Board Game: Monopoly

Ugh.

The Game: Monopoly (University of Washington Edition)
The Publisher: Hasbro, currently
Time: Forever
Players: Me, Michelle, Kai, Cael

Game Play: It's a board with ten paces on a side, you go around the board based on a 2d6 roll (doubles goes again, three doubles in a row and you go to jail). The spaces are mostly properties. If you land on one that no one owns, you can buy it. You land on one that someone owns, you pay them rent. Some of the other spaces have you draw a card that might give or cost you money, some of the spaces just flat-out cost you money. You can buy houses and hotels (or, in this version, dorms and houses), which raises the rent. To do that, though, you need a monopoly - all three (or both) of the properties in a colored group. 

You have options of making money - you get $200 each time you loop the board ("pass Go"), you collect rent, and you can mortgage properties for some quick cash. But if you are called upon to pay more than you have, you're bankrupt and out of the game. Officially, the game goes until one player is left standing, but until today I don't think I'd ever finished a game. 

I am the banker. Look upon my bills, ye mighty, and despair.

You can sell properties to other players as you wish, which means you can barter and bargain all you like. A large part of the strategy is how much money to keep on hand versus how much to spend on houses, and, of course, what you can wrangle in trade to get monopolies. 

My meager property holdings

Opinions: If it's not clear, I am not a fan of this game. Honestly it reminds me of Dungeons & Dragons in the cultural space it takes up - everyone knows it, and when you say "board game" to someone not versed in current board games, it's what they think of, but it's way behind the times and honestly it's kinda boring. The worst part of the game is the later stages when one person has obviously won (it was Cael this time), and it's just a matter of how long it takes to land on a property whose rent is going to wipe you out.

Cael, winning at capitalism

Monopoly has a bunch of house rules, which we didn't use - stuff like landing on Go giving you double money, tax money collecting on Free Parking and anyone who lands on it getting to keep it, and so on. Thinking about it now, doing that sort of thing would only have prolonged the game, and no one wants that. 

Keep? Only because it's got some sentimental value for Michelle