Monopoly

Probably the most recognize boardgame around the world is the game of Monopoly. In this game players vie for wealth by buying, selling, and renting properties. Yhe key to success in this game, in addition to a bit of luck, is for a player to acquire monopilies on clusters of properties in order to force opponents to pay exorbitant rents and fees.

Although the game is now published in countless languages and versions, with foreign locations and place names appropriate to the target language adorning its board, the beginnings of the game were considerably more humble. The game was invented in 1933 by Chales Darrow, during the height of the great deprression. Darrow who lived n Germantown, Pennsylvania, was himself unemployed during those difficult financial times. He set the original game not as might be expected in his hometown of Germantown, but in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the site of numerous pre-Depression vacations, where he walked along the boradwalk and visited at ParkPlace. Darrow made the first games by hand and sold them locally until Parker Brothers purchased the right to Monopoly in 1935 and stook he first steps towards the mass production of today.