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| Monopoly | ||||||||||||||||
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| In the course of a Monopoly game, the players make their way around a board such as this one. At the edge of this board are the money and title deeds they compete for. | ||||||||||||||||
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Monopoly is one of the best selling board games in the world. At first sight it appears to be a race game with players moving their tokens around the squares at the edge of the board according to the roll of the dice. However, the conditions for winning are actually based on the acquisition of wealth through a stylised version of economic activity involving the purchase, rental and trading of real estate using play money. The game is named after the economic concept of monopoly, the domination of a market by a single seller.
Since the invention of the original version in 1904, it is estimated that more than 500 million people have played the game, making it the most played board game in the world .
Monopoly was first marketed on a broad scale by Parker Brothers on November 5, 1935 with international licensing rights given to Waddington Games of the United Kingdom (both of which are now part of Hasbro). Waddington's version (with locations from London) was first produced in 1936.
Although Monopoly is frequently said to have been invented by Charles Darrow in 1935, its origins actually go back to 1904, when the Georgist Lizzie Magie, (that is, a supporter of political economist Henry George), patented a game called "The Landlord's Game" with the object of demonstrating how rents enrich property owners and impoverish tenants. She knew that some people can find it hard to understand why this happens and what might be done about it and she thought that if Georgist ideas were put into the concrete form of a game, they might be easier to demonstrate.
This original game was enjoyable but although patented it was not taken up by a manufacturer until 1910 when it was published in the US by the Economic Game Company of New York. In the UK it was published in 1913 by the Newbie Game Company of London under the title Brer Fox an' Brer Rabbit. Despite the title change, it was recognizably the same game.
Apart from commercial distribution, it spread by word of mouth and was played in slightly variant home-made versions over the years by Quakers, Georgists, university students and others who became aware of it. As it spread, its rules were changed, most notably in dropping the second phase of the game during which a Land tax was introduced to replace the other taxes, and the shortened game became known as "Auction Monopoly". It was often localized; the original fanciful property names being replaced by street names from the cities where the players lived. By the late 1920s it was known as just plain "Monopoly" and was played very much as it is now. One version of the game, commonly played in the Philadelphia area, had Atlantic City street names; this game was taught to Charles Darrow, who then sold it as his personal invention to Parker Brothers. Parker Brothers subsequently decided to pay off Magie, and others who had copyrighted commercial variants of the game, in order to have legitimate, undisputed rights to the game, and promoted Darrow as its sole inventor. Decades later, when they attempted to suppress publication of a game called Anti-Monopoly, designed by Ralph Ansbach, the trademark suit went all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1983, and the court found in favor of Ansbach because Darrow did not actually invent the game.
The original Monopoly game was localized for the cities or areas in which it was played and Parker Brothers has continued this practice. Their version of Monopoly has been produced for international markets, with the place names being localized for cities including London and Paris, and for countries including the Netherlands and Germany, among others.
In recent years, different manufacturers of the game have created dozens of versions in which the names of the properties and other elements of the game are replaced by others with some theme. There are versions about national parks, Star Trek, Star Wars, Disney, various particular cities (such as Las Vegas) and villages (such as "Calumetopoly" for Calumet, Michigan), states, NASCAR, and many others.
In July of 2000, in a major marketing effort, Hasbro renamed the mascot Rich Uncle Pennybags to "Mr. Monopoly", felt by some to be a more bland name.
This is the orignal version produced by Parker Brothers. The board consists of 40 squares, containing 28 properties, 3 "Chance" squares, 3 "Community Chest" squares, a "Luxury Tax" square, an "Income Tax" square, "GO", "Jail", "Free Parking", and "Go to Jail". In the US version shown below, the properties are named after locations in Atlantic City, NJ.
| GO ⇒ | Mediterranean Avenue ($60) | Community Chest | Baltic Avenue ($60) | Income Tax (Pay 10% or $200) | Reading Railroad ($200) | Oriental Avenue ($100) | Chance | Vermont Avenue ($100) | Connecticut Avenue ($120) | Jail | ||
| Boardwalk ($400) | Monopoly | St. Charles Place ($140) | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luxury Tax (Pay $75) | Electric Company ($150) | |||||||||||
| Park Place ($350) | States Avenue ($140) | |||||||||||
| Chance | Virginia Avenue ($160) | |||||||||||
| Short Line ($200) | Pennsylvania Railroad ($200) | |||||||||||
| Pennsylvania Avenue ($320) | St. James Place ($180) | |||||||||||
| Community Chest | Community Chest | |||||||||||
| North Carolina Avenue ($300) | Tennessee Avenue ($180) | |||||||||||
| Pacific Avenue ($300) | New York Avenue ($200) | |||||||||||
| Go To Jail | Water Works ($150) | B&O Railroad ($200) | Chance | Free Parking | ||||||||
| Marvin Gardens ($280) | Ventnor Avenue ($260) | Atlantic Avenue ($260) | Illinois Avenue ($240) | Indiana Avenue ($220) | Kentucky Avenue ($220) | |||||||
Note that Marvin Gardens on the above board is actually a misspelling of the original street name, Marven Gardens. The misspelling was originally introduced by Charles Todd, whose home-made Monopoly board was copied by Charles Darrow and subsequently used as the basis of their design by Parker Brothers. They have never corrected the error. Short Line was not a real railroad but a bus line that had a depot in Atlantic City, and Atlantic City does not have a Water Works -- its water is piped in from the New Jersey "mainland" through two pipes.
