HeliographMay 9, 2023
👀 #TIL Monopoly wasn't invented by the Parker Brothers, nor the man they gave it credit for. In 1904, Monopoly was originally called The Landlord's Game, and was invented by a radical woman. Elizabeth Magie's original game had not one, but two sets of rules to choose from.
One was called "Prosperity", where every player won money anytime another gained a property. And the game was won by everyone playing only when the person with the least doubled their resources. A game of collaboration and social good.
The second set of rules was called "Monopoly", where players succeeded by taking properties and rent from those with less luck rolling the dice. The winner was the person who used their power to eliminate everyone else.
Magie's mission was to teach us how different we feel when playing Prosperity vs Monopoly, hoping that it would one day change national policies.
When the Parker Bros adopted the game, they erased the "Prosperity" rules and celebrated "Monopoly".
#ElizabethMagie #Monopoly #Landlord
HT Tumblr.com/soberscientistlife
Show threadRobCorneliusMay 9, 2023

@Heliograph

Fun fact: There is nothing in the current rules preventing players cooperating with one another. Sharing properties and letting one another off mortgages etc.

Its a really fun way to annoy people who say they know how to win by being hyper-capitalist. You can win in short order and they are furious.

Show threadOstrichJun 5, 2023
@robcornelius @Heliograph This is called a cartel and is in fact still hyper-capitalist
Show threadRobCorneliusJun 5, 2023

@ostrich @Heliograph

I would consider it a free association of like minded people who recognise that pooling resources and working together towards a common goal benefits everyone. Then again I am an anarchist.

Anyway its just a game.

Show threadOstrichJun 5, 2023
@robcornelius @Heliograph Benefits everyone in the association and hurts everyone not in it.
So a Cartel.
Show threadRobCorneliusJun 5, 2023

@ostrich @Heliograph People outside of the group are free to join should they change their mind about how to play the game.

Its not a game of "us vs. them" Its a game of cooperation. If people choose not to cooperate with their fellow players there are consequences to them but not their fellow players.

Show threadOstrichJun 5, 2023
@robcornelius @Heliograph Making it voluntary collusion doesn't make it any less collusion.
Show threadRobCorneliusJun 5, 2023

@ostrich @Heliograph

that is the point. Playing collectively beats being some Ayn Rand worshipping uber-capitalist in a **game** that was originally devised to show how useless capitalism is as a system for running an economy.

Show threadOstrichJun 5, 2023
@robcornelius @Heliograph No dude, the game was built with cartelization in mind. You are playing by the game's rules because the game is literally built in an era dominated by trusts and cartels, they anticipated cartelization as a legitimate strategy. It's a capitalist play.
Show threadRobCorneliusJun 5, 2023

@ostrich @Heliograph

You can call that a cartel or collective ownership. Within the limited parameters of the game itself the difference is semantic. Its just a game after all.

In an ideal game all the properties on the board would be collectivized by force if necessary before the game properly starts and no one pays rent to anyone. 😜

Show threadOstrichJun 5, 2023

@robcornelius @Heliograph You are entirely missing the point and it's an important point that you should get.

The Monopoly rules to the Landlord's game were to illustrate the eventual end stage of the prevailing system of that era. The reason cartelization works is systemic. In the real world, the cartels employed Pinkertons to murder anyone who even hinted at resistance.

Failure to resist or outwit the game is not a failure of intelligence or will, it is the core design of the system.

Show threadRobCornelius

@ostrich @Heliograph

As far as I am aware the ideal end state of a game of monopoly is that no one can afford to move their piece at all. Sky high rents left, right and centre, people mortgaging properties just to pay rent etc etc. "Lessons to be learned for the real world" and all that but its a **game**

My ideal version the end state is to make my brother go off in a sulk so we don't have to keep playing bloody monopoly every xmas.

My brothers ideal end state is him owning everything and bankrupting everyone.

The strategy I have outlined of cooperating with friends and family members to gang up on my brother so we reach our ideal end state of the game is very effective at reaching our desired end state as quickly as possible.

If you are on the outside of our group looking in you might call it a cartel. If you are on the inside of the group looking out you might call it a socialist collective. That's what we called it in order to reach our preferred end goal even more quickly, don't knock it when it works perfectly

With limited options compared to the real world when playing the game and to describe what is going on it just boils down to semantics and a persons point of view.

Yes real world landlords are parasites, monopolies, cartels, capitalism etc etc etc are all terrible ways to organise society and economies. We were playing a **game** so played the game for fun not for profit. We played the game remarkably well I think.

Jun 5, 2023 at 3:43pmWeb