i would love to see the following concepts incorporated into the rules:

1. option to win the lottery
2. option to get cash from sources other than the bank
3. the concept of a handicap, like in golf, to acknowledge that everyone does NOT start our equal - some people start out lucky by virtue of inheritance, etc
4. acknowledgement of slums, slumlords, gentrification - some series of events where the value of various properties changes over the duration of the game
5. an online version of the game could have local value change - ie monopoly brooklyn vs monopoly manhattan (landing on park ave in brooklyn is not nearly as valuable as park ave in manhattan, etc)
6. whatever locale the game is set in, the city/the mayor should be a player (along with the bank) that has the ability, power to implement random rule changes mid-game (landmark, zoning, raise or lower taxes, etc)

the concept of get out of jail free is more relevant today than ever -- gotta keep that if we're "keeping it real!"

donna

I would add g20 currencies to the game, so players could start the game with dollars, rials, yuan, rupees, etc. Global events that occur via chance or community cards could effect the values of the currency dramatically off course allowing some players to now buy properties on the cheap. The properties are now prime g20 real estate places. The chance and community lcd cards could sync with a global events tweet feed.

Board, dice.

Vijay

Here's something that should be a CHANCE card in the modern day:

"Victim of Identity Theft. Lose $500 and no borrowing money for two rounds of the board."

The thimble. The iron, too. Pretty much all the pieces.

Ben

My vision of Monopoly would be to change the object of the game, while making it more educational and fun.
The object would be to tweek the rules so that everyone would have to "win" for the game to complete. No one would end up homeless and broke. Everyone would have what they needed. Change the chance cards into real life problems with real consequences that could be solved with assistance from other team mates (everyone would be on the same team) For example...no money for food, rob a convenience store and land in jail or lose job and face foreclosure....Maybe even change the name to Cooperative Monopoly. Really teach the kids something useful!!!

Keep the board, keep the properties, keep the chance deck.

Vicki

Here are a few suggestions.

1. Bonuses and minuses due to the status of nearby properties. (Meaning...if the property next door is foreclosed, your rent gets reduced. If the property next door is developed, your rent gets increased.)

2. Add effects due to nearby school systems.

3. Add effects due to proximity to mass transit and ease of access to amenities.

4. I'd like to throw my support to turning the banker into a player. Fantastic idea!!!

5. Instead of having each player start with the same and just collecting $200 at Go, this should differ by profession. (Similar to The Game of Life also by Milton Bradley)

Community Chest and Chance are a great way to incorporate the the randomness in life into the game.

Alex in Kensington, MD

All I could think about was a not very sucessful competeting game I played in the 1950's. This was "Boom or Bust". The additional element was a business cycle that effected the value of your properties. There were three levels (Boom, Normal and Bust). Your strategy could be destroyed when the business cycle randomly changed.

I like the properties. We had a friend from Williamsport, PA. A Williamsport millionaire. His job as the second son was actually buying properties on Boardwalk.

Ted

I'd base it on the US as total. Each group would be an environment, such as desert states, prairie states, west coast, etc. Of course, it needs to have not just railroads, but make it transportation: bus, rail, car, plane. Use cities and counties for improvements.

definitely chance and community cards

Terry

I know I am probably not the first modern board game (Eurogame) player you've heard from - since Monopoly is the bete noire of the Eurogame world...too long, too boring, too little interaction among players, too non-strategic - in general, it gives a bad name to playing board games. But let me try to be a bit more constructive.

The first thing Monopoly needs is some type of strategic trade-off. Like money vs. politics. What if you could buy influence as well as real estate? You could purchase influence in one of three markets (local, state and federal). Everytime someone landed on the space formerly known as free parking (now "Make a Law"), the person with the most influence markers in local could affect zoning, the most influence markers in state could affect transportation and the most influence markers in federal, tax law.

Zoning would mean that the value of the colors - dark blue more valuable than orange more valuable than light blue would become a variable system instead. The person ahead in zoning could move the mortgage value of properties up or down.

Transportation would involve revising the four railroads to be replaced by four types of urban transport infrastructure - e.g. subway, highways, etc. Controlling transportation would not only allow you to change the value of these four spaces but also the price of houses and hotels (which themselves might be replaced by single family, mid-density and high-density markers).

Finally, control of tax policy at the federal level might allow the player to reset the rules on the tax space and on tax cards at Chance and Community Chest to favor players who are leading or give breaks to those who are falling behind. Perhaps you could also introduce "bribes" - excuse me, "campaign contributions" to influence the action of the player making the tax rules.

These are just a few thoughts about how to make Monopoly look more like the games that adult board game fans play.

