Critical Miss Forums

[spelledaren]

Never used the auction when we were little, but it came into the play around the age of...say 12?

[Psilon]

[Herald]

I actually grew up using the auction rules. Once I got to college, I found someone who was virulently obsessed with Monopoly. It was the only game she'd play (as all other games, of course, were for children or geeks, in her eyes). So, we got together and began to play. As the game progressed, it became more and more evident that she was an extremely rude person. I began to bid on a property she passed up, only to be greeted with a blank stare. She started to explain that that's not allowed in the game. When I showed her the rule, she stood up, had a fit, and refused to play under the auction rule, or with anyone who tried using it.

I subsequently explained that there were only three strategies in Monopoly. One involved auctioning, and the other involved the choice of what houses to buy. She stated that you were required to buy a house, and to upgrade it to a hotel at the first convenience; the game was simply an automated dice rolling. Then she asked what the third strategy was.

I robbed the bank, deigned myself the winner, cleaned up the board, and left. I told her that if I wanted to play a simple game of chance involving nothing but a rolling of the die, I'd pick up craps as a hobby.

[lawbag]

sounds horrifically like Mornington Crescent
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[Jonny Nexus]

[C17H19NO3]

I very much enjoyed the article, in fact I never knew of this rule until I read the article.


Now if only anyone around here would ever play Monopoly... I think I'm the only person I know who likes it.

[Rick]

I used to be a fanatic Monopoly player (we played a cut throat game with all the correct rules) but we have not played a game since I bought Settlers of Catan. Settlers has all the wheeling and Dealing of Monopoly but a number of advantages (in my humble opinion):

1) Monopoly plays best with 4 to 5 players. Settlers plays well with 3 to 4 (or 3 to 6 if you have the 6 player expansion).

2) Monopoly is an elimination game. If you are eliminated early, well, you sit around. In Settlers everyone plays until the end.

3) Monopoly often has players who are walking dead. (They have no realistic chance of winning but take a long time to be eliminated.) Settlers does a brilliant job of keeping most people close right until the end game.

4) Monopoly takes 4+ hours usually. Settlers can almost always be finished in 2 hours.

5) Settlers has fewer periods where nothing much is happening.

6) Monopoly is a public domain game (The Landlord's Game which spoke AGAINST monopolies) that has be stolen from the public domain. Hasborg (er Hasbro) has used illegal monopolistic power to hurt competitors (its deal with Toy'sRUs) and its shameful actions against the company that created the game "Anti-Monopoly". Boycott Hasbro! Find an independent comic shop or game shop that sells some of the great German and European games that are coming out and support them!

Regards, Rick

[Malkavelli]

Eveything Rick says above is spot on. Settlers is the textbook example of a great game for the reasons given in addition to being easy-to-learn-but-hard-to-master.

I have always been aware of the auction rule in Monopoly, my dad played it that way, but I'm still of the opinion that it's not nearly enough to save a truly crappy game.
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Si guarda al fine.

[Guest]

I've always been aware of the auction rule, though not always used it. I don't really think it helps much, since it's almost always correct to simply buy anything you land on, even to the point of morgaging other properties (actually, morgaging is another rule I often see people not playing by).

[Photios]

I quit playing Monopoly about twenty years ago. Let me explain. I'm the youngest in my family, and the closest sibling is a brother five years older than me. When he explained the rules to me before I even knew how to read (and I started that pretty early), he purposely told me the fallacious ones and proceeded to add addendums that favoured him any time we played. I never learned the correct rules, just the cheating ones he came up with. I quit playing when I realized what he'd done at about the age of seven or eight.
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Was not I from a boy
Vowed with the helmet and spear and spur
To the blood-red banner of joy?

[Spatula]

[ekolis]

I found a set of rules in my dad's old Monopoly set:

RULES FOR MONOPOLY
1. If in doubt, ask Pop.
2. If still in doubt, refer to rule #1.


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Mr. Flibble says...
GAME OVER, BOYS!

[order66_drums]

I would rather shit razor-wire, while fucking a monkey/porcupine hybrid, while trying to remove my eyes with a Volvo, than to play Monopoly. It's that boring.

[Spatula]

I don't think you'd have enough hands for that. Unless the monkupine helps.
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