Monopoly Game History Investigation Essay
By: Min Woo, Park
Monopoly is one of the most famous board game in our human history. Hasbro game
company claims that there are more than 500 million peoples have played monopoly at
least once in their life. The game Monopoly is sold 111 countries in 43 languages. I have
chosen to write a history investigation about this game because this game is so famous so I
thought there would be a lot of information to find online and also the other reason is that
many people don’t know this amazing history of Monopoly so this would be a great
opportunity for me to introduce the history of this game to everyone who read this essay. In
this essay, I will introduce you about Monopoly and the fascinating game history.
Monopoly is a famous American classical game and the whole story started when Elizabeth
Maggie the political activist and as a young lady, she created a board game called “The
Landlord’s Game” on January 5th, 1904. The game demonstrated the present day system
land-grabbing with its outcomes and consequences. As soon as she was married and
moved to Washington D.C, she published the game on 1924. The new version of the game
called “Prosperity” was published in 1932 following of her business success. Somewhere
around 1900s, Scott Nearing got “The landlord’s game” introduced by Lizzie Maggie and he
decided to use it for his teaching in his class because obviously he was a part of economics
department at Pennsylvania University. He thought he could use this game in his class so
that the students would understand about the economics and land owning more. He had
said that his students really liked the game and started to change the board in their own
design and rules and instead of imaginary street names, they wrote the name of the states,
cities and it was getting more realistic. They also changed the name of the board slowly
from “The landlord’s game” to “Auction Monopoly and finally just only “Monopoly” what we
call it today. The famous board game company called “Parker Brothers” bought the game
“Monopoly” from Elizabeth Maggie for just only $500 in the condition of the company
continues to publish both “The landlord’s game” and “Monopoly” in same time. Then the
company changes the whole background and the game was finally getting more and more
modernized towards todays “Monopoly”. Unfortunately, “Monopoly” went really well but
“The landlord’s game” was immediately recalled by the stores and all the games was either
missing a piece or being destroyed when opened. They sold only few hundreds game
boards until the game got discontinued. Luckily, “Monopoly” is still among the best board
game of all time and it is still on “The throne of board games”.
The rule of the game is very easy and very well known around the world since it’s one of the
most popular games in the world. Right now I will tell you how to play one of the most
famous games in the world. The board is a wide square containing street names, trains,
jails. Each players will be given certain amount of the money and they will begin the game
by rolling the dice, moving their piece and buying properties or pay money to other player
when you enter others property and the one who has the most money wins the game.
My conclusion is that the reason that made this game related to creative and innovation is
that this game was creative in a way of how Elizabeth Maggie tried to made the game to be
an educational game by teaching what is the outcome and consequences of land grabbing.
The game was very unusual for that time. Who would even thought of making a board game
that can buy lands, earn money combined with a dice game? The game was also very
unique from other games because it was the game that simulates you in the imaginary
game world and you becoming a billionaire in the game. The game was innovative in the
funny way. The game was first called “The landlord’s game” and the players were keep
changing the setting, rules and story based on their background and finally the name
changed from the landlord’s game to “Monopoly”. As a conclusion, this was an essay that I
wrote to you so that all of you can understand the game history of the great “Monopoly”. I
want to say that Monopoly is awesome game that all of you must have played this game at
least once in your life. Now that you know that right history of the game, go and play
monopoly and call me if there are any differences.
Works Cited
Bellis, Mary. "Monopoly Monopoly - Charles Darrow." About.com Inventors. About.com, 05 Mar.
2014. Web. 16 Apr. 2014. <http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa121997.htm>.
Dodson, Edward J. "The True History of the Monopoly Game." The True History of the Monopoly
Game. Edward J. Dodson, Dec. 2011. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
<http://www.henrygeorge.org/dodson_on_monopoly.htm>.
The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Monopoly (board Game)." Encyclopedia Britannica
Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, 8 Oct. 2013. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/390058/Monopoly>.