Those shiny little tokens are rather nice. Also the cartoons of Mr. Moneybags on "Chance" and "Community Chest"

Marvin

1. ADD WOMEN CHARACTERS!

2. Investigate the possibility of adding commercial property purchases (e.g., stores rather than only houses and hotels) if this wouldn't over-complicate the game. The relative simplicity is part of what made Monopoly so universal.

3. Park space and/or eco-friendly commerce somehow?

Love the funky metal pieces to move around, and I'd make the houses/hotels wooden again- greener? more eco-concious?

Even like the feeling the "millionare" character design gave me as a kid- feels familiar and definitely "different" than I was. Probably part of what generated the resentment of the ultra-rich, even as a child.

Deanna

I think Spitzer was on to something; we don't need to reinvent the game, just add another layer (or two) of addenda in which everyone can be a banker, a property holder or both. Side bets would be encouraged and regulated, and the rules governing the game occasionally altered by chance (or election) cards--along with the potential to mitigate results of such a card by paying a fee (buying the election--"Supreme Court ruling in your favor, your corporation is now a legal person and you may determine the outcome of all future elections").

An official variation that my family finds quite addictive is the card-based version, Monopoly Deal.

Also, I'd like to play a version in which the players stay connected via smartphone and actually have to travel through the streets of Atlantic City in order to play.

There are so many special editions of Monopoly out there (as an au pair in the UK I had a hard time convincing my employer that the London Monopoly was not the original) that talk of redesigning or maintaining the game is almost superfluous. The rules are the only thing that haven't been formally altered that much and many families have their variations such that the original rules are nearly as insubstantial as the setting.
I have a soft spot for the history and circumstances evident in Monopoly as played with its original setting and always prefer the Atlantic City version.

Stefan

Here's a few suggestions, from an AVID monopoly player:

1) Players are allowed to loan each other money, and the interest rate is determined by randomly placed cards within either community chest or chance (or something new). Interest is paid at the set rate every time "GO" is passed.

2) Holding a monopoly is illegal, but you can build on any property anytime you own it. Holding more than one of the same piece of a "monopoly" increases the amount you collect on it, but holding every piece of a monopoly is not allowed. For example, if I hold New York with one house I collect, say, $100 if somebody lands on it. If I own Saint James as well as New York, and each has 1 house, I collect, say $150...or something like that.

3) Something needs to be done to keep one person from getting all the property by chance, while someone else ends up with barely anything. I'm not sure what, but this is a major issue.

4) Change free parking, you should never get "free money" for landing on free parking. It adds too much money to the economy too quickly.

5) The game needs to be sped up using a method of victory other than the "last man standing" approach, like the current style of Monopoly, or a "timed" approach, like the tournament rules suggest. Perhaps players have a "retirement account" in which they deposit money, and whoever gets their account to a certain point first, wins. Money can be deposited at any point, where it will earn small amounts of interest, but if it needs to be withdrawn it comes with a stiff penalty. Perhaps the interest earned also fluctuates according to cards. Maybe "investors" can even choose between stocks, bonds, CD's, etc. This could give somebody the opportunity to come from behind by choosing more risky investments.

That's it, I can't wait to see what you come up with. The best Monopoly player I knew was a friend who died in a car accident a few years ago. Every year we hold a massive tournament in her honor, using a really nice board (by the Franklin Mint), and the winners get their name engraved on the board, so Monopoly has a very special meaning to me.

The general concept of Monopoly needs to stay, or else it might as well be a new game. Things like the general shape of the board (with 40 squares), 2 stacks of cards, etc.

Mike

I am so excited about this endeavor. Right now there seems to be a lot of talk about sustainable communities, shop local, sustainable programs, etc. Currently I live in southeast Minnesota. A wind developer has come in and set the rural area in conflicting views. I also have been involved in a Farmer's Market. So I would like to put these sustainable ideals into play. Our little town of Goodhue, MN just went over the 1000 resident mark. There has been talk that it could lose some government grants that it applys for. So can we make a game that would allow you to change on a dime. The same with farming. If you lose your subsides what are your alternatives. A farmer gets a government check for not growing a crop or a natural disaster, etc. What if he would get a small windmill that say would pay for his electricty in his outbuildings. Giving a ballpark figure what if it paid for itself in 10 years. The farmer is now not paying for electricity and now maybe would not need the subsidy or at least a smaller amount. Addressing buying properties-could there be other elements to winning the game which is really the game of life that would bring you prosperity. I see this remaking of Monopoly really as a means of educating the masses on ideas to raise our thinking process to bring new ideas to the table of possibilities.

