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The house always wins (thelemmy.club)
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[-] Rusty@lemmy.ca 33 points 20 hours ago

Does anyone actually like Monopoly? It is the worst board game in existence.

To me, it's not even a game, because players don't make any decisions. You roll a die and go a number of steps, no player agency so far. After that you technically have a decision to buy or not to buy the property. But it is not really a decision, you need to buy it, if you can afford it.

I believe the main reason people say that they don't like board games is because the only board game they played is Monopoly.

[-] starik@lemmy.zip 14 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

There is some strategy you’re not thinking of. Too much to go into in one comment. I just played a full 6 hour game with a 9 year old and a 6 year old, both with ADHD, and they didn’t wander off once. The game has its charms.

[-] humorlessrepost@lemmy.world 43 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

The reason people hate it is because they don’t follow the rules.

They put tax money in the center and pretend “free parking” means “payday”.

They prevent purchases until a lap or two around the board.

They allow landed-on properties to go unpurchased.

They allow no-rent agreements between players.

And then they have the audacity to bitch that the game takes too fucking long. After removing every god damn mechanism the game has to end.

There is strategy in knowing what to purchase, what to bid at auctions, what properties to develop and when and how much, and what to trade.

[-] hansolo@lemmy.today 14 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

100% agree. My family always played strict rules, and the game was always a painful slog. Constant mortgaging properties to afford rent somewhere else, a whole game hanging on $11 here and there. The game I played in a mobile home during power outages was about living paycheck to paycheck.

The first time I saw people do the free parking tax money thing, I thought they were joking. The fuck kind of soft baby game is this? Two times around the board first? Why? Just give $600 more to start, idiots. Why not let the car roll 3 dice or some shit because a car goes faster than an iron?

[-] Bongles@lemmy.zip 3 points 18 hours ago

I've heard one time around the board, but not two. The idea though was so the first player to go doesn't have an advantage (which is kind of irrelevant after the first couple rolls unless they keep rolling high, but it FEELS like it matters I'm sure).

[-] thebestaquaman@lemmy.world 3 points 11 hours ago

The idea though was so the first player to go doesn’t have an advantage

I... the player that goes first has the EXACT SAME statistical advantage, regardless how many round trips you do before allowing purchases. No matter how many times you roll the dice, each player will, on average, be ≈7 places in front of the person that rolls after them (not exactly 7, because there are rules for rolling again on matching dice etc.). This is true for the first roll of the dice, and it is true for the millionth roll. The distance between two consecutive players is on average equal to the mean number of places you move on a turn.

[-] Amir@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 hours ago

Well, if you do infinite die rolls, your standard deviation becomes so high the "7" spaces bias will be relatively less significant

However, replacing first-mover advantage by RNGesus advantage is not significantly better

[-] kossa@feddit.org 2 points 14 hours ago

Which is basically just a die cast, but extended for no reason 😅

[-] hansolo@lemmy.today 4 points 18 hours ago

Life ain't fair. Neither is Monopoly. That's the point!

[-] psx_crab@lemmy.zip -1 points 16 hours ago

They prevent purchase for 1 lap just so it will truly randomise who get to make the purchase first, instead of just giving it to the people who goes first.

[-] Holytimes@sh.itjust.works 12 points 15 hours ago

You can do the same thing by just rolling to see who goes first...

[-] psx_crab@lemmy.zip 1 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

Technically you do that as well, but the no-purchase first round make sure it is as random as possible because you roll multiples time and the dice change hand. Kinda like a warm up round as you're now racing to get to the end of first round and get to draw chance and chest.

You can also don't do that, it's up to you. It's a very versatile game that don't have to stick to the rule 100% for it to work, kinda like Uno.

[-] thebestaquaman@lemmy.world 7 points 11 hours ago

I commented this elsewhere, but feel obliged to copy it in here as well:

The player that goes first has the EXACT SAME statistical advantage, regardless how many round trips you do before allowing purchases. No matter how many times you roll the dice, each player will, on average, be ≈7 places in front of the person that rolls after them (not exactly 7, because there are rules for rolling again on matching dice etc.). This is true for the first roll of the dice, and it is true for the millionth roll. The distance between two consecutive players is on average equal to the mean number of places you move on a turn.

[-] psx_crab@lemmy.zip 0 points 10 hours ago

Statistically yeah, who rolled first get the advantage, when you played like 100 round of it, then add up all the data and get the average, the first one to roll will on average ahead of everyone, but...we're playing one game, the first one to roll will sometime roll low and the last to roll might roll double and get ahead, this is why i don't think statistic really matter here because the amount of roll one game have is statistically insignificant to get the desired result. "The house always win" did not mean the house win every round, it just mean if the game goes for 100 round the house will come out on top statistically, and that applies here.

