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Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Monopoly and variants

Monopoly is perhaps the most well-known board game around the world. It is named after the economic concept of monopoly, which refers to a single entity dominating a market. The origin of the game concept can be traced at early 20th century, but its modern version appeared on the 1970s.

Monopoly takes place on a specially designed board that contains property squares which represent valuable entities a player can buy and use to make money. Most of these entities are areas or streets, depending on the game version. Some squares can be also railway stations or other public companies. Players move around the board (using a pawn representing them) and can buy areas they land at, if they are still unclaimed. Players can also buy houses or hotels in some of the areas they own to increase their profits. If the pawn lands in an area that another player owns, some rent must be paid. If there are houses or hotels, the rent is substantially higher. Finally there are some chance cards that enrich the game with random effects. If a player runs out of cash and properties he is eliminated. The last one standing wins! Detailed information about the game can be found here.


The game has countless fans all over the world that spend a lot of time playing it. It is especially popular among families, helping kids to learn how to perform money transactions in the process. Due to its popularity, a large amount of variations has been created to make it more interesting. Many people believe that monopoly is the king of board games.

Ratings:

Fun factor: Medium. Game can be quite funny, especially the first few times playing it. However after a few rounds it gets a bit monotonous. It is arguably a rather luck-based game, though it still allows for strategic decisions.

Cost: Low. Everything needed to play is conveniently sold in one package. There are tons of monopoly variations one can find.

Find more information and user reviews about Monopoly games on Amazon:




Complexity: Low. Monopoly is easy to learn, 1-2 games are enough to get a feel for it.

Duration: 10-15 minutes to setup. Each round lasts 1-3 hours.

Replayability: Low-Medium. After a few play throughs, the same situations appear again and again. House rules can help alleviate this problem. More complex versions of monopoly are substantially better in this regard.


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