I know this is off-topic, but does anyone else ever get tired of playing monopoly with people that insist on playing with a bunch of crazy house rules that completely unbalance the game? Of all the popular board games, monopoly is the one game where it seems like no one actually understands how the game is meant to work. All those bonus cash house rules drive the game to last longer than it should (since it's harder to bankrupt people when too much cash is being infused into the system). Then people complain that the game lasts too long...

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?

yeah, the monopoly example is totally different than the kickball example because Monopoly has written rules.

I hate the stupid cash on free parking and othersuch house rules. They defeat the whole purpose of the game.

See, some people have a different idea of what the point of the board game is.

In my family and especially my mom's, Monopoly is a way of getting people who don't see each other too often around a table for a few hours. As a kid, it was a way to occupy a boring Saturday afternoon, especially in the winter where playing outside wasn't much of an option. So the point of our house rules was to make the game last for hours on end. Chance was minimized to make room for long term strategy among nearly evenly matched players. The same rules were always applied. This only becomes a problem when someone starts playing to win, instead of to pass the time.

Game rules are example of rules where what they say means almost nothing compared the benefits of everyone agreeing to them. How long is a foot? Doesn't matter, so long as everyone has the same definition. Money for snake eyes? Doesn't matter! Falling down is safe? Doesn't matter! The only thing that makes a rule intrinsically good in a game is whether it is applied equally. Thus, a bad "stickler" is one who gets upset whenever "house rules" are instituted (even if all other parties agree) while a good "stickler" is one who merely objects when house rules are not applied evenly or when they are instituted in the middle of the game.

I've never participated in a monopoly game played to a conclusive ending. So my lifetime record is probably something like 0-0-24. Am I the only one?

The problem with monopoly is that participants lose as the game progresses, and then are unable to continue to the end. They have to wait around for the remaining players to fight to the finish, which could take a long time. That makes an unfairness in time usage for those left out and what they can do with it, thus turning them off to the game. I only play Monopoly with official rules, but really have a hard time finding anyone who wants to play, even with beer and chips as a bribe. If it were a game like Scrabble or Life where everyone plays until the end, then it would more likely receive less complaints.