The other versions of the game have different property names, and the prices may be denominated in another currency, but the game mechanics are almost identical. (The income tax choice from the US version is replaced by a flat rate in the UK version, and the $75 Luxury Tax square is replaced with the £100 Super Tax square.)
In the 1930s, John Waddington Ltd. was a firm of printers from Leeds that had begun to branch out into packaging and the production of playing cards. Waddingtons had sent the card game Lexicon to Parker Brothers hoping to interest them in publishing the game in the United States. In a similar fashion Parker Brothers sent over a copy of Monopoly to Waddingtons early in 1935 before the game had been put into production in the United States.
The managing director of Waddingtons, Victor Watson, gave the game to his son Norman (who was head of the card games division) to test over the weekend. Norman was impressed by the game and persuaded his father to call Parker Brothers on Monday morning. This call resulted in Waddingtons obtaining a license to produce and market the game outside of the United States. Watson felt that in order for the game to be a success in Britain the American locations would have to be replaced, so Victor and his secretary, Marjory Phillips, went to London to scout out locations. The Angel Islington is not a street in London but an area of North London named after a coaching inn that stood on the Great North Road. By the 1930s the inn had become a Lyons Corner House (it is now a Co-operative Bank). Some accounts say that Marjory and Victor met at the Angel to discuss the selection and celebrated the fact by including it on the Monopoly board. In 2003, a plaque commemorating the naming, was unveiled at the site by Victor Watson's grandson who is also named Victor.
The standard British board, produced by Waddingtons, was for many years the version most familiar to people in countries in the Commonwealth (except Canada) and many other nations and is shown below.
| GO ⇒ | Old Kent Road (£60) | Community Chest | Whitechapel Road (£60) | Income Tax (Pay £200) | King's Cross station (£200) | The Angel Islington (£100) | Chance | Euston Road (£100) | Pentonville Road (£120) | Jail | ||
| Mayfair (£400) | Monopoly | Pall Mall (£140) | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Super Tax (Pay £100) | Electric Company (£150) | |||||||||||
| Park Lane (£350) | Whitehall (£140) | |||||||||||
| Chance | Northumberland Avenue (£160) | |||||||||||
| Liverpool Street station (£200) | Marylebone station (£200) | |||||||||||
| Bond Street (£320) | Bow Street (£180) | |||||||||||
| Community Chest | Community Chest | |||||||||||
| Oxford Street (£300) | Marlborough Street (£180) | |||||||||||
| Regent Street (£300) | Vine Street (£200) | |||||||||||
| Go To Jail | Water Works (£150) | Fenchurch Street station (£200) | Chance | Free Parking | ||||||||
| Piccadilly (£280) | Coventry Street (£260) | Leicester Square (£260) | Trafalgar Square (£240) | Fleet Street (£220) | The Strand (£220) | |||||||
For a list of some of the localized versions and the names of their properties, see localized versions of the Monopoly game.
Each player is represented by a small pewter token which moves around the edge of the board according to the roll of two dice. The ten playing pieces currently used in the classic edition are as follows: a top hat, an iron, a Scottie dog, a battleship, a car, a wheelbarrow, a thimble, a cannon, a horse and rider, and an old boot.
In 1999, a token representing a bag of money was added following an online vote. The other two options were a biplane and a piggy bank. Unlike the tokens introduced in special editions, this token was added to the base set.
Also included in the standard edition are:
Hasbro also sells a deluxe edition, which is mostly identical to the classic edition but has wooden houses and hotels and gold-toned tokens, including two additional tokens: a railroad locomotive and a moneybag. FAO Schwartz in New York City sells a custom version for $50,000US. This special edition comes in a wood and leather case, and upgrades include: tokens are gold-plated, houses and hotels are also gold-plated with rubies and emeralds for windows, diamonds are embedded in the board in the centers of the Chance and Community Chest card rectangles, and the money is real, negotiable, United States currency.
From two to ten people may play Monopoly, but the game dynamics are ideal with six players. With more than six players, it is too likely that an individual will not have the opportunity to purchase significant property, and be bankrupted without ever having been in contention. With four or fewer players, there are not as many possible combinations of property ownership, and the importance of astute trading and negotiation is diminished.