[-] thebestaquaman@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago

I think you're misunderstanding something here?

Let's say you and a friend are playing: You can roll a dice or flip a coin to decide who goes first, and both of you have a 50/50 chance of going first, then you start playing. After the first throw, the player that starts will on average be ≈ 7 squares ahead of the second player, and can buy a property before the second player. Let's call this a "7 square advantage".

Alternatively, you play one or more "warm up" rounds. When you get around the first round, the player that started will on average still have a 7 square advantage, and can still buy the same property before the second player. In fact, you can do as many "warmup rounds" as you like, and the player that started will retain their 7 square advantage whenever the first "real round" starts.

The point is, this doesn't become "more random" by playing "warmup rounds" the probability that any of the two players reaches a given square first is determined the instant the coin flip that decided who would go first landed.

[-] zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 hours ago

The person downvoting you doesn't understand probability or statistics lmao

[-] FlyingCircus@lemmy.world 46 points 20 hours ago

It was literally designed to be a metaphor for capitalism. You’re not supposed to enjoy playing unless you are lucky enough to be the one winning.

[-] bagsy@lemmy.world 8 points 17 hours ago

Its actually a pretty good metaphor. Imagine playing the game and never buying any assets, just passing Go and collecting a paycheck. That's how most people live their lives. If you live in a capitalist country, you either aquire assets, or accept you will be exploited by those with all the assets. Its a simple and horrible system, and its all right there in a 100 year old kids game.

[-] FlyingCircus@lemmy.world 11 points 16 hours ago

The main difference being that most people never have an opportunity to buy assets because they are too busy paying rent on other people’s assets. The game assumes you are a capitalist already, and you are playing against other capitalists.

Which actually is an even better metaphor, regular people don’t even get to play the game.

[-] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 hours ago

Lol we actually used to play this way with my cousins. We had two younger cousins that weren't too bright at the time, but really wanted to play. So they played as "peons" and got a pawn from a chess set as their marker. They got an extra $100 for passing go, but that's it. They couldn't buy or anything, only pay. They actually seemed to have fun in a little competition between themselves as to who could weather the capitalist hell hole the best.

[-] raid_dad@lemmy.world 13 points 20 hours ago

I had almost exactly the same exact comment written out before I saw yours. Its original title was “The Landlord’s Game”.

[-] DakRalter 6 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

That was a different game, the original by Liz Magie. Darrow pretended he never heard of it, plagiarised it, but made it worse, then claimed it was his own idea. It all got settled later on.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Landlord%27s_Game

[-] limelight79@lemmy.world 7 points 19 hours ago

And, really, the winner will almost certainly be determined by who owns the middle-priced properties. I'm too lazy to look them up, but it's the ones that are essentially opposite the Go space on the board. It's a fascinating commentary.

[-] Armok_the_bunny@lemmy.world 7 points 18 hours ago

It's the red ones, they're about 14 spaces away from jail, which is the most common space to end up on. In the long run people will land on them most often.

[-] limelight79@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

There's one really popular red spot, but the three orange ones are also frequently hit, according to this analysis.

Basically, to survive, you need to make sure no one gets a monopoly of the orange or red ones. Which really brings us back to the point of the original game...lol

[-] Armok_the_bunny@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

Yeah. that's the analysis I was thinking of, I just misremembered the conclusion.

[-] ArtVandelay@lemmy.world 3 points 19 hours ago

Boardwalk and Park Place, and yes it eventually comes down to whoever lands on one of those first that doesn't own it. They probably lose first.

[-] limelight79@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago

No, those are the two most expensive properties, right by the Go. Everyone wants to buy them because they see the huge rent price, but it turns out that people seem to land on those spaces only rarely.

Sorry for the reddit link.

[-] ArtVandelay@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

Ah you're right, I totally just misread the comment derp

[-] psx_crab@lemmy.zip 3 points 16 hours ago

I remember my friend told me the rule of purchasing property is that once you landed in a property no one owned, you either buy it or be auction off to other player, and then the game end when every property are being purchased, so each player objective is basically get as much property as possible, negotiating with other players for their property so you can own a row of land for upgrading. The game become a slog when people just don't get property, don't negotiate, and playing it safe.

It's like when playing DOTA and two team decided to just farm critter for gold instead of attempting to reach the objective respectively. It's called Monopoly, not Money Hoardy

this post was submitted on 21 May 2026
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