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
@Sheril i had no idea thanks for sharing :)
Just had to see the original board layout, here is a nice article with it, the irony in this is beyond belief
And this is why, if somebody ever forces you to play Monopoly, once one person starts accumulating all the wealth, you should incite the other players to form a collective and strip the land baron of his ill-gotten gains.
@Sheril There’s an episode of the Austrian/German podcast “Geschichten aus der Geschichte” (“Tales from History”) about this: https://www.geschichte.fm/podcast/zs236/
Wir springen ins Jahr 1904 in die USA. Elizabeth Magie bekommt ein Patent für das Brettspiel „The Landlord’s Game“, mit dem sie nicht nur den Kapitalismus ihrer Zeit kritisiert, sondern auch eine andere Wirtschafts- und Gesellschaftstheorie verbreiten möchte: Das Single-Tax-Prinzip nach Henry George. Das Spiel verbreitet sich in den folgenden Jahrzehnten in unterschiedlichen Communities, etwa in US-Colleges oder den Quäkern in Atlantic City. So entdeckt es auch Charles Darrow, der eine Variante des Spiels als „Monopoly“ der Spielefirma Parker Brothers anbietet. Darrow galt daher lange Zeit als Erfinder des Spiels, das heute wie kein anderes für den Kapitalismus steht und zu den erfolgreichsten Brettspielen überhaupt zählt.
Since more than 1 billion people have played it, you're probably familiar with the board game Monopoly, but we bet you don't know its secret origins as a left-wing socialist teaching tool. Learn about the history, rules and cultural impact of Monopoly.
Just verified this myself. It's an interesting and important piece of history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lizzie_Magie#Monopoly
@Sheril From my reading not quite true.
The Landlord’s Game was innovative and Magie should be better known, at least in gaming circles.
Magie was friends of the Parker brothers and I believe they even published her game. They made recommendations to her, such as patenting it as a game, she patented it as a learning device. Her game was tied to the ideas of Henry George and 100% tax on property.
The story is not as simple as presented here.
@Sheril For those who want more details:
Parlett, David. "Lizzie Magie: America’s First Lady of Games" Board Game Studies Journal, vol.13, no.1, 2019, pp.99-109. https://doi.org/10.2478/bgs-2019-0005
Caleb Warren
Sheril Kirshenbaum
anubis2814
Thekingoflorda
Ulf Dittmer
Steph Kay
BinaryUnit
A Vernal Pool
Sally Strange
Christian Gudrian
Deb4+ aka Deborah DT 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
Inge Helliman
unlucio 🌍 
Ivor Hewitt
Shredd Tone 
Paul Chernoff
Peter Riley
Semi Sentient AI Cooling Water
Jonas R. (er/ihm)
Elias Mårtenson
GeoffreyWinn
🦫💧🐸 🌻🌹
Sally Arnold
JGirCo 
LAF and LOVE
Aecernist
Sudhir Virulkar
David Brown 