I hate to be a stickler, but ... ;-) ...

I can take or leave most board games and I certainly don't think it's *always* a big deal to change rules, IF everybody's cool with it and it's done in the spirit of fun. But the "however" in this is when it comes to Monopoly, I agree with you, it's like a whole 'nother world and maybe it reveals more about human nature than I sometimes care to deal with on a slow Saturday night.

My own caveat, and it goes way back and I just won't play with you (no offense!) if we can't agree on this one point: There is NO MONEY ON FREE PARKING! I believe this has gotten to the point where there's an actual disclaimer in the box itself, and in "tournament" play it's of course not allowed, but there are those who will put the money from community chest fees and the like, and give it to whomever lands on Free Parking.

Now, if you want to do that, you go right ahead, but I'm pretty unlikely to want to play with you because THERE IS NO MONEY ON FREE PARKING! IT'S FREE PARKING! NOT FREE MONEY!

I won't kill people over this but I don't see what's so hard about having a Free Parking space and just leaving it as FREE PARKING! At least I'm subtle on this. :-)

As for the game lasting too long ... mostly I find people get bored before you ever really get around to "winning" the game (i.e. who really has the most money and has wiped out the other players), but it's an interesting game in that it goes really slow for a long time, then BOOM, somebody puts up a hotel and ten minutes later, everybody else is broke.

Just like real life, maybe?