Monopoly, etc.

"never make a promise you can't keep". Guess I shouldn't have promised to blog when I wasn't going to. Oh well.

Today we finished playing Monopoly in my AP economics class. I learned that not everyone plays the same way - kind of like Settlers of Catan or Ninja or other popular games that evolve different rules over time.

Some of the rules I learned this week:
1. when you land exactly on GO, you get 400 instead of 200.
2. When you run out of hotels at the end of a game, five houses can be used as an equivalent (I've never played this way because I was told the scarcity of buildings was a planned strategic part of the game)
3. If you don't collect your cash for passing GO before the end of your turn, you lose it.
4. You may not buy two monopolies that come in a row (AKA you may not own an entire side of the board)
5. Get out a jail free cards are worth $50 when returned to the bank unused.
6. Free parking money has a 200 dollar minimum - the bank refills it every time.
7. properties that are not bought when landed on are put up for auction.
8. It is a legal trade to agree to "not pay rent" on certian locations
9. There is a speed version of monopoly - divy up properties right away and roll 3 die(not sure how it really works, cause it changes the chance of landing on squares)


I wonder if the game inventors intended for all these "house rules". Do they make the game better or worse? Do they change chance of winning? Are they "fair"? What do you think?

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