It wasn't meant for fun. It was meant to teach you the evils of landlording. Personally, I like the game and made up a variation of it called "earthquake" monopoly. The additional rule is that whenever someone lands on chance or community chest, the person who lands on it rolls the dice. If you roll a double every structure on that side of the board is wiped out. If you roll a double six, all structures on the board gets wiped out. [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_board_game_Monopoly]History of the board game Monopoly - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
Most homemade rules, like the Free Parking "rule" that disburses accumulated moneys that would have otherwise been paid to the bank back into player circulation, prolong the game, because the object of the game is to wipe out every player but one (which means reduce the money in player circulation - and that's harder to do if the pool of money in circulation keeps growing). I suspect the earthquake rule would have a similar prolonging effect, in that some or all the rents plummet back into general affordability for awhile, keeping money in players' hands who would otherwise lose it. That's not a bad thing - prolonging the game, especially if you enjoy it. But I haven't played the game for well over three decades, maybe even four. The British railroading game "1829" (and its descendants & offshoots) offer dimensions of strategy, tactics, logistics and treachery that make Monopoly like "Old Maid" vs Poker.
I can't remember the last time I played Monopoly. We used to do the free parking thing, and also let players do loans back and forth, so games were inevitable longer and probably more cooperative than was intended. The cats caused enough 'earthquakes' for our liking. RISK, on the other hand, was played with utter ruthlessness and treachery. I recently decided against buying a reproduction original version - it's not a bonding family activity. As airportkid implies, modern computer games are light years ahead of the old board games. I liked SimEarth quite a bit, though Railway Tycoon was my favourite - I should almost find an old machine just to play it again. All the latest stuff seems to be blood and gore, and I'm not interested. SPORE looks cute, but I haven't tried it yet.
My five year old asked me to play it with him just last week. We have the Beatles version, which is probably why. He loves the Beatles Rockband game.
I do enjoy Monopoly, but it takes a while to play when some players (aka my sister) refuses to trade any property she lands on essentially stalling the game until she is wiped out. We also have the Bob L'Eponge version as well. Risk is fun and as said, ruthless. As for video games, I actually like SimFarm and I use DosBOX on my shiny i7 laptop with Win7x64 to play it. Airline Tycoon is a good time killer as well and doesn't need a DOS emulator.
As a kid, I played Monopoly way too much. Today, I hope I never play the game again. I like Scrabble; building an empire using words!
That was exactly our intention as kids. Some games would last for days. As an adult, playing by the official rules, I was surprised to see how fast the game concluded. Tom
Once, recently, I got into a game of Monopoly. Before the game was over we were all thoroughly sick of it and agreed to declare a 4-way tie and put the game away. It was just plain monotonous.
I like the Monopoly board game but it takes a long time to play and is better with 3-4 players. I love the Monopoly Deal card game. It's loosely based on the old board game. It is fast, easy and fun. It can be played with only 2 players, and you don't have to write down any scores, if you just play to see who wins the hand. If you like card games, you might like this one. Check it out! Tom G.
