Monopoly goes digital, no banker required.

Beginning this summer, Monopoly is going cashless. The new version of the game eliminates cash and all math. Players will need smart phones, and everything will be tabulated for them. One article mentions some other rule changes but doesn't say what they are
Monopoly is a game my Nephews play with their kids as an alternative to computer games. This seems like a capitulation to the modern world.

They've had Online and PC Monopoly games for decades, a phone App isn't going to change anything!

Matter of fact, it might be a good idea to buy up the last few unopened Monopoly board games and sell them off in a few years!

I still have Sealed Versions of the Apprentice and Monopoly Board Games with everyone's Favorite President Plastered all over the Box!

Quote: 7NeverWins

They've had Online and PC Monopoly games for decades, a phone App isn't going to change anything!

Matter of fact, it might be a good idea to buy up the last few unopened Monopoly board games and sell them off in a few years!

I still have Sealed Versions of the Apprentice and Monopoly Board Games with everyone's Favorite President Plastered all over the Box!
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It changes everything. There is no banking, no stealing. This isn't an online or PC game. It involves players sitting around the board, rolling the dice, etc.

I recently bought an early 1960s Monopoly that appeared to be very lightly played. I got it at an auction for $4. Today's collectors Monopoly sets seem to be vastly overmade and generally sell for less than the suggested price a year or so after they come out.
I'm sure Parker is not going to retire the cash portion forever. In a few years they'll have Classic Monopoly as an option.

Cashless Monopoly variants have been around for at least 15 years. That's when I bought one. We played it for about five minutes, then threw it in the closet and brought out real Monopoly.

Gimme the cash any day.

Why not have Monopoly with elements of both?

I've always liked electronic board games (think of a board with batteries and flashing lights), probably just a Gen-X thing, and Monopoly seems like it would be well suited to that. Put a Raspberry Pi in there, a few small LED screens, rechargeable battery and it will play just like the real thing, except brighter and no stuff to lose.

Come to think of it such a setup could be made as a generic classic board game platform and you can download code for all the other similar games. Just imagine that whole bookshelf full of games replaced by one box.

A 20x20" tablet that runs board games sounds great.

Anybody that does this needs to provide for real dice. Rolling dice is an essential part of the board game experience.
Simulated dice may be honest, but would make the games unengaging.

The board, pawns, cards, and bank are easy enough to simulate, without losing the essential gameplay experience.

Before we handled real money, my sister and I were tasked with setting up the banks for Monopoly. Every player got X amount of each denomination, and we'd take turns being the bankers. By the time we started school, we knew that if you bought Marvin Gardens for $260 and paid with a $500 bill, you got back two hundred bills and two twenties. I was taken aback when we moved to America and found out they no longer used $500 bills.
Years later, when tasked with counting thousands of receipts nightly, I often remembered the days when we'd count out the banks for the game.

Quote: Dieter

A 20x20" tablet that runs board games sounds great.

Anybody that does this needs to provide for real dice. Rolling dice is an essential part of the board game experience.
Simulated dice may be honest, but would make the games unengaging.

The board, pawns, cards, and bank are easy enough to simulate, without losing the essential gameplay experience.
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Oh yes, it is better with physical dice I think.

But leave it to me to overcomplicate it! Which dice? What if you had a collection of dice, ranging from tetrahedral to dodecahedral, and you can choose and throw any of them that you wish? You have 30 seconds to make your decision or you Go To Jail.

This relates to some new AI math I am working on, where functions are defined as sums of random integers with arbitrary ranges. So every decision it makes is expressed as a sum of a whole collection of dice like this, which makes the output generally predictable with ranges but sometimes unexpected. Just like us. But in the case of Monopoly, careful selection of dice will give the player some degree of control over where he lands.

Quote: AutomaticMonkey

Quote: Dieter

A 20x20" tablet that runs board games sounds great.

Anybody that does this needs to provide for real dice. Rolling dice is an essential part of the board game experience.
Simulated dice may be honest, but would make the games unengaging.

The board, pawns, cards, and bank are easy enough to simulate, without losing the essential gameplay experience.
link to original post

Oh yes, it is better with physical dice I think.

