Board Games: Crash Course Games #14

Today, we’re going to talk about board games, but instead of trying to trace their histories, which we’ve already covered a bit of in ep2 on ancient games, we’re going to look really closely at just two board games - Monopoly and The Settlers of Catan. These two games have been played by millions, and we’ll talk about why they’re so popular (and controversial), but more importantly these two games have helped define two approaches to board game design: the American style board game and the European style board game. Now these two different “styles” of board games are mostly just over-generalizations about board game mechanics and there’s a ton of overlap, but with the recent resurgence in board game popularity they help us more clearly define two discrete time periods in board game popularity and discuss how these approaches have been defined by the times.

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[MaraK_dialmformara]

The irony in these complaints about Monopoly is that these were exactly the features that Ms. Magie hoped players would see as the flaws of capitalism.

[Jemini]

I have a board game cafe near me called 'Paradice'. Yay for puns!

[themedicinepeddler]

Never knew about Monopoly's origin until now. Really cool!

[LucasvanOsenbruggen]

So Monopoly didn't have a monopoly on Monopoly?

[ToslowGaming]

This series has been my favorite thus far!! I would really be interested in Andre hosted a Crash Course series on Game Theory. Like the Prisoner's Dilemma for example.

[BroadswordMedia]

I'm glad to see even more episodes of this series. I should check out Andre's channel. He is very knowledgeable. Also, I actually met the guy recently at Power Morphicon. It's a short video for anyone who wants to see it on my channel, but I understand if you don't. It was just really nice to meet the guy.

[DDVargas]

Just waiting for him to do an episode on the game that gave us Hit points, character classes, and experience points in games. I'm of course talking about Dungeons and Dragons.

[FatherTime]

When you play Monopoly by the actual rules, it's a lot shorter. In the real rules there's never any money in free parking, if you land on an unsold property and decide not to buy it it immediately goes up for auction (with no minimum bid), selling houses and hotel does not get you all your money back and you don't get extra money for landing on Go. Also there's an even build rule for houses.

[bee]

Yay! I really thought this series was so short to already be over with but this is great that there's more! :D

[DECrissman]

A much better episode that the card games episode. This was a good use of two very different games to exemplify the old and new in board gaming and went on to talk about the growing board game hobby.

[sock]

Seems like American and European board games kinda reflect the regions differences in economic policy.

[TheFireflyGrave]

I'm on the left end of the political spectrum but I enjoy Monopoly. If you play by the rules in the box it should rarely take more than an hour. Also, I'd say the biggest skill involved (once you learn the math) is cooperation. You have to learn how to make trades that benefit both parties and make as many such trades as you can, which one might call it the sunny side of capitalism.

[adamniagara]

Snakes and Latte's! Thanks for the Toronto shout out!!!

[unfig]

Anyone else annoyed at having to be forced in playing Monopoly using house rules when you know what the real rules are, and even more so when a person says they know all the rules (but really only know house rules) all despite the instructions and real rules clearly being written on the box/manual?

[tonystark]

This whole series is fantastic. Love every episode. Keep it up!

[korg]

I'm glad half this episode was dedicated to Monopoly. I really feel like I have experienced a crash course to learn about board games.

[georgeandrews]

My family stopped playing Monopoly years ago, namely (at the time we stopped) because my brother's not so good at math and I'm bad at being an aggressor when playing games. It was very educational, though, when I was somewhat older; my parents swapped out the play money for bank books to teach me about basic finance management.

We don't play games much now, but when we do, the board game of choice is usually Settlers of Catan. ...This episode speaks to me. ;)

[scratchedbycats]

Ticket to Ride revitalized the industry ... a industry no one thought to compete to video games

[sphirio]

Shoutout to GENCON in Indianapolis, one of the biggest (in not the biggest) board game convention in the U.S. Seriously opened my eyes to just how diverse the industry has become in recent decades

[FiddlesticksDraws]

Yeah my parents almost had a divorce over monopoly, my mom kept losing to my dad so for fourteen years dad instead played as the banker giving us bank loans with interest. However my dad does not like playing monopoly with me now because i became more of a strategist and beat him into bankruptcy.