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Monopoly was invented to demonstrate the evils of capitalism (2017)

bbc.com

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Re: Monopoly was invented to demonstrate the evils of capitalism (2017)

#11

Post by saghm »

chungy wrote: post #7
larrik wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any boardgame that involves eliminating players from it is a non-starter for me.

How do you win, then?

In many board games, either a win condition is reached for one player that ends the game for everyone at once, or some sort of scoring system is used to determine the winner after the gameplay ends.

Re: Monopoly was invented to demonstrate the evils of capitalism (2017)

#12

Post by nicoburns »

Mountain_Skies wrote: post #6
mcv wrote: post #2

I guess that explains why it's such a terrible game. People put up with it because it was all they had. Now we have other options, fortunately. (I guess this comment could apply to either the boardgame, or to capitalism.)

Monopoly sucks because of using the house rule that Free Parking is a jackpot of money. Not doing property auctions and paying out $400 for landing on Go are lesser reasons for it sucking. Stick to the published rules and the problems mostly to away.

It's still mostly luck (and who-has-the-most-social-capital-to-persuade-the-other-to-let-them-win) based though. There are lot's of much better board games out there.

Re: Monopoly was invented to demonstrate the evils of capitalism (2017)

#14

Post by shaneprrlt »

larrik wrote: post #5
eitland wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The boardgame can be great fun especially if people follow the rules.

Any boardgame that involves eliminating players from it is a non-starter for me.

There's some intense relationship-ending games of Sorry in your past, I can sense it.

Re: Monopoly was invented to demonstrate the evils of capitalism (2017)

#15

Post by Mountain_Skies »

larrik wrote: post #5
eitland wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The boardgame can be great fun especially if people follow the rules.

Any boardgame that involves eliminating players from it is a non-starter for me.

From a social fun aspect, that's a good way to look at it. From the Landlord's Game/Monopoly original intent, eliminating a player basically means they are homeless and destitute, making the educational point rather clear. That said, cooperative games are a nicer way to spend an evening with friends.

Re: Monopoly was invented to demonstrate the evils of capitalism (2017)

#16

Post by cowbellemoo »

chungy wrote: post #7
larrik wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any boardgame that involves eliminating players from it is a non-starter for me.

How do you win, then?

Many games go until a win condition is reached without eliminating other players in the meantime.

Re: Monopoly was invented to demonstrate the evils of capitalism (2017)

#17

Post by Mountain_Skies »

chungy wrote: post #7
larrik wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any boardgame that involves eliminating players from it is a non-starter for me.

How do you win, then?

Look up Pandemic or Forbidden Island for examples of cooperative games that put players against the game instead of each other.

Re: Monopoly was invented to demonstrate the evils of capitalism (2017)

#18

Post by Barrin92 »

chungy wrote: post #10

Monopoly teaches people a view of economics being a zero-sum game and too many people learn the wrong lessons from it. Real life isn't a zero-sum game.

as the article points out the game was in particular desgigned to show the economic effects of private land rent, hence the original title 'the landlord's game', and that is in fact a zero sum game as they aren't making any more of it.

And in particular on tech websites like these people vastly overstate how non 'zero-sum' economic activity actually is mostly because tech has been in a bubble of highly anomalous growth. (A lot of it ironically arguably not real productivity growth but rent collection through platforms and market power).

In many ways the tech startups of today look more like digital landlords than innovators whose disruption is primarily taking over the market from a host of competitors rather than improving process efficiency. If we were living in Fordist times and the assembly line and other innovations delivered 6-7% growth annually, then we could rave on about non-zero sum economies. Total factor productivity growth these days is relatively non-existent.

Re: Monopoly was invented to demonstrate the evils of capitalism (2017)

#19

Post by QuesnayJr »

howmayiannoyyou wrote: post #8

My children learned how to negotiate via family monopoly games. This has made parenting MUCH more difficult.

I think they would have figured it out eventually. We never play Monopoly, but I sometimes suspect that my children are actually reincarnated lawyers.

Re: Monopoly was invented to demonstrate the evils of capitalism (2017)

#20

Post by andrepd »

Mountain_Skies wrote: post #6
mcv wrote: post #2

I guess that explains why it's such a terrible game. People put up with it because it was all they had. Now we have other options, fortunately. (I guess this comment could apply to either the boardgame, or to capitalism.)

Monopoly sucks because of using the house rule that Free Parking is a jackpot of money. Not doing property auctions and paying out $400 for landing on Go are lesser reasons for it sucking. Stick to the published rules and the problems mostly to away.

That house rule (which is far from universally applied) is a small detail. The game is boring (luck-based, little if any strategy) and unenjoyable in other ways: it takes too long to finish, players who go bust early are left watching the game continue for maybe hours, front-runners are almost certainly going to win yet it takes an excruciatingly drawn-out process to finish the process, etc.
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