Hasbro has made a number of special editions for Monopoly over the course of its existence, so the news of a new special edition being released in the fall of 2018 was not particularly interesting. Instead, what caught people’s attention is how the new special edition of Monopoly will be designed for the purpose of catering to people who cheat when playing Monopoly, which is a rather interesting choice to say the least. Apparently, what happened was that a Hasbro study revealed that close to half of the people who play Monopoly have attempted to cheat in the course of a game, which convinced the game-maker to embrace said individuals by making something even better-suited to them. As a result, the special edition of Monopoly will feature an additional stack of cheat cards, which will be used to reward people who get away with various ways of cheating that include but are not limited to stealing money, moving other people’s tokens, and collecting other people’s rent. Something that could make for a very difference experience when playing Monopoly, even if one can’t help but wonder whether this might be a bad idea.
Why Is Monopoly So Negative Anyways?
With that said, some people might be wondering why Monopoly seems to be so negative in nature. After all, there are a lot of stories of negative behavior caused by otherwise close people playing Monopoly, with examples ranging from cheating to serious fights. Unfortunately, it seems that the answer could well have something to do with the inherent premise of the game as well as how it is played.
First, Monopoly is a board game that is all about crushing the other players. This is in stark contrast with something like, say, Snakes and Ladders, in which the purpose is to beat other players through indirect means by being the first to reach a particular goal. In contrast, Monopoly intends for the players to crush one another via direct means, thus making the general tone of that competition much more negative in nature. There is some room for cooperation in Monopoly, but in the end, the sole purpose of said cooperation is to set up a stronger position for when that once-cooperative relationship reaches its inevitable end.
Second, Monopoly doesn’t actually feature a great deal of gameplay. Simply put, a single game of Monopoly tends to take somewhere between three and four hours. However, most of that time isn’t spent on playing anything but rather on watching other people play. Combined with the negative nature of the competition, it is no wonder that this can produce a fair amount of irritation, which in turn, increases to the chances of a blow-up happening between the players. This is particularly true if it is true, as some people have suggested, that players care more about what happens in Monopoly because the subject matter is something with real life relevance. As a result, when someone does poorly in the game, they feel the psychological impact of that poor performance more so than if they were playing something less relevant.
Summed up, Monopoly‘s reputation for inducing negativity is no accident. However, it will be interesting to see what happens with the new special edition of Monopoly for cheaters, with a particularly interesting point being its impact on fighting between players.
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