Google/Hasbro to launch worlds largest online monopoly game September 9th

The Examiner ^ | 09/08/09 | J Brown

[Jabrown]

Everybody needs a break from time to time from our daily lives filled with the stress of the economy, politics and an onslaught of negative news. As a result and as an effort to rebuild brand loyalty, Hasbro has teamed up with Google maps to launch the worlds largest online monopoly game.

Monopoly City Streets will incorporate google map technology to allow you to compete against your friends and a worldwide community in order to become the richest property owner in the world. Although the companies have released limited information about the game, what little has leaked out is creating high expectations.

In the global online version, you will start with a $3 million bankroll and the traditional playing board has been replaced with google maps. In other words, skyscrapers in New York to a ...

[wastedyears]

Look for government user names to live out the fantasy.

[KarlInOhio]

username SecTreasGeithner has bought everything. Game over.

[rwfromkansas]

Sounds neat.

[Dr. Sivana]

The best Monopoly games involve lots of complex agreements that could not possibly be replicated in a practical way online.

Monopoly is a fascinating game, if you and the other players know and play by the original rules.

[FlJoePa]

I play the new Hasbro pc game nearly every night. It isn’t an online game and you can only play against up to 3 computer generated opponents.

It is addictive. As you say, it IS a fascinating game. Things that stand out that the novice player wouldn’t initially understand (imo):

* Time spent in jail when everything is built up around you is key. The more time you can spend rolling for doubles, the better

* If someone is about to go bankrupt and you want his properties (or don’t want another opponent to have them), you’d better offer him some sort of sweetheart cash/trade offer that will keep him afloat until he comes back around to your properties

* The bank limit on hotels and houses can get tricky. Once I made the mistake of thinking I could tear down a few hotels to re-purchase them for another set of properties. Heh. I created a shortage of houses and had no choice but to tear ALL the houses down. Learned my lesson there.

* I’ve determined that double 4’s are the best starting roll and that the red properties are the best monopoly to own (houses are reasonable and Illinois Ave. has a Chance Card)

* Getting off to a fast start is imperative. Nothing sucks more than falling behind your opponents then landing on their already purchased properties the first couple times around the board.

[P.O.E.]

I prefer the run-up to Free Parking (Purple & Orange). Always good for a hit. Houses & hotels are cheap start-up and give you some early money.

[FlJoePa]

They’re good as well. St. Charles Place obviously has a Chance Card and NY Ave. can get traffic from the dreaded “Go Back 3 Spaces” Chance Card.

[Dr. Sivana]

At a certain level, Monopoly is as much a game of balance of power and diplomacy as anything. Mots of what your game playing intuition has told you is true. Now, I am goingto share a few hints to take them farther.

Both the reds and oranges are desireable color groups, simply because they are conveniently located from jail. Illinois Ave. is the most landed on individual property, and Indiana is close behind. Nonetheless, the oranges as a whole are landed on more (6,8 and 9 spaces from jail, plus an occasional go back 3 spaces to NY Ave.), and the house on the oranges cost considerably less for similar rents.

If you find yourself falling behind in property purchases early, there are ways to address this in a real game, as opposed to a computer version. Let’s say you have one red, one maroon, and one yellow. Other players have more properties, but no one yet has a monopoly. No one is interested in your proerties because they don’t have those colors. Try to find a player who is low on cash, which would probably be the person with the most properties anyway. Tell him, “Hey, what are the odfd of you landing on St. Charles Place before the rest of us. 1 in 4, right? I will offer you $200 in exchange for your agreement to buy St. Charles place and give it to me if it is for sale when you land on it. I’ll give you $350 if you’ll do the same for States Ave. Alternatively, in lieu of cash, you can trade options, which will help him as much as you, although you can use reltive values to your advantage, one green=2 maroons. When you make the deal, you have just doubled your chance of getting those two properties. You can balance out the deal with free lands (one time immunity), free passes (immunity for one trip around the board), etc.

