8060/20991
Ernie and me came down to breakfast ahead of the rest of the family.
"Is today New Year's Boxing Day?" he asked
I told him that it wasn't, but we agreed that it should be. You've got to love the way his mind works,
28 years old, he is.
Ernie loves money so he loves playing Monopoly. He has adapted the game to a) ensure he wins and b) more effectively satirise capitalism (which was the original purpose of the game. It started with him insisting that he should have more money at the start than other players. Quite a lot more. He'd want a big pile of £500s and £100s. It's not a terrible idea to start with a bit more money than the game allows (especially for two player games), but it's a bit unfair if only one player gets lots more. His sister won't play him like this of course, but I don't mind. Some people start with more money in life and they generally win. And they generally cheat even though they've been born with their thumb on the scale already. And most of them are doing well cos their dad gave them all their money.
He's quite a benign rich man though and often hands over a £500 to his opponent when he feels they might need it. And he usually gives in before the game is over, even though he's always winning. Privileged, the benefit of nepotism and lazy. He could be a world leader one day. If he stops giving money away.
More recently he's started adapting the game and I am surprised that the makers of Monopoly have not considered this (maybe they have - there are enough versions out there). The first thing he's done is pretty obvious - he's just made his own money, firstly in denominations of £50,000, which I told him wouldn't work as there wouldn't be enough change and then £10,000 (still a bit high) and then a big pile of one million pound bills. When I played him today, every time I bought a property he'd offer me two million pounds for it. He could afford it and as rents remained the same I'd have been an idiot not to take him up on it. Even if he had hotels everywhere I could keep staying in them for days, maybe years. Again his generosity is his ony capitalist failing, though maybe capitalism might work better if people with ludicrous amounts of cash spread it around like this. It made for a much happier game.
The thing that he has done that I am surprised that the makers of the game have not attempted (unless they have) is to come up with his own chance cards (helpfully on post it notes - the ones he wanted for Christmas) with much greater rewards and terrible punishments. The best one is a card that means you don't have to pay rent for the next three turns (sort of a reverse jail card) - which Ernie also suggested meant that any unsold property that you landed on for three turns you'd get for free. He's also suggested having a card which allows you to steal one property off someone else, a card that gives you £50,000 (a sort of lottery card). It feels like there's a lot of scope to really ramp things up via Chance and Community Chest in a way that barely happens at all now. Just a single bankrupt card would be an amazing addition. It's a pretty dull game, but playing the unfair but unpredictable version that my greedy, evil and benevolent son has come up with has been much more enjoyable and much truer to life. Shake it up Monopoly! Not with your weird app-based version, where they've managed to make the game more boring, but with a board game version where there's a real chance things could get turned on their head. Monopoly Rampage, where people start with different amounts and where things can turn around in an instant, but the rich nearly always win. Until they start having crocodile handbags with faces on them. Then the board gets thrown over and set on fire.
Looks like they have thought of this a little bit. The Jackpot edition is sort of what Ernie has come up with, but not as good.