Each player begins the game with $1500 (or £1500, or €1500, etc.) in cash and his token on the Go square. All property deeds, houses, and hotels are held by the bank until purchased by the players.
Players take turns in order, as determined by chance prior to the game. A player's turn consists of rolling two dice and advancing on the board the corresponding number of squares clockwise around the track. Depending where he lands, he takes the following additional actions:
A player who rolls doubles takes another turn after completing the first one (unless he was in Jail). If he rolls doubles again, he takes a third turn after completing the second. If, on the third turn, he rolls doubles again, he does not take that turn, but instead goes directly to Jail.
Properties are arranged in "color groups" of two or three properties. Once a player owns all properties of a group (a monopoly), that player may purchase either one to four houses or one hotel (which is equivalent to five houses) for those properties, which raise the rents that must be paid when other players land on the property. The properties in a color group must be developed evenly, i.e. each house that is built must go on the property in the group with the fewest number of houses on it so far. If the number of houses built on the color group is not evenly divisible, then one or two properties may have one extra house. For example, houses in a group may be distributed (2,3,2) or (0,1,1) or (4,4,3) but not (1,2,3) or (0,4,4).
A hotel may be built on a color group only after all properties in the group have four houses. A player purchases a hotel by paying the price of an additional house, and returning the four houses on that property to the bank in exchange for a hotel. If there are not enough houses in the bank for a player to build four houses on each property before building a hotel, the player may not skip directly to buying a hotel by paying the full price at one go.
If more players decide to build houses at the same time than there are houses in the bank, the houses are auctioned off one at a time to the highest bidder. This rule favors the owners of expensive properties, for which the houses cost more in the first place, because the auction price of a house is not tied to the value of the property on which it will be placed.
At any time a player may, to raise cash, return hotels and houses to the bank for half their purchase price. If there are sufficient houses in the bank, hotels may also be "broken down" into a number of houses for the corresponding percentage of their purchase price. For example, hotels in one color group may be replaced by two houses each, and for each hotel thus broken down, the player receives half the cost of three houses. Also, properties with no houses or hotels may be mortgaged for the price listed on the deed. A property does not collect rent while mortgaged and may not be developed. To de-mortgage a property a player must pay "interest" of 10% in addition to the mortgage price. Whenever a mortgaged property changes hands between players, the new owner must immediately pay another 10% interest on the mortgage price, and if he doesn't pay off the mortgage immediately he must pay another 10% when he does.
Players may freely make trades amongst themselves, involving cash and/or properties. This is often done to obtain all the properties in a particular color group. In tournament games it is against the rules to loan money or trade anything for future consideration.
A player continues playing until he owes the bank or another player more than the amount of cash he can raise and is thus "bankrupted". When a player is bankrupted by a debt to the bank, all of his property is returned to the bank. When a player is bankrupted by a debt to another player, all of the bankrupt player's property is given to his creditor. The winner is the last player left solvent.
Because of the transfer of assets when a player leaves the game, it is tempting for a player on the verge of insolvency to play 1936. A remake of the Stock Exchange add-on was published in 1992 by Chessex, incorporating the 1936 expansion and further expanding the game.
In the Stock Exchange add-on, the Free Parking space is changed to the Stock Exchange. The add-on also contained three each of Chance and Community Chest cards directing the player to advance to the Stock Exchange. The 1992 add-on also included seven other Chance cards and eight Community Chest cards (to play with the 1992 add-on, one Community Chest card - "From sale of stock you get $45", is removed). The add-on also included thirty stock certificates, five for each of the six different stocks, differing only in its purchase price, ranging from $100 to $150. Shares, like properties, can be considered to be tradeable material, and could also be mortaged for half their purchase price.
When a player moves onto Free Parking, stock dividends are paid out to all players with any unmortgaged shares. The amount to be paid out to each player is determined based on the number and kind of shares owned. Specifically, a player receives dividends from each stock based on the following mathematical formula:
The player who lands on Free Parking can also choose to buy a share if any remain - should the player decline, the Bank auctions a share off to the highest bidder. The 1936 rules are ambiguous with regards to the stock that is put up for auction, and convention has it that the winner of the auction chooses the stock to be recieved.
The Stock Exchange add-on serves to inject more money into the game, in a similar manner to railroad properties, as well as changing the relative values of properties. In particular, the Yellow and Green properties are more valuable due to the increased chance of landing on Free Parking, at the expense of the Light Purple and Orange groups.
Parker Brothers has also sold several games which are spinoffs of Monopoly. These are not add-ons as they don't function as an addition to the Monopoly game, but are simply additional games in the flavor of Monopoly.
Because Monopoly evolved in the public domain before its commercialization, Monopoly has seen many imitation games. Most of these are exact copies of the Monopoly games with the street names replaced with locales from a particular town, university, or fictional place. Some notable imitations include:
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