If you find someone who likes railroads or utilities, trade yours for color properties, even if you don’t think you can directly use that property. It can be used as trade bait, or at least keeps someone else from getting a color group.

Deal as much as possible. You don’t have to take adfvantage, either. If you make fair deals, that means both parties benefit. If you make more deals, you benefit more than your opponents. That leads to likely victiry.

Use the light blues to create artficial housing shortages to keep your opponents from building.

That’s all for now. I could go on.

[FlJoePa]

Another phenomenom I’ve learned with 3 computer players in “tycoon” mode (the highest skill level) is the “spec trade/purchase. If I have an Orange and someone else has another orange and I’m coming up on the vacant Orange, time is right for a trade in hopes that I COULD land on the vacant property. This goes on constantly as everyone knows it is very difficult to land on properties to land a 3-property monopoly.

You’re right about money and trades and cash poor competitors. Money can buy properties. Just not at retail. I almost always offer the owner of Baltic or Mediterranean (if I own the other) a few hundred for their property early in the game.

I’ll go as high as $450 (the highest hotel rate for the properties) if I’m flush with cash. I know I’ll get it back.

I finished a game last night where I bankrupted a property rich player (finally) when I had around $8K in cash. It led to me beating my nemesis (who had $17K at the time) and winding up with over $26,000 in cash PLUS properties and hotels.

I made a key move and purchased Electric Company from him for $475 to keep him afloat until he got back around to my Yellow properties.

Note: The only rule I change (you can change nearly ANY rule in the PC game) is that I put tax money in Free Parking. That is only tax money from the board (luxury and income). Tax money from building repairs, etc. from the cards go into the bank.

One other interesting thing I noticed is that rolling doubles to get out of jail ends your turn in this game. Growing up, I just always assumed doubles were doubles and you were entitled to another roll.

You seem to enjoy the game, you should look into the Hasbro PC game. I think you’d really enjoy the game and the graphics

[BenKenobi]

“Hey, what are the odfd of you landing on St. Charles Place before the rest of us. 1 in 4, right? I will offer you $200 in exchange for your agreement to buy St. Charles place and give it to me if it is for sale when you land on it.”

Absolutely illegal according to the rules. I used to do a similar scam, offering a player ‘free stays’ at my places. It took a long time before folks I played with to catch on that this is why I would win.

I second the argument that a fast start is crucial. The way to go if you are falling behind is to offer a cash short but property rich owner a good price on a property. Like 500-600 dollars for a blue property. Otherwise you are a walking bag of cash.

[Dr. Sivana]

I’m sure I’d like the game just fine, just not as much as a real flesh and blood game.

I will warn you, though, that if anyone can accumulate $26,000 or anything near it, the players are not being aggressive enough. (Either that, or everyone has gicven each other immunity). You Free Parking pot sounds like a nice compromise, and gives some hope to the down-trodden. Some start it off with $500 and add all Chance and CC payments to it as well as Income and Luxury Tax. That’s too much.

Even if you don’t get the $450 back for Baltic Ave. Med and Baltic are wonderful for creating spot housing shortages. If you happen to have the light blues and the Dark Purples, that soaks up 20 houses (at four houses each) for only $1,000. That leaves three other players to scramble for the remaining 12 houses. If any two of them start building, you’ll never see hotels.

[Dr. Sivana]

Absolutely illegal according to the rules.

Nope. Done in tournament play all the time. You are exchanging something of value in exchange for something else. There is also nothing in the rules offering free stays. They are called "free passes," (that's for when you are on "Just visiting," and you offer something of value to get by those oranges, which you might or might not hit on that trip around the board). Or "free lands" to be used at the buyer's discretion.

In fat the rules explicitly state that you forfeit your right to a rent if you fail to ask for it before the SECOND player following takes a turn. There is nothing against forfeiting that right on purpose.