MONOPOLY MADE BETTER
BREAKING THE MONOPOLY
Why does a community known for its friendliness hate so hard on a smiley old chap in a hat and his cute little dog?
Written by Chris Marling
As a product, Monopoly has been a phenomenal success. Since its release, there have been more than 3,400 official variations released using the original rules, being localised in everywhere from Aachen to Zwolle and taking in every fad and hobby from ABBA to Zelda in between.
The original, while being mocked by most gamers, is clearly doing something right, commercially if nothing else (although we’re still waiting with bated breath for the muchdelayed movie franchise). And a string of games carrying the Monopoly moniker have quietly tried to improve on the original in more recent times, with varying degrees of sales and design success. So, when looking for a Monopoly experience for whatever reason, what is a gamer to do?
A CHEQUERED PAST
Monopoly started life as The Landlord’s Game, ironically published in 1906 by American anti-monopolist Lizzie Magie as a way to promote a socialist form of taxation. It had two sets of rules, one showing how we can all benefit from sharing the wealth (hurrah!), and the other a brutal game of taking everything for yourself (boo!).
Guess which half of the rules ended up being released as Monopoly by Parker Brothers (and later Hasbro) from 1935? It has since sold upward of 300 million copies worldwide; not bad when you consider Magie’s original patent for the rules was bought by Parker Brothers for $500… It’s safe to say they’ve put a few hotels on it since.