A thread for the discussion of games: board, LARP, MMORPG, video, tabletop RPG, game theory etc. etc. and all attendant news, developments and ancillary subjects thereof, as well as coordinating/scheduling games either online or IRL. All are welcome to chime in, talk about their favorite games or learn about gaming of any sort.
PLEASE TO WHITEFONT SPOILERS for video games, RPG modules or anything for which foreknowledge of events might lessen one's enjoyment of whatever gaming experience.
Monopoly was the game DH played with his sister every weekend growing up, and they learned to play by reading the rulebook, so he practically had the rules memorized. And one of the other players just loved the gameplay of Monopoly and spent time figuring out what properties would be most profitable (like, Boardwalk is expensive to pay rent on, but you hardly ever land there so over the course of the game is it really that valuable? He decided Orange was the best, iirc, but Baltic and Mediterranean were surprisingly strong).
I don't think I had ever finished a game of Monopoly before that group started playing, but those were some fun times.
The Oranges are good, for sure. I also loved the Reds. I think I cleaned up with Illinois or Indiana.
Yeah, the corner around Free Parking is golden. People coming out of Jail, I suppose.
BSG
Yes, I'm totally cool with a break.
Oh my god! I have been playing monopoly wrong my whole life! We all have! And my roommates just shrug and go back to playing Borderlands. What is wrong with them?!
BSG
Would folks mind horribly if we interrupt the game until August 1st when I'm back in LA? I'm so sorry about this.
Not a problem for me, we knew there could be an interruption for your work. We're up to your turn, so just go ahead whenever you're ready.
Oh my god! I have been playing monopoly wrong my whole life! We all have!
Us too! Now I want to drag out the old board and give it a try. Monopoly was the traditional New Year's Eve game, since it took so damn long, and NYE was all about the idle waiting anyway. We stuffed ourselves on oil fondue and then played Monopoly until we could watch the ball drop. But I loved it! I was always trying to get people to play.
Railroads and utilities, man. I pwnd the infrastructure.
I haaated Monopoly. I never won and my sister always stormed off.
The scorn for Monopoly is large on boardgamegeek. Part of it's the luck factor, but I think the biggest problem is that it takes a long time to get from the winner being decided to the game actually ending. (Made all the worse with many house variants, such as money on Free Parking.)
Incidentally, When I was younger I had a board game strategy book (put out by Playboy, of all things). It had a cost-benefit analysis of all the properties. Cliff notes: Mayfair et al is well worth it, indeed if one player gets both of them early in the game it's probably all over, but the Greens are overpriced. The Oranges are probably the best properties on the board; they're not too expensive to develop and thanks to the Jail space they get hit up to twice as often as other properties. Red's good for that too, but not quite s good and significantly more expensive.
Cliff notes: Mayfair et al is well worth it, indeed if one player gets both of them early in te game it's probably all over
...Mayfair?
Googles
Oooh, you mean Boardwalk! And Park Place!
