Yes or No: Monopoly sucks, and is a big reason many people don't like board games

[Goodheart]

Reasons it sucks:

1- The strategy never varies because the properties never vary. Every decent player adopts the same strategy. The luckiest player in the early going wins.

2- Although the winner is obvious early on, the other players have to go through the motions for two to four hours afterwards, just witnesses to the inevitable. The truly wise players will recognize their loss early and devise a way to get out ASAP and do something more fun away from the table.

3- The memory of all that drudgery turns off people to board games, altogether.

[idziak4ever1234]

1. Yes, it sucks

Made all the worse by all the Monopoly variants there are. The other day I saw Bob Ross Monopoly.

[Goodheart]

3. For some reason, all those paste-over versions bother me.

Chapel Hill-opoly. Minneapolisopoly. Paducahopoly. Gimme a break!

[Ocelot II]

2. I always enjoyed it and it never turned me off board games.

I don't play them any more because I'm old and don't have anyone to play with, but when I was a kid we played Monopoly, Clue and Trivial Pursuit and others frequently, always had a good time.

[Goodheart]

5. Ugh.

[Ocelot II]

6. To each his own, but please don't shit in my cornflakes.

I have a lot of great memories of childhood fun playing Monopoly. Don't like it, don't play it, but obviously many people have been enjoying the game for decades.

[Goodheart]

9. It ceases being fun with age.

[yellowdogintexas]

11. so do I We played it often

When we had snow days, our closest neighbor would call after he had done his morning farm chores and ask to come over and we would play this marathon Monopoly game, just 4 of us (Neighbor, my sister, our mom and me) When he had to leave, we would leave the game out on the card table if we weren't done and pick it up the next day.

I was in my 30s when Trivial Pursuit came out. My cousins, my mom, my youngest sister and her fiance would play it for hours.

We also played this wild form of rummy called Shanghai but that is another story entirely

[XanaDUer2]

21. Me too. Fun memories with relatives nt

[secondwind]

7. Same here! We loved to play!

[Scrivener7]

8. Clue! My favorite!!

[Goodheart]

12. Clue Monopoly because at least it involves thinking.

LOL

The historical word is that Monopoly was invented to NOT be fun.

[Scrivener7]

13. I never heard of Clue Monopoly.

[Goodheart]

16. Neither have I

The system deleted some greater than signs from my title.

[Claire Oh Nette]

23. CLUE!

Used CLUE! to set my kids up to read Agatha Christie's _And Then There Were None._ Helped teach them close reading. My alternative high school kids loved it.

Monopoly does depend on luck and endurance, but it's fun once in a while. We played tons of Trivial Pursuit, and my nephews now challenge their dads (twins) to chess at the family gatherings.

At my local watering hole, almost open air with great fresh air circulation, we were able to gather on the odd Saturday night for board games even during the pandemic.

Depends on the crowd, I guess...

[DetroitLegalBeagle]

4. Yes it sucks

But most dont play it correctly. I don't think it contributes much as far as people not liking board games in general though. I know more people who like playing them now then I did when I was a kid. There are some very interesting and good ones out now.

[chia]

10. Haven't felt the same about Monopoly since I read about the racism behind it. See here:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/02/racism-your-monopoly-board/618098/

[Goodheart]

14. I doubt it was created to propagate racism.

The properties were just a reflection of what was.

There... who said I can't be objective about Monopoly?

[chia]

18. I didn't say it was create to propagate racism. The article explains how it was used to highlight

racism, inequality, and segregation. It's an interesting read.

[mainer]

15. It's boring. Scrabble is so much more fun.

There's no skill to Monopoly.

[Goodheart]

17. A typical adult session:

&t=74s

[Kaleva]

24. Describes perfectly how my wife and I play it.

[zentrum]

19. Sucks.

[DBoon]

20. So it is just like capitalism

If you start with an advantage you win

You have to keep playing even if you know you are going to lose

Playing is very tedious, especially for the many losers

[soothsayer]

22. Yes, bankers who cheat, too

[Goodheart]

25. Correct. And the game was actually invented to stress that point.

The game's inventor was an anti-capitalist, whose main point was to demonstrate that wealth snowballs.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

27. Absolutely.

Many people don't want to pay reparations, and I personally think policies to carry it out could be very unfair.

Yet how many people still have wealth passed down to them by plantation owner ancestors and such? And inheritance taxes have repeatedly been lowered.

I think inheritance taxes should be raised, and the money used to improve the lot of our disadvantaged citizenry.

[jmowreader]

26. Read close and I will give you the ultimate Monopoly strategy

Buy the Green and Yellow blocks, one Utility and two Railroads. Build hotels on all six colored properties. Then sit back.

The green and yellow properties are the most important terrain on the board because it’s damn near impossible to not land on at least one of them as you go around the board. You buy the utility and the railroads to fuck up someone’s attempts to make money with either class of properties since those only become profitable if you have all of them. (Of course, if you CAN buy both utilities or all four railroads, do that.)

I have sent so many people to the poorhouse with this stragedy the game isn’t fun anymore.

[Goodheart]

29. Sure, if you're dice-lucky enough to buy the green and yellow blocks. LOL

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

28. Most people play it wrong.

As DetroitLegalBeagle said.

A while back I read an article about that. Forget the details, but at the time I was flabbergasted, because it pointed out exactly what most of us do wrong.

Anyway, there are lots and lots of other board games, many of which I still enjoy.

When I was a kid, and later when I had little kids of my own, I loved Candyland. I love Clue, love the original Sorry, not the recent version which makes it too easy. Oh, and the original Careers.

I have some friends with whom I play board games and card games on a regular basis, although less now during the Pandemic. I am so glad they are my friends and we get to do this. I don't want to be a curmudgeonly old person, but one down side of electronic stuff is the disappearance of board games. There are lots and lots of them out there. I hope when I wind up in some kind of old people's home, or assisted living, the people there will be willing to play board games.

[Goodheart]

30. Playing it correctly doesn't make it any better.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

31. You are right.

But there are lots, and lots of other board games out there. Most of which don't require you make the kind of commitment you'd make if enrolling in law school.

What's really fun about the cards and games nights I do with my friends, is that whoever did the worst last time, gets to pick the games this time.

[Goodheart]

32. My personal favorite is Puerto Rico.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

33. I don't know that one.

Tell me a little about it, including where I might find it. We are always open to new board games.

[Goodheart]

34. It's a classic, actually, that introduced the role selection mechanic into board games

Was ranked number one for quite a while on Boardgamegeek. It's a resource management game... right up my alley.