The Monopoly Problem

Like most people, I have a love/hate relationship with Monopoly. Unlike most people, there is more love in my ratio than hate.

I have three different versions of Monopoly: the classic one, there Here and Now Edition and a reproduction of the first version that came out.

I also have the app on my tablet and a 15-year-old electronic version that's not as fancy and graphically beautiful as the app but still serves its purpose well.

But it doesn't matter how many version of Monopoly you have if there's no one to play with. The thing is though, people usually don't want to play Monopoly because it takes hours to play. Once, I actually showed the Here and Now game to some friends because they wanted to see it with the clear understanding that we weren't going to play. That would be crazy.

My mom has plenty of stories of days-long games with siblings, which required physically moving the game to different locations in the house to keep playing. That's true dedication to the game--a dedication I've yet to find among others.

And it seems to me that's what we're all looking for: someone who wants to play Monopoly with us. No, more than that. Someone who wants to do something that we want to do and be willing to play with us for a few hours, maybe even a few days and, sometimes, the rest of our lives.

With the electronic version, I play with virtual characters who each have a different personality. But they don't grow or develop as players. After years of playing, I know exactly which character will do what under certain circumstances and I use this knowledge to my advantage. It's not as challenging as playing with real people. After a while, you instinctively know what each character will do to win. Hot Shot and Greedy Grannie are always going to ask you to trade even when they have little to offer, Connie Cashola and Penny Wise will always be smart about their trades and say no to offers that won't benefit them, and Diamond Jim will always be easy to fool at the beginning of the game. And every one of them can be persuaded with exorbitant amounts of money.

Playing with a real person is different. Mostly, because a lot of people don't really trade on Monopoly (then again, how would I really know that right?), and also because they have brains. You can interact with them. And that's what we really want: the connection with others. In the end, even for those who are really competitive, a game of Monopoly is just a game. There's no real money, no real risk, no real mortgages to pay off. But the people are real and their reactions to us and even the game tells us more aobut them, lets us see other layers of their personality.

So the enchantment is this: It's more fun to play with friends, no matter what game it is.