A history of Monoply, and why it is actually a fascinating game that arose out of an interesting socio-economic problem. Presented by Danny Day at the Make Games South Africa meet up in Cape Town on 26 June 2013. A video of the presentation can be found here: http://youtu.be/whVoxmySt1s

2. Monopoly is a bad game

3. Most people play it wrong

4. People keep trying to fix it

5. Who invented Monopoly?

6. 1903, Lizzie J. Magie
• Patents “The Landlord’s Game”
• Fun-filled method of teaching the evils of land
monopolism
• Virginian, Quaker, Single Taxer
• Properties were rented, not purchased
"The object of this game is not only to afford amusement to players, but to illustrate
to them how, under the present or prevailing system to land tenure, the landlord
has an advantage over other enterprisers, and also how the single tax would
discourage speculation.“ – Introduction to rules of The Landlord’s Game

7. WTF is Single Tax?
• 1869, Henry George
• Economic rent of land and un-earned land
value increase profits few rather than many
• Single tax – levied on land
• Idea was to undermine monopolies and
encourage competition
• What happens if land is not capital?

8. 1904-1930, Going Viral
• The Landlord’s Game is played at universities
and in Quaker single tax enclaves, spreads
• Rules slowly changed:
– Added auction to buy property
– Named places after where they lived
– Became “Auction Monopoly”, then “Monopoly”
during copying (in crayon on linen)

9. Random Aside…
• 1910, Prof Scott Nearing plays with his
brother (a Quaker) introduces game to U Pen
Wharton School of Finance
• Eventually Nearing was fired from teaching on
demand of Andrew Carnegie, over child labor
laws
• Socialist economist Nearing went on to
spearhead the idea of ecology

10. 1927, Daniel W. Layman, Jr.
• Plays Monopoly in a fraternity, moves back to
Indianapolis and teaches it to friends
• Eventually has brainwave and markets game
under the name “Finance”
"I understood from various attorney friends of mine that because Monopoly
had been used as the name of this exact game, both in Indianapolis and in
Reading and in Williamstown, Massachusetts, that it was, therefore, in public
domain and that I couldn't protect it in any way. So, I changed the name in
order to have some protection." – Daniel W. Layman, Jr. Deposition for Anti-
Monopoly lawsuit.

11. 1931, The Thuns
• Taught Layman, credited with adding
Community Chest and set completion bonuses
• Patent officer offers to front them money
• Further research by patent office turns up
Magie’s patent: “Patents are for inventors and
you didn't invent it”
• Copyright their rules instead, sell a few copies,
then give up when no chain stores bite

12. "Statement of General Theory - Monopoly is designed to show the evil
resulting from the institution of private property. At the start of the game
every player is provided with the same amount of capital and presumably has
exactly the same chance of success as every other player. The game ends with
one person in possession of all the money. What accounts for the failure of the
rest, and what one factor can be singled out to explain the obviously ill-
adjusted distributions of the community's wealth which this situation
represents? Those who win will answer 'skill.' Those who lose will answer
'luck.' But maybe there will be some, and these, while admitting the elements
of skill and luck, will answer with Scott Nearing 'private property'." – Thun-
version preface to the rules of Monopoly

13. 1933, Charles Darrow
• Unemployed, living off pregnant wife’s wages
(confusing stories of profession)
• Introduced to game by friends, asks them for
written rules
• Begins selling the game in Atlantic City
• Eventually sells rights to Parker Brothers in
Dec 1934
• Widely hailed as inventor of Monopoly

14. Random: Marvin Gardens
• Monopoly in the US is set in Atlantic City, this
is where Charles Darrow lived
• The friend whose board he copied, Charles
Todd, incorrectly copied “Marven Gardens” as
“Marvin Gardens”
• Parker Brothers have not fixed the error,
which has propagated everywhere – movies,
books, maps

15. 1935, Parker Brothers
• Learn that Darrow has defrauded them and
that other companies are selling Monopoly
and Finance
• Have sold nearly 200,000 copies themselves,
were nearly bankrupt
• Decide to run a campaign to cement Darrow
as the game’s creator
• Go on to sell over 1M copies of Monopoly

16. 1935, The $500 buyout
• Parker Brothers offer Magie $500 for the
rights to The Landlord’s Game
• They promise to print copies of it for her
• She doesn’t sign off any game rule changes,
apparently refuses royalties (is a “rabid single
tax evangelist”)
• Purely a protective action, geared towards
allowing sales of Monopoly to continue

17. 1935, The $10,000 buyout
• Parker Brothers moved to buy rights to
Finance
• Daniel Layman, bankrupt had sold the game to
David W. Knapp
• Part of the $10,000 deal included Knapp not
mentioning his knowledge of the history of
Monopoly

18. 1936, Protecting Those Rights
• Parker Brothers move to sue Texan Rudy
Copeland over his Monopoly-like, “Inflation”
• Copeland counter-sues on basis that Darrow’s
patent is invalid
• Parker Brothers pay Copeland $10,000 in an
out of court settlement, again with the gag
clause
• Parker Brothers buy any Monopoly boards
they can find, including the Thuns’

19. 1936, Monopoly Explodes
• Monopoly becomes America’s favorite parlor
activity, defines the idea of a board game
• Sells more than 6M copies
• Darrow interviewed over and over again as
the inventor of Monopoly, fabricates story of
inspiration
"Be a hard-hearted landlord. Demand immediate cash payment of
rents and assessments.“ – Charles Darrow, Germantown Bulletin,
Feb. 13, 1936

20. 1973, Anti-Monopoly
• Ralph Anspach sells Anti-Monopoly game in
protest to the monopolization of Monopoly
• Sued by Parker Brothers in 1974
• Anspach won on appeals in 1979, term
“Monopoly” was too generic
• Law has since changed, Parker Brothers still
holds trademark

21. Monopoly Now
• Parker Brothers owned by Hasbro
• Sells millions of copies a year, currently
totaling over 275M units
• Distributed all over the world, licensed to
many more boardgame makers
• Not bad, for a clone

22. “My challenge to you is as follows. Design a game which is appealing
to play, which will go on to be a huge commercial success and yet
illustrates through its systems the abject and total horror, the
inhumanity, the alienation, the banality, the evil, and the hell-on-
earth of a socio-political practise taken to extreme. The game must
be named honestly. It must be easy to learn. It must be a game for
all the family.”
- Martin Hollis,
http://hardconsonant.com/2013/05/21/martin-hollis-on-monopoly

23. What could we (SA) teach?
• A game whose set-building harkens back to
racial policies?
• What if Smallworld was about political parties
and how power changes their messages?
• What about a game of law enforcement and
legal rights in society?
• Screw Occupy, where’s our game about
sanitation?