Knapp Electric, and later by Parker Brothers.
- Go For Broke, the exact opposite of Monopoly, has the players trying to spend
all their money before anyone else. Bad bets at the casino, real estate, stock market, race track, and giving to the poor house
lowers your account balance. This was a Milton Bradley game originally published in the mid-1960s.
- Ghettopoly, released in 2003, caused considerable offense upon its release. The
game, intended to be a humorous rendering of ghetto life, was decried as racist for its unflinching use of racial stereotypes, so
much that Hasbro sought and received a court ordered injunction against Ghettopoly's
designer.[39][40] The game and its sequel are no longer available directly from the designer's
website.
- Goonopoly, Monopoly type game created at Central Queensland
University, involving players to "buy" properties around Rockhampton (including the local nightclubs) by taking shots of
"Goon" (cask wine) depending on the square landed on. Developed by Chris "Pieman" Janson and Brendon "Goonlover" Brooker.
- Itadaki Street, a series of board games for video game consoles from Enix.
- The Mad Magazine Game, a Mad
Magazine themed board game in which the object of the game is for player to lose all their money, play is
counter-clockwise, and the dice must be rolled with the left hand. Released by Parker
Brothers in 1979.
- Make Your Own-opoly is a game set sold by TDC
Games of Itasca, Illinois. Using a Microsoft Windows-based PC, a person can
print out his or her own property cards, labels to place on the board and the box, and game currency.[41]
- Solarquest, a popular space-age adaptation, was released by Golden in 1986.
Monopoly references in popular culture
Since Parker Brothers first published and marketed the board game Monopoly in 1935, it has influenced popular culture
in many ways. It has been referenced in cartoons, comic strips, novels, and comedy.
- In one episode of The Simpsons, the family was playing Monopoly and Bart
informs Homer that he must come up with the "rest of the money" to settle a debt. Homer states that he is "good for the rest",
but Bart points out that Homer has "been in jail two times". Lisa accuses Marge of favoring Bart because he "bought" her "that
house on St. James Place", while Bart states that no one else could help her, especially not Homer. This sends Homer into a rage,
initiating a fight between all the family members. When the police are called, the event is referred to as "another case of
Monopoly related violence..."
- Tom Lehrer paraphrased a rule about going to Jail in his song "We Will All Go Together When We Go":
- You will all go directly to your respective Valhallas;
- Go directly, do not pass Go, do not collect two hundred dollars...
- In an issue of Cracked magazine, spoofing Adolf
Hitler, a variant of the game is called "Blitzkrieg", after Hitler's
"lightning war" against France in World War II. As with the
regular German game, the "Go" square is called "Los," and in "Blitzkrieg" you collect 200 deutschmarks, "provided all your identification papers are in order." Instead of mortgage, a title-deed card
is displayed upside down "if property is surrendered to the Allies." Instead of "Jail" it uses a
"POW camp"; on the board "Just Visiting" is "verboten--mach schnell!"
- In a story in the Archie comics, Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Jughead are
playing. Archie lands on a property Betty owns; the lovesick Betty refuses to charge Archie rent. As the game continues, Archie
and Betty are bankrupted out of the game, leaving Veronica playing Jughead, much to her dismay. In another story, Mr. Lodge plays
Monopoly with business associates. Archie sees this, and Veronica shocks Archie by telling them her Daddy and the others
are playing--for real property!
- In the movie One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, the
inmates play Monopoly. One wants to put a house on a railroad space, insisting it's the station house; and also on
Electric Company, saying "that's the power plant!".
- In an episode of The Sopranos entitled "Sopranos Home Movies", a game of
Monopoly between Tony Soprano, his wife, Carmela
Soprano, his sister Janice Soprano, and Bobby
Baccala, a capo in the New Jersey mob, turns into a brawl after Bobby attacks Tony for
insulting Janice during the game. Earlier, Bobby complains about the house rule giving whoever lands on Free Parking money
collected in taxes and fees as unfair.
- In the movie Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, Jim Carrey's character, Ace, tells a man that he "must be the Monopoly guy", because of his uncanny
resemblance (bald, white hair, moustache) to the man at the center of the Monopoly board. He then proceeds to beat him up
and move the man's jaw manually while saying, "Do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars".
- In the movie ""Unaccompanied Minors"", a poster featuring the famous
Monopoly phrase "Do not pass Go, Do not collect 200$" can be seen behind Charlie Goldfinch as the door to his "private
room" is closed in his face. The private room being what appears to be a sort of interrogation room at the airport.
- In the Red Dwarf book Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers by Grant
Naylor, Dave Lister went on a drunken Monopoly board pub crawl with his friends to
celebrate his 25th birthday, where he got very, very drunk — when he awoke, he was on Mimas, one of Saturn's moons, wearing a lady's pink crimplene
hat and a pair of yellow fishing waders, with no money and a passport in the name of "Emily Berkenstein", and a worrying
rash.
- Mad Magazine produced a stand-alone paperback about stamps, with word balloons
attached to people depicted on the stamps. In a three-stamp montage--Civil
War generals U. S. Grant, William T.
Sherman, and Philip Sheridan, this triloquy is given:
"To win, we need Kentucky, Tennessee and Pennsylvania!"
"Rubbish! The winning side must control the railroads!"
"Aw, be quiet, guys, or we'll never finish this Monopoly game!"
See also
Notes
