Althouse: "If losing a normal game of monopoly is frustrating, losing to this strategy is excruciating..."

February 15, 2016

"If losing a normal game of monopoly is frustrating, losing to this strategy is excruciating..."

"... as a losing opponent essentially has no path to victory, even with lucky rolls. Your goal is to play conservatively, lock up more resources, and let the other players lose by attrition. If you want to see these people again, I recommend not gloating, but simply state that you're playing to win, and that it wasn't your idea to play Monopoly in the first place."

From "How to Win at Monopoly and Lose All Your Friends," recommended by Throwing Things. The trick is to create a housing shortage.

23 comments:

traditionalguy said...: The way to beat this strategy is to have the Bank print more and more Monopoly Money and quantitatively ease the game until all players have become too big to fail.; 2/15/16, 7:01 AM
Johanna Lapp said...: I bought a used set for a buck at a flea market and merged the additional houses and hotels into my good set. They're all in an opaque cloth bag, so nobody notices the surplus. If anyone tries this strategy, they'll be screwed.; 2/15/16, 7:09 AM
Xmas said...: Try this link if Ann's isn't working
http://m.imgur.com/a/vX3zm; 2/15/16, 7:20 AM
Ann Althouse said...: The link works for me.

@Johanna: So... cheating is always a strategy.; 2/15/16, 7:21 AM
Curious George said...: I don't know about all that. I do know that I'm the car or I don't play. No exceptions. I also make zooooooom sounds when I go around the board.; 2/15/16, 7:38 AM
Curious George said...: http://tinyurl.com/jnnwacu; 2/15/16, 7:40 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: I preferred to be the dog.

The racing car was okay.

The top hat kind of blew.

Nobody ever wanted to be the thimble.; 2/15/16, 7:50 AM
rehajm said...: They recommend developing the cheaper properties early but I believe that strategy fails to capitalize on the fact the closer a space is to free parking the higher the frequency the space will be landed on. Better to try and delay monopolies being formed for a few more turns to acquire development capital to develop the more expensive red and orange properties.; 2/15/16, 8:18 AM
David Begley said...: Do what Trump would do. Have the government use eminent domain to condemn the best properties for your benefit.; 2/15/16, 8:21 AM
bleh said...: Mortgaging properties is always smart. It's ridiculously cheap, in fact. If you play conservatively and feel at all squeamish about borrowing from the bank, you won't win.

Buy every spot you land on.; 2/15/16, 8:27 AM
uffda said...: When I was twelve I traded all my real estate to my opponents for the railroads and utilities and a free ride on their properties. Then pointed out that with only income and no outgo I would evenually own everything. My brother and cousin then vigorously demonstrated how might beats right.; 2/15/16, 8:32 AM
Static Ping said...: Buy every spot you land on.

Well, yeah. According to the rules, if you don't buy an unowned property that you land on, it goes to auction immediately. Someone will buy it, if only for $1. The only reason not to buy it immediately is if you think the auction price will be less. (This rule is often forgotten.)

The "great" thing about Monopoly is it is designed to simulate monopolies. The fact that the game tends to become one-sided fairly quickly is not a flaw. It is a design decision.; 2/15/16, 9:04 AM
jaydub said...: The best way to create a housing shortage is rent controls.; 2/15/16, 9:10 AM
Curious George said...: "David Begley said...
Do what Trump would do. Have the government use eminent domain to condemn the best properties for your benefit."

Can't. The game was created in the 30's. Stevens, Kennedy, Ginsburg and Breyer weren't on the court yet.; 2/15/16, 9:15 AM
jr565 said...: two points. One, no one plays monopoly the right way. If you pass on a property it is supposed to go up for auction, so all the properties get sold as soon as someone lands on them. Two, there is no Free Parking money.
Two, why would you play monopoly in this day and age. There are actually good games, even good economic games that you can play that won't make you hate boardgames after playing them.; 2/15/16, 9:23 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "two points. One, no one plays monopoly the right way. If you pass on a property it is supposed to go up for auction, so all the properties get sold as soon as someone lands on them. Two, there is no Free Parking money. Two, why would you play monopoly in this day and age. There are actually good games, even good economic games that you can play that won't make you hate boardgames after playing them."

Your 2 points are made at the linked article. But you have 2 "two"s. The thing about free parking money isn't in the article (I don't think).; 2/15/16, 9:44 AM
tim maguire said...: This secret strategy to win and alienate your friends sounds a lot like the normal strategy to win. I didn't know about the auctioning, but unless it's a secret auction limited to those in the know, it doesn't change anything. If his friends are alienated by his winning, then they shouldn't be playing games. Any games.; 2/15/16, 9:48 AM
traditionalguy said...: The Day that World governance makes up a crisis that requires cash be made illegal, there will be lots of monopoly money available, cheap.; 2/15/16, 9:51 AM
Mark said...: I think this is the one time Jr and I will agree.

There are actual good games out there these days, there is no need to ever play Monopoly more than a couple times in your life (to realize that there are better economic games and fat far better games overall these days.

My kid has it far better than we did when I was a young and we had to wring fun from tedious board games with little depth.; 2/15/16, 10:38 AM
Henry said...: The easiest way to win is to be 12 and play with 8-year-olds.; 2/15/16, 10:48 AM
Etienne said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/15/16, 1:41 PM
Paul Snively said...: Huh. It's almost as if the game had been designed by a socialist with an anti-private-property agenda or something.; 2/15/16, 3:08 PM
MikeR said...: Mmmm. The only thing I saw in the article that isn't completely obvious is the idea of creating a housing shortage. But I think that in every Monopoly game I've ever played, the one who puts up the houses first wins. Everyone else ends up losing everything to pay that one's rent. Don't need housing shortages, they never get around to building houses anyhow.; 2/15/16, 9:38 PM