Did you know Monopoly was invented by a woman named Elizabeth Magie in 1903?
Originally ‘The Landlord’s Game,’ it was designed as a protest against the big monopolists like Carnegie & Rockefeller.
But it was Charles Darrow, an unemployed salesman, who eventually sold it to Parker Brothers after playing a version.
Parker Brothers credited Monopoly with saving their company. Magie died in 1948 without recognition. Darrow became very wealthy & his legend lives on. #history #women #HistoryRemix
@Sheril she definitely deserves credit, but it's also worth pointing out that the progressive version she designed didn't draw a huge audience and didn't incorporate most of the elements we now associate with #Monopoly -- the alignment of the board with streets and utilities of an actual city, for instance.
It is true Darrow ripped her off. It's also true, though, that Parker Bros. discovered this and bought her patent.
@Sheril This may be a contrarian view , but I trust Mastodon not to let that fact keep us from starting what could be an interesting and respectful conversation.
The Landlord's Game's purpose -- to prove that monopolists are evil -- simply didn't resonate with the public in the way that #Monopoly's did. People wanted to pretend they were real estate tycoons. There was a market for that.
Darrow was a thief, but that didn't make the resulting game, or capitalism, inherently evil. IMHO.
I see another example where creative invention involves borrowing ideas, mixing them, evolving them, and refining them.
Our model of intellectual property is modelled on a creator, rather than the social process it often is.
Our system seems better at giving rewards to lawyers than creators.
Sheril Kirshenbaum
Yusuf Toropov
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