Monopoly is the absolute worst. Almost everyone I know grew up with a copy of it in their house, and almost every family made changes to the rules because it’s such a terrible game. Yet somehow it’s a “classic.”
It being ‘bad’ is kinda the point. It is a critique of capitalism, even in its current neutered form. It is a simple intuitive proof that if everyone started out on the same fair playing field; which is impossible in capitalism but would be the ‘idealized’ state that anarchocapitalists, Laissez-faire capitalists, and neoliberals would love to pretend the world has ever had or can ever had, capitalism will still end in an absolute collapsed state of a brutalist monopoly.
You have to add random cheat rules to even have a little fun with it, but there is no effective way to make capitalism have an end state that isn’t a total monopoly.
Parker Bros (and the various companies that bought it out after parker bros did) just didn’t really care that it criticized them as much as any other capitalist entity, because they made money.
Monopoly is the absolute worst. Almost everyone I know grew up with a copy of it in their house, and almost every family made changes to the rules because it’s such a terrible game. Yet somehow it’s a “classic.”
It being ‘bad’ is kinda the point. It is a critique of capitalism, even in its current neutered form. It is a simple intuitive proof that if everyone started out on the same fair playing field; which is impossible in capitalism but would be the ‘idealized’ state that anarchocapitalists, Laissez-faire capitalists, and neoliberals would love to pretend the world has ever had or can ever had, capitalism will still end in an absolute collapsed state of a brutalist monopoly.
You have to add random cheat rules to even have a little fun with it, but there is no effective way to make capitalism have an end state that isn’t a total monopoly.
Parker Bros (and the various companies that bought it out after parker bros did) just didn’t really care that it criticized them as much as any other capitalist entity, because they made money.
Yes, I’m aware of the original point behind the game. It’s still a bad game.
It’s also a bad educational game, because almost nobody learns the lesson it intends to teach.