Monopoly Design Flaw

[Perry]

Has anyone ever noticed that the board game Monopoly seems to have a big design flaw? No matter what happens throughout the game, it always seems to end up being 2 or 3 players left at the end all skipping around the board hoping to land on something safe (jail, something they own, a railroad/utility which even if someone else owns it is much better than landing on a property with a hotel, etc). This takes the game that requires great strategy in the first couple of hours of play and reduces it to a game of chance because whoever lands on something bad two or three times in a row loses.

This got me to thinking, how could this be fixed?

I came up with a few, but I don't think they are that great.

The best one I could think of was to add natural disaster chance/community chest cards that remove a few houses/hotels from a certain area of the board, forcing players to rebuild every so often, removing a lot of money from the game, but even then the likelihood of getting that card was low.

What other ways could this be fixed? Is it even a flaw or am I looking at it wrong?

[Ark]

Yea just like checkboard. I'm not referring for players but for the pieces, when you get until the end where lots of pieces get killed at the end you just get like 3-4 kings for both sides and there it takes a long time for a side to win. That's why I prefer chess

I don't know why it could be a flaw... Maybe just part of the game like checkboard?

if it's you could fix it by giving a time limit and at the end the one who has more money wins.

[Callan S.]

I'm not sure there's great strategy in the first two hours of monopoly play, either? It's just random landing and buying.

[Jackolantern]

I hear you Callen, but there is definitely more strategy than in the end. And even the end of just rolling dice and hoping not to land on the super-developed areas can go on for hours and hours because it becomes a zero-sum game between the last 2 players to be in. Yes, one player will land on a developed opposing space and lose a ton of money, but then that opposing player has to go as well and often lands on one of the other player's spaces and gives the money right back.

So yes, basically the fun part of monopoly is the first hour or so, and then the last 7 hours is just a game of chance with tons of money simply being passed back and forth until one player gets lucky enough to land on a safe square several times in a row.

But kind of what Callen touched on, I really don't like Monopoly at all lol. I think it was a popular game when you were younger because all of the play money was kind of cool, the pieces were weird, and it was pretty different than most other games. But as far as board games go, it is pretty pedestrian by today's standards.

[Perry]

Yeah I can't remember the last time I played Monopoly and had fun. I actually can't remember the last time I played it at all, but me and a friend that used to play it a long while ago were talking about it and we got to laughing about how whenever we and friends would play no one would win. We would always just get to that point in the end and give up after a little bit of that. So that got me wondering how you could possibly get around that part of the game.

[Callan S.]

There was this novelty Mc donalds kids version of monopoly given away apparently and someone gave us one they'd gotten. But we actually really enjoyed the kids version - weve played it about a couple of dozen or so times as a family because you get to play with money but the game is so fast. I think the person who designed it actually cared about their design, instead of splatting out something for a novelty meal deal throw away thing. One of the main changes is that as soon as the first person bankrupts, the game ends and everyone else counts up their money. The person with the most wins.

I also thought the designer was really cheeky clever, because where was the jail...OMG, he had switched the jail for being a Mc Donalds 'restaurant'! He'd made his own employer into a jailer, right under their noses! And it worked great in the game! LOL!

[Jackolantern]

One of the main changes is that as soon as the first person bankrupts, the game ends and everyone else counts up their money. The person with the most wins.

That is interesting, and I could see it working. There is still a fair amount of strategy while everyone is still in (such as looking at the money leader's location, and making deals with other players to build-up the range of the leader's next roll to try to drain them, etc.). But then that rule prevents the zero-sum game that starts with the last 2 or 3 players in that can go on for hours.

[hallsofvallhalla]

I actually remade monopoly once with classes or rather professions.

Gas Station Owner, He gets money for spaces walked
Bank Owner, can give out loans and gets percentage
Real Estate Agent, gets percentage of real estate bought and sold
Auctioneer
Government Employee, gets percentages of taxes paid and community chest cards
Builder, percentage from houses built and so on

Then I added in point system for the jobs and things done in game. Points win the game.

Was quite fun.

also there is this
http://www.dragon-warrior.com/Games/

[Jackolantern]

also there is this
http://www.dragon-warrior.com/Games/

Haha, that is awesome!