Why Does Monopoly Start Arguments?: The London History Show

160 Comments

1. As an Australian, don't all pub crawls start at 11 o'clock?

2. Oh my gosh gurl, I love the tux you're wearing at the end of this one 🥰

3. This wasn't what I was expecting….it was so much better.

5. Forgot these who are tired of this game, please check out coopoly, a cooperative game designed to build community

6. I would be interested in seeing the Georgist/alternate rules. I might go and actually play monopoly for the first time in decades. Do you know if they're printed anywhere?

7. The last time I played Monopoly was maybe 20 years ago. My brother, who I must stress was a fully grown adult in his 20s at the time (as was I), had decided in his own interpretation of the rules, that if he rolled a double, giving him a second turn, he was only liable for rent if they could call ‘rent’ while his piece was physically on the square.

   He rolled a double that day, and noticed he was about to land on Mayfair, which I owned with three houses. He picked up the dice in one hand, his piece in the other. Counted out the places, and all at once, put his piece on Mayfair, rolled the dice, and picked it up. I was calling ‘rent rent rent’ the whole time.

   He insisted he had not been on the square at the exact moment I was saying the word ‘rent’, so he refused to pay up.

   Every other player agreed with me, so I attempted to retrieve my rent from his money pile. A brief scuffle ensued, and needless to say, the game was shortly thereafter abandoned.

   I’m not an angry man, but I think about that every time Monopoly comes up, and I’m still sore about it.

8. I can drink that much… But I'm unusual in that I'm a 5"7' woman who can outdrink everyone I know. I usually drink roughly once a month, usually only a few, but if it's called for I'm the last one standing, giving people piggy backs in my 4" heels, and making sure everyone gets home safe. That is even true post children.

   So I should arrange a long pub crawl where everyone else only does one side of the board, and I do the lot. People changing over as we progress.

9. I don’t know about other people, but I don’t think I’ve ever played Monopoly by the rules. Since most of us learn to play as children (I got a copy at 6 or 7?) we’re normally taught by other children who learned a simplified version of the game. Plus everyone has their own weird variants like all fines go into Free Parking and whoever lands there gets the money. By the time you’re old enough to get all the rules, you’ve probably written it off as a waste of time.

10. The irony that when, from a group of friends, one person claims to have invented a “new game”.
    His friends know that isn’t true.
    He makes money.
    He loses all of his friends.

11. Thanks for the video! I remember reading something about Magie and her anticapitalist intention behind the game.
    Also a coincidence: the original book series, that the crime thriller series Babylon Berlin is based on. (I don’t know, if the books are published in other languages and would be popular, but the TV series has been mentioned somewhere else I think) In the last book the family of Konrad Adenauer (once Mayor of Cologne, and first Chancellor of West Germany after WWII) is shown playing a Berlin version of Monopoly. The modern version, I’d say, features generic street names like German authors (Goethe, Schiller, Lessing) and the most expensive ones are called Parkstraße and Schlossallee 🏰 pretty generic. Though additional city/regional versions have been published, to make money from the idea… has that happened elsewhere?

12. Excellent video.

    Absolutely fascinating ❤

13. I'm not allowed to play Monopoly. 🫤

14. I've been hearing versions of the "Monopoly was developed by socialists to demonstrate the flaws of capitalism" story for decades, and This may very well be the case but the rules of Monopoly are so absurdly unlike the rules of any possible functioning real estate market, I have to suspect the creators must have smoked a lot of opium. That doesn't stop it from being fun to play

15. The strange thing about georgism is that no one's ever done it because marxism is better lol and is way simpler imo

16. Funny thing in the US i got a monopoly ad when i watched.

17. Omg! My siblings and I used to play the us version with my dad until 30 years ago he taught us what coops were and we started playing it in coop mode. We learned that way that the game didn’t end with one winner, it went on and on! Not surprising, coops are a big deal in Uruguay. We were playing the original version without knowing it!

18. Brilliant!

19. This was awesome

20. cooperative mode sounds fun

21. Ok now I really want to play the Landlord’s game. I wonder if I can recreate it or find a a copy…

22. Getting a patent on monopoly is a more than a little ironic. 🙂

23. Shared. We played a Dublin version in Ireland. Also we played a spin-off called Anti-monopoly, where you were meant to break up monopolies.

24. Of course, what you learn is not what you are supposed to learn. You learn that property ownership gives people an incentive to maintain and improve their property. You only need to look at the dumps in socialist countries to learn what you get from joint ownership of property.

25. The very first line of the video immediately made me think of "Something Always Happens" by Art Of Noise ("the Art Of Noise is weird!"). Anyone elso know that one?

