Meta, but one rule I was surprised to learn: if someone doesn't buy a property when they land on it, it is immediately auctioned off by the bank.
> I seem to remember a similar study from years ago saying the optimal strategy was to always buy if you can.
The optimal rule is a little different: don't sit on cash until a housing crisis.
Just like in a real-life business, sitting on cash that could be working for you is a bad idea.
It really works when playing with kids, but I noticed that the consequence of it in most games is that the player who goes first usually wins.
That is the point the game is meant to teach. Literally.
The original game developed by Lizzie Magie is a didactical game to illustrate the problems of monopolies accumulating ever more wealth.
It is crazy that we seemingly forgot the message and keep playing this game. Even on a purely “is this fun” level there are so much better games.