Peaceful Holidays
Nearly half of American families have banned Monopoly from their game nights to avoid the fun turning into a fight. “One Poll” found that one in five people have shelved a board game at home after putting up with sore losers. Hasbro’s Monopoly was the most banished, stuffing properties and funny money in closets by 44 percent of survey respondents. The most common outbursts include someone quitting because they were losing (46 percent), someone accusing another player of cheating (44 percent) and two or more players getting into an argument (44 percent). “Being on the same team and battling against a common foe in a cooperative game can create a sense of shared triumph during a victory or shared mourning in defeat.” Seventy-one percent of boomers over 57 say they’re ‘never the problem,’ compared to 57 percent of Gen Xers, 38 percent of millennials, and 24 percent of Gen Zers. Close to half of boomers prefer playing one-on-one, while Gen Zers are far more likely to prefer working in teams (38 percent).
20% said game nights are “often or always” disrupted by behavior that could be described as competitive or unfriendly. Only 22% of people have had to ban a particular game, and another 22% have had to ban a specific player and 13% of people admit they’re the problem “most” or “every” time. “Competition brings out the best in some people but the worst in others,” said Justin Kemppainen, director of brand management at Z-Man Games, to the Daily Mail. “This can manifest in small ways, like low-level grumping and sulking while playing, but it can blow up into shouting and strife, which can ruin a gaming experience.”
Monopoly wasn’t always that notorious. In 1903 Lizzie Magie created a game called The Landlords Game. It was a game she hoped would simply lay out the single-tax theory of Henry George’s book Progress and Poverty. The game was intended by Magie to be used as a educational tool to illustrate the negative aspects of monopolies. By 1923 when she re-patented the game, The Landlords Game looked a lot like what we know now as Monopoly. Parker Brothers bought the rights to Monopoly from Darrow. And when they learned that his wasn’t actually the original game, they also purchased the rights to Magie’s patent for $500. They began marketing Monopoly in 1935. Unfortunately, this new and now widespread version of Monopoly completely disregarded the anti-monopoly and educational warning that Magie had intended when she first made the game. Instead, Monopoly seems designed to encourage friends to financially crush each other into the dust… Y’know… for fun.
If you can’t beat ‘em
I just found a monopoly set without instructions.
What are the chances?
Monopoly is fun but it has some really old stuff that isn’t valid anymore.
There’s free parking, a luxury tax and rich people can actually go to jail.
I was investing in Monopoly games,
Until I realized that there is no real money in them.
I beat my wife and she immediately divorced me.
Some people take Monopoly way too seriously.
October 24th Birthdays
1995 – Krystal Jung , 1990 – Shenae Grimes, 1961 – Mary Bono, 1984 – Adrienne Bailon
1932 – Steven Covey, 1986 – Drake, 1969 – Brett Favre, 1997 – Jaylen Brown