I would keep the banking system with maybe adding accountibility ideals and ethics? Can you start a main street business on the board and would you be able to take out a loan? Can the game be played online? Can you write a curriculm with it to be used in schools or an after school programs? I think the game is still a classic but are there other ways to create wealth without always buying property? Being a land lord is not for everyone. I look forward to being part of your recreate.

Anita Otterness

My friends and I once spontaneously reinvented the game, calling it Philadelphiopoly, and giving each player a role to play. We had City Hall, Project Home (a nonprofit serving homeless people), MOVE (a black-liberation movement famously bombed by the City in 1983), the mob, and of course, the bank. It was amazingly fun, as City Hall changed rules and raised taxes, MOVE held protests, Project HOME held charity auctions and begged donations, the mob stole and coerced money and property from everyone else (including the bank), and the bank just tried to keep up with the madness.

I would just keep it the same and encourage players to use their imaginations. We had a great time that night bending the rules...much better than simply obeying a new set of them, I think!

Julie

I would change Free Parking to Paid Parking. This will help to discourage the house rule where people collect a pot of all paid fines when they land on that space. That way of playing arbitrarily lengthens the game, making for a bad play experience.

As a flat tax it will hurt the players who are further behind, bringing the game to a close faster, one of the primary complaints with this game. From a thematic point of view, it will make perfect sense to our increasingly urban population,

I would keep the rule that states "If you do not wish to buy the property, the Bank sells it at through an auction to the highest bidder."

The only problem with this rule is that most people don't seem to know it. To encourage people to learn the rule, I would add a new space to the center of the board titled "Auction House", to make people ask the quesion, "what is that?" and look it up. The rule could even be written directly on the board.

Nils

It needs a complete overhaul, starting with its name. A name more suitable to the times would be "Oligarchy". The Russian version would be the really exciting one (probably video) with real hitmen.

Boardwalk. What would the game be without Boardwalk?

Susan

Monopoly is international...
My grandchildren currently live in Munich Germany and play the Belfast , NI version...Please Don't make it too American...Banking regulations differ around the world...Perhaps a G-8 or G-22 reference.... Highlight International Banking Rules and Regulations...
Get out of jail needs a lawyer/solicitor/ barrister...and they are not free even when you are innocent. Why do you get money for passing Go?...Minimum wage?

Some Hands on Money....Kids like cash ....
All Electronic money might be too abstract for the beginner...
I like the scottie dog.....I like the game...

Dianne

Any change in design or rules and it would no longer be Monopoly. The purity and ageless quality of the game should be preserved.

You can invent another game with another name if you want to do so, but Monopoly is what it is.

All.

Ken

1. Add a 'tree' as a game piece
2. Provide incentives to put LEED-certified homes/hotels on property
3. Utilities would include a solar/wind power generator/company
4. Provide little solar panels that can be added to conventional buildings for increasing market value
5. Love the EIS idea noted in the intro - very creative!
6. Properties can have conservation easements on them for increasing value
7. Allow jailbirds to buy an attorney for immediate release

Just about everything else - it's Monopoly afterall!

Jean

Maybe change the street names to NY City or Los Angeles, where there well known expensive areas, middle range areas and poor areas. We used to allow cartels and takeovers, and lots of easy credit when we played, and the money could be larger denominations, but the basic game is fine. Airlines and AMTRAC and maybe even a light rail for transport, Development could include skyscrapers and malls.

Keep the basic game, Free parking (which is a terrific benefit and still available in some places at some times). Don't change the basic game, which is fine. There are other games that move faster if that is what you want. Hit with charity ball ticket costs, towed cars, transit strikes. Add wins at lottery, tax refund, paid directorships for income. Monopoly is what it is, so don't change the basic structure.

Whit

I love the purple properties. I know they're ugly. I know they're run down. But I have a vision for them. I'm going to raze the whole thing, the whole damn thing. Down to bedrock.

Then I'm going to add some hills, some sand traps. Some nice bluegrass. Beautiful, beautiful lakes, lakes like you see in Switzerland. Eighteen holes in the ground. An opulent clubhouse replete with the finest foods from around the world, lavishly served to you by stunningly beautiful, uh, people.

Mara Purple. It's gonna be HUGE!

This is about the glory days of Atlantic City. The late 1980s, early 90s. So burn down anything that doesn't have my name on it! So leave the Taj, the Marina, the World's Fair...oops. I promise you, this is going to be spectacular! I have some investors from Macao interested in buying the whole city. Ducktown is going to become nothing but residential skyscrapers and Dubai-owned shopping cities!

Donald