Monopoly

Once again, this is a popular and successful game that has ‘withstood the test of time’. It sits squarely on my list of disliked games for several reasons. Firstly, because the game is unbalanced: the player who moves last will often be moving along a board now peppered with properties owned by their opponents, unable to acquire any properties for themselves by the time they have finished paying rent.

Secondly, it is possible for a player to be defeated without chance of recovery many turns before they are actually removed from play and much longer before the game actually reaches an ending condition. This means that a player’s choices become completely irrelevant – their choices are limited to proceeding around the board, hoping to collect money from passing “Go” to make the next rent payment, or leaving the game.

Over a game of Monopoly, it is entirely possible to achieve a stalemate, with a number of players leering over the board, jealously guarding their properties and refusing to trade. In this situation, small gains and losses will be sustained but without the sizeable advantage that owning a Monopoly on a given set of matching colours would bring, it is unlikely any player will ever gain or lose enough to establish a winning advantage.