Comment Re:Advance to Go (Score 4, Insightful) 155
I feel I have to object to the comment that Monopoly is a terrible game. I know somebody who wrote their economics undergraduate thesis on the discount model for evaluating property values in Monopoly.
But what I really object to is the claim that the game takes hours. Yes, for unskilled players it takes hours. However, top skilled players usually take about 15 minutes to 30 minutes to play a game (and many time even less than that). You buy stuff, you trade, and mortgage everything to build as much as you can, and then somebody is bankrupt in just a few round trips of a game after the house building phase starts. Skilled players roll, move, buy, pay rents, in less than five seconds usually -- so the game is very fast, until you get to the point where you have to think. You can play the game with a 10 minute clock for each player for the whole game without compromising much in the way of skill. Also, you usually agree to a draw if monopolies cannot be formed in a reasonable number of turns.
From what I have seen, the critical phase of the game occurs at the time trading occurs to form monopolies -- and this requires a great deal of skill, some of it involves being artfully persuasive. It is one of the reasons why monopoly is a cool game. Strategy and tactics sometimes are less important than being a great salesperson.
However, never bring such skilled people into a regular monopoly game. Their style of play can leave all the other players bankrupt in less than an hour and leave them wondering what just happened to their casual fun game.
But what I really object to is the claim that the game takes hours. Yes, for unskilled players it takes hours. However, top skilled players usually take about 15 minutes to 30 minutes to play a game (and many time even less than that). You buy stuff, you trade, and mortgage everything to build as much as you can, and then somebody is bankrupt in just a few round trips of a game after the house building phase starts. Skilled players roll, move, buy, pay rents, in less than five seconds usually -- so the game is very fast, until you get to the point where you have to think. You can play the game with a 10 minute clock for each player for the whole game without compromising much in the way of skill. Also, you usually agree to a draw if monopolies cannot be formed in a reasonable number of turns.
From what I have seen, the critical phase of the game occurs at the time trading occurs to form monopolies -- and this requires a great deal of skill, some of it involves being artfully persuasive. It is one of the reasons why monopoly is a cool game. Strategy and tactics sometimes are less important than being a great salesperson.
However, never bring such skilled people into a regular monopoly game. Their style of play can leave all the other players bankrupt in less than an hour and leave them wondering what just happened to their casual fun game.