I think the reason why Monopoly is a bad game is not because it was poorly designed long ago by people who didn't know good game design.
It's because it wasn't designed as a game at all. At least, not an entertainment game. It was designed as a teaching game, and what it sought to teach was specifically that monopoly, with a little m, is bad.
The Landlord's Game was created to help propagate the ideas of Georgism, which, to keep things perhaps excessively simple, was opposed to the concentration of land ownership, or land monopoly.
That the game is unfair is an intended part of its design. That the game encourages feuding and bickering is an intended part of its design. The aim is not to have fun, the aim is to understand why land monopoly is bad for society.
And then Monopoly was created by taking The Landlord's Game but removing the ideological lecturing part from it and pretending it's just entertainment.
It's because it wasn't designed as a game at all. At least, not an entertainment game. It was designed as a teaching game, and what it sought to teach was specifically that monopoly, with a little m, is bad.
The Landlord's Game was created to help propagate the ideas of Georgism, which, to keep things perhaps excessively simple, was opposed to the concentration of land ownership, or land monopoly.
That the game is unfair is an intended part of its design. That the game encourages feuding and bickering is an intended part of its design. The aim is not to have fun, the aim is to understand why land monopoly is bad for society.
And then Monopoly was created by taking The Landlord's Game but removing the ideological lecturing part from it and pretending it's just entertainment.
Statistics: Posted by Gez — 31 Aug 2024 11:43