Monopoly Board Game Views

Toys & Games

The history of the board game Monopoly can be traced back to the early 20th century. The earliest known design was by the American Elizabeth Magie created in 1903. A series of board games were developed from 1906 through the 1930s that involved the buying and selling of land and the development of that land. By 1934, a board game had been created much like the version of Monopoly sold by Parker Brothers and its parent companies through the rest of the 20th century, and into the 21st. Several people, mostly in the Midwestern United States and near the East Coast, contributed to the game's design and evolution.

In 1903, the Georgist Lizzie Magie applied for a patent on a game called The Landlord's Game with the object of showing that rents enriched property owners and impoverished tenants. She knew that some people would find it hard to understand the logic behind the idea, and she thought that if the rent problem and the Georgist solution to it were put into the concrete form of a game, it might be easier to demonstrate. She was granted the patent for the game in January 1904. The Landlord's Game became one of the first board games to use a continuous path, without clearly defined start and end spaces on its board.[5] A copy of Magie's game, dating from 1903–1904, was discovered for the PBS series History Detectives. This copy featured property groups, organized by letters, later a major feature of Monopoly as published by Parker Brothers.[6]

The official Parker Brothers rules and board remained largely unchanged from 1936-2008. Ralph Anspach argued against this during his conversation with Maxine Brady in 1975, calling it an end to steady progress and an impediment to progress.[73] Several authors who have written about the board game have noted many of the house rules that have become common among players, although they do not appear in Parker Brothers' rules sheets. Gyles Brandreth included a section titled Monopoly Variations, Tim Moore notes several such rules used in his household in his Foreword, Phil Orbanes included his own section of variations, and Maxine Brady noted a few in her preface.[74][75][76][77]

The first major changes to the Monopoly game itself occurred with the publication of both the Monopoly Here & Now Electronic Banking Edition by Hasbro and Monopoly: The Mega Edition by Winning Moves Games in 2006. The Electronic Banking Edition uses VISA-branded debit cards and a debit card reader for monetary transactions, instead of paper bills.[78] This edition is available in the UK, Germany, France, Australia and Ireland. A version was released in the U.S. in 2007, albeit without the co-branding by Visa. An electronic counter had been featured in the Stock Exchange editions released in Europe in the early 2000s, and is also a feature of the Monopoly City board game released in 2009.