By Andrew Liszewski
I’m not here to defend monopolies, particularly when they negatively impact the consumer. But let’s face it, that’s what makes Monopoly the boardgame fun. Watching another player go belly-up when they can’t afford to pay their rent is surprisingly satisfying. But apparently some people disagree, and for them there’s the Anti-Monopoly board game. Players are divided into two groups, the competitors and the monopolists, and they each follow different rules in their quest for profits. Here’s a brief run-down on how it’s played:
In Anti-Monopoly, players play either by monopoly or competition rules fixed at the beginning of the game: COMPETITORS … charge fair rents, build as soon as they own a property, put five houses on their properties and occasionally go to Price War. MONOPOLISTS… extort monopoly-high rents from their poor tenants, build only after they have monopolized a color grouping, restrict supply by putting only four houses on their properties and occasionally go to Prison.
The good guys are the small business entrepreneurs and the bad guys are the monopolists. Since players do not play by the same rules, fairness is achieved by a patented probability technique, has given each side equal chances to win.
The game was obviously created to make a political statement more than anything, but if you’re not a fan of the practices of some big corporations, you can get a copy of Anti-Monopoly directly from the company’s website for $20.95.
[ Anti-Monopoly Board Game ] VIA [ The Green Head ]
Or you could stop playing crappy roll and move games and start player better modern games, like Settlers Of Catan, Carcassonne, Ticket To Ride, Puerto rico, Streetsoccer oh and hundreds more.
Try http://www.boardgamegeek.com the centre of the boardgaming world.
Or I’ve even heard they’ve developed some form of electro-tronic games with full moving images that can be enjoyed on a TV!
But seriously, Ticket To Ride isn’t bad, though I got destroyed my first time playing.
Anti-Monopoly is from 1970. The trademark litigation over the game and it’s results are the reason that other companies can make Monopoly-style board games and why we know so much more about the game’s history.
And the game is said to be none too good. I’ll second an exploratory look at BGG.