But leave it to me to overcomplicate it! Which dice? What if you had a collection of dice, ranging from tetrahedral to dodecahedral, and you can choose and throw any of them that you wish? You have 30 seconds to make your decision or you Go To Jail.

This relates to some new AI math I am working on, where functions are defined as sums of random integers with arbitrary ranges. So every decision it makes is expressed as a sum of a whole collection of dice like this, which makes the output generally predictable with ranges but sometimes unexpected. Just like us. But in the case of Monopoly, careful selection of dice will give the player some degree of control over where he lands.
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Monopoly falls apart when played with dice other than 2d6.
Pipped vs numeral markings may be any that those playing agree to before the first roll.

I suggest that the tablet designers include both options, a sort of electronic "Trouble bubble", as well as a camera on an arm that can be raised above a dice rolling area with OCR to automatically input the roll result.

Any games reliant on a d4 aren't gonna work nicely with the camera. (Maybe?)

Quote: AutomaticMonkey

<snip>Oh yes, it is better with physical dice I think.

But leave it to me to overcomplicate it! Which dice? What if you had a collection of dice, ranging from tetrahedral to dodecahedral, and you can choose and throw any of them that you wish? You have 30 seconds to make your decision or you Go To Jail.<snip>link to original post

AutomaticMonkey,

Intriguing idea: so if you're sitting on Short Line and your opponent has three houses each on Park Place ($1100) and Boardwalk ($1400) so you REALLY don't want to roll a four or less, you simply roll five dice... and if you get a Yahtzee, you get another turn!

I do see some problems with the idea, though. What if you roll 10 icosahedrons? "Let's see... 15 + 12 + 6 + 19 + 14 + 15 + 12 + 17 + 20 + 12... I got a 142, so starting from Just Visiting I make three complete laps ($600 please, Mr. Banker) and land on North Carolina."

Also, giving the player the option to "Go To Jail" at will (by declining to decide within 30 seconds) would be regularly abused by clever players. Instead, perhaps the penalty should be that one of the other players chosen at random gets to decide where the dilatory player lands.

Just some thoughts!

Dog Hand

(ahem!)

Changing the size and quantity of dice rolled from turn to turn would seem to be cheating in any game.
The spirit of the rules is clear, although the language is ambiguous (but infallible with the common dice) - only one GO payment may be received per turn for advancing by rolling the dice.

Quote: Dieter

(ahem!)

Changing the size and quantity of dice rolled from turn to turn would seem to be cheating in any game.
The spirit of the rules is clear, although the language is ambiguous (but infallible with the common dice) - only one GO payment may be received per turn for advancing by rolling the dice.
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I've never heard that last rule. If you pass go (and collect $200) and receive a Chance card that says advance to Go, are you saying you don't collect another $200? Obviously, the most spaces you can move only on dice is 36, but you can pass go twice in a turn.

Quote: billryan

Quote: Dieter

(ahem!)

Changing the size and quantity of dice rolled from turn to turn would seem to be cheating in any game.
The spirit of the rules is clear, although the language is ambiguous (but infallible with the common dice) - only one GO payment may be received per turn for advancing by rolling the dice.
link to original post

I've never heard that last rule. If you pass go (and collect $200) and receive a Chance card that says advance to Go, are you saying you don't collect another $200? Obviously, the most spaces you can move only on dice is 36, but you can pass go twice in a turn.
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You are collecting one $200 from the dice advance.
You are collecting one $200 from the results of the card action.

No conflict.
I admittedly am using "turn" imprecisely. "Roll of the dice" may be a better phrasing, considering the doubles rules.

I once landed on Park Place, via rolling doubles. It had four houses on it, and I hocked nearly everything to pay it off. I rolled again and landed on Chance, which sent me on vacation to the hotel on Boardwalk. It was an expensive but memorable turn.

Quote: billryan

I once landed on Park Place, via rolling doubles. It had four houses on it, and I hocked nearly everything to pay it off. I rolled again and landed on Chance, which sent me on vacation to the hotel on Boardwalk. It was an expensive but memorable turn.
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Turns like that are how tables get flipped. 😂