![]() ![]() 21, historian Nick Kapur arrived on the scene, whereupon his well-considered take eventually went viral. The game has caused no shortage of chaos on social media, which has likely helped spur on awareness of Hasbro’s latest effort. Another shows antipathy toward supporting public schools (“Don’t have kids? Tough luck.”). Other concepts singled out for ridicule include a minimum wage increase (“Sucks to be a small business owner!”) and the impending collapse of the Social Security system (“Benefits have increased. The community itself crumbles from within on nearly every Chance card. Reading between the lines, the game’s designers are saying that with no incentive to work nothing gets done. As the manual points out, instead of a $200 income as in traditional Monopoly, everyone at the table is given a $50 “living wage” each time they pass Go. The most common outcome on a Chance card is uncovering negligence, corruption, or absenteeism among the labor force. Instead, the game seems to run on conservative agita over topics like organic foods, waste reduction, and concerns over plastic pollution in the environment. In fact, some don’t have anything to do with poking fun at socialism at all. That’s probably for the best, since the Chance cards themselves are incredibly callous. During a single playthrough you’ll burn through all of them at least once, leaving nothing fresh for your second game. The majority of the digs at socialism live in the deck of 44 Chance cards. Monopoly Socialism is essentially a single-use board game. If someone actually does get close to winning, those same instructions also encourage players to act in their own self-interest to thwart them. The several simulated games I played through all ended in bankruptcy, which I’m confident is an intended feature. It’s technically possible for one player to win by developing 10 projects around the board, but it is highly unlikely to actually happen given the capricious nature of random dice rolls. The trick is that since there are only a few ways to put any additional money into the Fund, it dries up before much of anything is accomplished. A cheerful instruction booklet points out that’s the same year that The Communist Manifesto was published. But, instead of paying for things on their own, virtually everything is funded with money from the Community Fund, which gets stocked with $1,848 dollars during game set-up. ![]() ![]() Players take turns rolling dice and moving around the board, just like regular Monopoly. The game’s brand of jokes rely on partisan political humor Marvin Gardens and Park Place are nowhere to be found, replaced with the Healthcare For All Hospital, the No-Tip Vegan Restaurant, and the Together We Rise Bakery. Instead, the majority of the spaces on the game board are taken up with “projects,” a word that (perhaps inadvertently) brings to mind urban housing developments of the 1980s and 1990s. In Monopoly Socialism there are no properties to buy. Even as a joke gift, it’s difficult to recommend for a number of reasons. This self-described parody version, which I purchased online and picked up in a Target store here in the United States, forgoes any pretense of being fun to play. Vanilla Monopoly itself is a dated, frustrating experience even in the most favorable settings. Monopoly Socialism: Winning is for Capitalists, a new board game from Hasbro Gaming, is one of the most mean-spirited board games I’ve ever played. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |