Monopoly and Google maps mashup

September 7, 2009 10:01 PM

Tomorrow, Monopoly City Streets begins, introducing a world-wide game combining google maps and the classic family fight-starter. Buy any street in the world, build houses, hotels and more. Remember, property always goes up, and your siblings always cheat.
posted by pompomtom (23 comments total)

"Goddamn it Grandma, it's 2am, I don't care, YOU WIN!"

Fond memories...
posted by Arandia at 10:29 PM on September 7, 2009 [1 favorite]

Interesting concept but the graphics leave me kinda meh.

Hmm, this little dump just sold for $8M but if I could "own" any street in the world I'd probably choose Shakujii Koen. Then again, there's Makena Rd just south of Kihei on Maui. Laguna Beach was nice but I think the surf noise would drive me nutso.

Back in my old stomping grounds of central Tokyo, they can squeeze a $900,000 property on a 600 sqft lot so the gaijin ghetto of Hirou in Tokyo would go for a pretty penny in the aggregate.
posted by Palamedes at 10:43 PM on September 7, 2009

You say it's a game, but these people bought my house and now I have to go to jail, do not pass Go. Fuck you monopolists.
posted by twoleftfeet at 10:59 PM on September 7, 2009 [1 favorite]

Hrm. Interesting. I will be trying this out, but only under close doctor's supervision. It looks like it will be more addictive than Oxycontin.
posted by hippybear at 11:08 PM on September 7, 2009

I don't care if this is only tangentially related, I feel the need to mention that Monopoly is the worst board game I've ever played. It's the sole reason more people don't play board games, because they don't understand that the games don't all suck ass.
posted by spiderskull at 11:31 PM on September 7, 2009 [4 favorites]

Monopoly is the worst board game

No. Twister is the worst board game. You shouldn't be able to stand on the board. That's too much like real life.
posted by twoleftfeet at 11:49 PM on September 7, 2009

Yeah, I maybe overdid the hyperbole there (heh), but I do think it is at least partially responsible. When I introduce people to, say, Settlers of Catan, there's some mention of how it puts Monopoly to shame in terms of gameplay and how enjoyable it is. You don't have to spend the majority of your time losing like you do it Monopoly.
posted by spiderskull at 12:00 AM on September 8, 2009

It may be a little foretelling that nobody seems to mention anything at all about how the game will work, just that it's got a whole bunch of streets, and buildilngs, and the guy with the top-hat!
posted by Bokononist at 1:40 AM on September 8, 2009

Monopoly is the worst board game

I've commented previously on Monopoly's failings. Not to damn with faint praise, it's an okay game that is popular largely for historical reasons and having the right length / complexity / competition for a family game. More seasoned or serious gamers quickly pick up on faults that casual play may not reveal:

* The order of play has a distinct effect.
* Game length is highly variable.
* For a large part of the game the winners and losers are obvious.
* It has player elimination, which is no fun if you're on the receiving end.
* Some of the rules, as read, are unclear or ambiguous.
* There's a large random component (esp. the cards).
posted by outlier at 1:54 AM on September 8, 2009 [4 favorites]

Yeah, your third and fourth points usually get combined, too - it's usually obvious early on who is going to lose, but it takes a long time to do so. Both pointless and agonising. Unless you're winning, when it's like board game crack.
posted by dg at 3:26 AM on September 8, 2009

I think Monopoly can work okay as long as you add your own house rules; for example, my rules include "you get $500 if you land on Free Parking" and "you have to be really, really drunk". You'd be surprised how much little additions like those can change the multi-hour misery that can be Monopoly into a groggy haze of confusion. These strategies can be so effective that you often don't finish the game at all, cutting short the hours of suffering. As a bonus, when you wake up the next morning, the outcome of the Monopoly game is the least of your problems!
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 5:37 AM on September 8, 2009

"you have to be really, really drunk".

This is pretty much the only way to enjoy Monopoly, which isn't a board game so much as it is a zen-like test of patience.
posted by The Whelk at 8:11 AM on September 8, 2009

Actually, if you play Monopoly according to the strict rules -- no free parking bonus, all properties landed on are either purchased or auctioned, etc... the games generally don't last more than 90 minutes, tops. It is because people don't want to have to deal with auctions, like the free parking payday, etc which keeps the game lasting forever.

I really wonder how the gameplay mechanic is going to work in this version.
posted by hippybear at 10:31 AM on September 8, 2009

I like test cricket, and I hate Monopoly. Stupid game, stupid McDonald's promotion.
posted by mrgrimm at 2:02 PM on September 8, 2009

The only way Monopoly has been allowed back into our family is with the Wii Monopoly which forces the strict rules and keeps games under a few hours. However, the other requirement of turning Monopoly into a drinking game really helps. Every house is a shot, so the pain of going bankrupt is lessened. Until tomorrow morning when everyone curses that hotel on Boardwalk.
posted by msbutah at 9:31 PM on September 8, 2009

It seems, predictably, that the game is currently crippled by demand. I'm looking forward to trying it out though. I chuckled at one of the comments left on the blog, which is currently asking for patience:
"I'm sitting at Mr. Monopoly wanting to shake my hand. I want to shake his hand. PLEASE PLEASE LET ME SHAKE HIS HAND."
posted by tawny at 5:23 AM on September 9, 2009

You shouldn't be able to stand on the board. That's too much like real life.

Been reading Infinite Jest?
posted by dmd at 5:40 AM on September 9, 2009

It's live, but of course failing under the massive amount of demand.
posted by cashman at 7:55 AM on September 9, 2009

I'm getting an Apache setup page for now. I'm wondering how many Apache setup pages I need before I can buy houses.
posted by pompomtom at 8:34 PM on September 9, 2009

I managed to make it through to the actual gameplay. The server situation was total shit at 4pm PDT today. Response time was so slow, I couldn't tell what I was doing, with a lag time of something close to 90 seconds between click and action display. It was stupid and annoying, and if it does the same thing tomorrow when I check in again, they will have lost me as a player for the rest of the game.

Could be an excellent time waster. As it is, it's just a waste of time.
posted by hippybear at 11:54 PM on September 9, 2009

They're resetting the game next week (due to all the glitches and slowness).
posted by cashman at 12:21 PM on September 11, 2009

It's almost a shame they announced that already. They should have waited a few more days until they knew they had all the testing in place for whatever server load they will get. As it is, people are probably going to quit playing and they won't have any kind of real stress test for their new configuration.

(And I'll tell you, they better get it working better, because it has been unplayable to the point that I was going to drop out after today if it had not improved.)
posted by hippybear at 12:46 PM on September 11, 2009

Reset this Thursday/Friday. I'm not coming back. It was fun while it lasted, and I don't need to sink any more time into playing.
posted by cashman at 5:28 PM on September 15, 2009