26. Fun Fact: The British Secret Service, or MI9 (which im going to take a guess in saying it means Section 9, or 9th division of the Ministry of Intelligence), made a modified version of Monopoly to help smuggle escape kits containing escape maps, money, and tools to captured Allied soldiers in WWII.

27. We do NOT allow Monopoly in our house specifically because of the anger this game inspired in our childhood! Good to know there is a reason!

28. (from Australia!) I grew up playing monopoly knowing it was enraging – so many arguments! But the last time I, a raging socialist, played it was against another raging socialist, and we agreed to stop half way through because we could not in conscience continue! I'd like to play the co-operative version though, that sounds like fun

29. The whole part about people adding onto the games themselves and adjusting it to their liking is so funny to me because that’s exactly what my family always did growing up. We would fine people for bad language and make them put fifty dollars in the centre of the board, and whoever landed on free parking would get to keep it. We’d also shuffle the property deeds in the beginning, distribute them at random and then everyone had fifteen minutes before the game started to haggle and trade and try to build colour sets.

    Who knew our weird rules were actually part of a long tradition in the games’ history?!

30. I had a friend who fancied himself a financier. He loved Monopoly and for his birthday, I bought him an anniversary edition. Unfortunately, no one would play with him because he was merciless. He lived in Manhattan and I was living in Brooklyn, he said he would visit if I would play Monopoly with him. Not knowing why no one would play with him, I agreed. He showed up raring to go but after dinner, I started to feel ill but I soldiered on. As the night wore on, I developed a fever. He was clearly winning but he wouldn’t stop. He refused. I said I have no money left. He said I’ll loan you money. Which he did again and again until he owned every piece of property on the board. I hate Monopoly!

31. Look up the psychology experiment using Monopoly where they would give one player a huge advantage. Very enlightening

32. Canada did not use the UK version. Or at least I have never encountered one here in Canada in ~35 years. So like many other things that are common within the Commonwealth, Canada is an exception.

33. What does it mean that I have fun playing Monopoly?

34. That might be your snazziest outfit yet, and you wear it with such panache!

35. When we were in University we produced our own homemade version of Monopoly. I didn't know we were basing that on a real tradition of custom games! Weirdly it also had a similar feel, that the point of the game was almost for everyone to lose.

    The premise was the same, except "properties" were courses that you could take. If you landed on them you could "take the exam" and receive a grade. Then anyone who landed on the square would pay you for "tutoring". You could upgrade your grade and charge more for tutoring.

    Anyway, the real issue with the game was the money system. For passing 'Go' you would receive your loan for the year. A large sum of money designed to help you make it round only once. In the chance cards we made you often had expenses. And at the end of the board there was a square called something like 'Loan repayment' which was obscenely high. It definitely needed more play testing.

    Great video, love your channel

36. It would be good to add a new set of George Rules, for mum and dad's marriage, and an economic lesson for everyone else. The current understanding of economics is that of a 12th century peasant. Fun to think about updated player pieces for every country.
    Loath that game itself – don't have that 'carpe jugulum' spirit.

37. My grandparents had the London version while I was growing up in rural Australia.

38. Elizabeth Magie deserves a cracking biopic.

39. Why am I thinking about the film Heretic?😊

40. You are absolutely fantastic! such an adventurous story for an iconic board game I grew up with 🙂 Thank you so much 🙂

41. want to see Brennan Lee Mulligan playing the Georgist version of this game on Dropout now

42. My dad insisted on being banker, and would miraculously have lots of cash whenever he sent us kids to fetch drinks and snacks. 🙄
    Haven’t played it since I left home. 🎉

43. While I've seen economists flare up into arguments over whether Monopoly is actually a realistic representation of economics and I've not played Monopoly in ages (last game was in 2021 I think and it was Monopoly: Socialism so I'm not sure that counts) but I do have a question, is it possible to do a Monopoly Tee-Total pub crawl?
    Basically, like a regular pub crawl only drinking soft drinks instead, I once did a pub crawl where I only drank soft-drinks and while I don't know a good name for it I hope you all have a lovely day.

44. Thanks, you sort of made my day. Not everything was going well, I was tired
    Then I saw your video. Okay, life got better.

45. I want to hsbe a go at the georgist rules

46. No because why do conservatives try to scaremonger by painting anyone even remotely left wing as way cooler than they are. Stolen valor honestly

47. Can confirm I played the UK version in 70s New Zealand. They did make a localised version in the 80s or 90s, but the locations were kind of haphazard and not necessarily logical for the game, instead just picked main streets scattershot from across the country.

48. This awful game suddenly makes so much more sense

49. That was a great book!

50. You look great in the suit by the way

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