Author Topic: Monopoly vs. Video Games  (Read 5423 times)

LiveLean

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Monopoly vs. Video Games
« on: May 19, 2015, 08:14:38 AM »
Battling like many parents to limit kids' digital obsession while at the same time trying to teach financial education and anti-consumerism.

On Saturday I played Monopoly with sons (12 and 9) for the first time in over a year. On Sunday, after their designated hour of device time was over, they challenged me to another game. If one of them won, they got unlimited screen time the rest of the day. If I won, they each owed me $10.

Game on. I was ruthless, giving no pointers. Still, it's tough to win 2-on-1 Monopoly. Our 12-year-old went out first. But I made a final stand with hotels on the St. Charles/Virginia Ave. pink properties, extending the game to more than three hours before folding at 5 p.m. The 9-year-old was proud of himself, but between dinner and bedtime (it was a Sunday), they didn't get much more screentime. More importantly, they took Monopoly a lot more seriously and the 9-year-old in particular now sees the analogy between the game and our rental property.

aceyou

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Re: Monopoly vs. Video Games
« Reply #1 on: May 19, 2015, 11:51:23 AM »
One of the best games ever!

zolotiyeruki

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Re: Monopoly vs. Video Games
« Reply #2 on: May 19, 2015, 03:10:43 PM »
Nicely done.  Parents can be genius at times :)

asiljoy

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Re: Monopoly vs. Video Games
« Reply #3 on: May 29, 2015, 07:42:40 PM »
Nicely done! Out of curiosity, did you play the full game or did you get the kids version?

LiveLean

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Re: Monopoly vs. Video Games
« Reply #4 on: May 30, 2015, 08:20:17 PM »
Full game!

Thegoblinchief

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Re: Monopoly vs. Video Games
« Reply #5 on: June 12, 2015, 10:56:29 AM »
One of the best games ever!

Monopoly is terrible. There are so many better games to get kids into. Many consider it one of the worst game designs ever created. No idea why it's so popular.

The OP is a neat story however.

Missk

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Re: Monopoly vs. Video Games
« Reply #6 on: June 29, 2015, 09:39:54 AM »
Love this post! I have a love hate relationship with Monopoly. Can anyone provide other money-type games like this?

Jack

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Re: Monopoly vs. Video Games
« Reply #7 on: June 29, 2015, 09:57:15 AM »
One of the best games ever!

Monopoly is terrible. There are so many better games to get kids into. Many consider it one of the worst game designs ever created. No idea why it's so popular.

Monopoly was never intended to be a fun game, it was intended to teach the evils of real estate investment.

The fact that the normal flow of the game is that one player exploits a small random advantage (e.g. having the opportunity to buy Boardwalk) and then uses that to slowly grind his opponents into dust, making said opponents miserable in the process, is exactly the intended point.

I find it amusing and ironic that mustachians are using it to teach almost the opposite lesson.

That said, I usually enjoy playing it (but most of the people I've played it with do not. No points for guessing why that is...).

EricP

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Re: Monopoly vs. Video Games
« Reply #8 on: June 29, 2015, 01:37:51 PM »
Love this post! I have a love hate relationship with Monopoly. Can anyone provide other money-type games like this?

There aren't very many good games for actually teaching money practices, but Acquire has a good invest your money now it turns into more later feature.  It's actually a very good game (unlike Monopoly) and adults will enjoy it and I don't think the learning curve is too steep for kids.

There's also Life which is just a Roll and move game, but it has money in there and can be used as a Segue to teaching about actual stuff.

CheapskateWife

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Re: Monopoly vs. Video Games
« Reply #9 on: June 29, 2015, 02:02:31 PM »
We have been enjoying Settlers of Cataan, but it occurred to me this weekend that the game punishes you for "saving" in the form of the robber and rolling the dreaded 7.    For those who are not familiar, when a 7 is rolled, anyone who has more than 7 resource cards in their hand is forced to relinquish half to the bank.  Ouchie!

Maybe that just keeps the game rolling along but we might give it a try without the rule in place and see how it goes.

johnny847

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Re: Monopoly vs. Video Games
« Reply #10 on: June 29, 2015, 02:10:54 PM »
We have been enjoying Settlers of Cataan, but it occurred to me this weekend that the game punishes you for "saving" in the form of the robber and rolling the dreaded 7.    For those who are not familiar, when a 7 is rolled, anyone who has more than 7 resource cards in their hand is forced to relinquish half to the bank.  Ouchie!

Maybe that just keeps the game rolling along but we might give it a try without the rule in place and see how it goes.

One could also interpret the robber as teaching somebody to properly run a business. You don't want to be sitting on too many resources sitting idle, but you also need some resources on hand to be able to expand your business.
In this case, instead of there being an opportunity cost to having idle resources, there is an explicit (albet random) cost.

The 9-year-old was proud of himself, but between dinner and bedtime (it was a Sunday), they didn't get much more screentime.
Sounds like you actually won ;)
Did your kids actually realize that?

CheapskateWife

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Re: Monopoly vs. Video Games
« Reply #11 on: June 29, 2015, 02:41:37 PM »
One could also interpret the robber as teaching somebody to properly run a business. You don't want to be sitting on too many resources sitting idle, but you also need some resources on hand to be able to expand your business.
In this case, instead of there being an opportunity cost to having idle resources, there is an explicit (albet random) cost.
I see the point, will be sure to frame it that way the next time we have the debate at the dining table :)

EricP

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Re: Monopoly vs. Video Games
« Reply #12 on: June 30, 2015, 08:08:56 AM »
We have been enjoying Settlers of Cataan, but it occurred to me this weekend that the game punishes you for "saving" in the form of the robber and rolling the dreaded 7.    For those who are not familiar, when a 7 is rolled, anyone who has more than 7 resource cards in their hand is forced to relinquish half to the bank.  Ouchie!

Maybe that just keeps the game rolling along but we might give it a try without the rule in place and see how it goes.

Without the robber it makes the game much less fun.  People are less willing to trade because there is no penalty to hording resources.  It makes the game almost completely about starting placement (which already has a huge impact).  If you aren't collecting all of the resources at the start of the game you're screwed because people have no benefit to trading with you.  It also takes a lot of suspense out of the late game.  Players can just sit on handfuls of resources and then get 6 points all at once.

But I really don't think anyone (children included) who has a good finance background would walk away from that game thinking saving is bad.

 

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