And the Creepy Boss of the Week Award goes to … this dude posting on Reddit

The people I have known throughout my life have been a really wide range of socioeconomic statuses and I’ve had varying amounts of money at different periods of my life, so I’ve observed a lot of the differences between different class groups.

Working class people definitely don’t socialize less than middle or upper class people. They just socialize in different settings. In working class neighborhoods, people are congregated on the streets, in yards and on stoops or in any public place or free event. I’ve noticed that there’s far more of a sense of community in poor neighborhoods than in middle class ones. When I lived in a more poor neighborhood, that was the only time in my adult life that I ever knew any of my neighbors. In fact, I had trouble dealing with that apartment because I’m an introvert and when I’m in need to relax mode, I get noise sensitive. The noise levels from people socializing and listening to music all over the place got to me sometimes.

Middle class people are more likely to go out to nice or niceish bars to socialize, but they certainly don’t have unlimited resources either. Unless one is rich, an evening out at a place that serves ten dollar cocktails is likely to be an occasional treat. If you have less money than your friends, research happy hours in the area on the internet. You can find some great deals, especially on a weekday and unless your friends are super snobby, they’ll probably appreciate the good deals. You can also throw potluck parties if you have a little space. There are ways to entertain yourself and others for cheap if you put thought into it. Anyone who feels like you’re the only one who can’t go out to upscale bars two or three times a week? You’re not.

I like Monopoly for a little while but it just drags on way too long. When I was a kid, my friends and I would play until we got bored, count our money and properties and whoever had the most, won. Clue was my favorite though.

It’d be cool to have a reverse Monopoly where the way to win is to do the best job of enriching the community as a whole. Maybe part of why my friends and I stopped playing midway through in Monopoly is that we weren’t capitalist pigs at heart and didn’t want to bankrupt each other.

I’m no board game expert, so maybe something like that already exists?

When I lived in London I did the Monopoly pub crawl thing. It’s quite a good way of learning your way around.

It’s interesting though that the only reference to taxation is (I think) one of the Chance cards. And that it’s seen as a bit of bad luck. There’s probably an article to be written about all that.

You could probably do a rules expansion pack to introduce taxation. Make things interesting. Don’t ever introduce quantitative easing though. Goes on forever as it is.

@ scildfreja

The IT Crowd did a (very affectionate) spoof of the world of board games.

(Sorry for the poor picture quality in this first bit.)

https://youtu.be/QqtSDE261fQ

But then they got hip.

https://youtu.be/0h9jN12QbdE

Also!! Also! If someone is like ‘Hey let’s play Monopoly, I have the Simpsons version and Doctor who version and LotR version and local version etc’ you can say ‘why don’t we play monopoly, but actually fun????’

The Farming Game – Not a great title, I know, and the artwork is definitely older. But it is like monopoly, in that you go around a board, but *very* unlike it, because you are playing against the game, and not each other. You can co-operate between people with loans and stuff, and *every turn* you get to do something.

It is a longer game, probably in the 3 hourish range, but it is honestly fun the whole time. My board game limit is about an hour and a half, but this one is engaging enough that I always am really sad when people need to go home, and we don’t get to finish. One day I’ll make half a mil and be able to quit my job and run a farm! Also… I get to pay off a mortgage, something that will likely never happen in my IRL.

And if someone is all “Hey, remember Risk?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNdTLrM8HzA

And you’re like “NOOOOOOOOOOO” I’d like to present the alternative!

Small World – It’s like risk, but fun! You choose who you’re going to play at the beginning from options have race (with special abilities) and something fancy (with other special abilities). These are separate, which means you might wind up with Dragon Rider Ratmen and Merchant Mermen or anything. It’s great for replayability.

Then you expand as much as you can, holding territories (like risk). When you can’t expand any more? Instead of being stuck in a no-win situation trying to do something for the next EIGHT HOURS, you put your race into decline, and start a new one.

Small World rules summary. Tabletop episode.

Also, I’d like to share with you the best things about HeroQuest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx8sl2uC46A

<3

(The 25th anniversary kickstarter thing is a scam, I'm pretty sure.)

For playing tabletop stuff, if you're interested in playing the 5th edition of D&D, there's D&D Beyond. It’s a website where they’ve put a lot of the basic information up there, so you can play without needing to spend money for a book.

If people have internet connections, there is also roll20, which is free. You do need to have a mic of some sort as well as a stable internet connection, so that could be a barrier. But if the barrier is that someone doesn’t have other people to play with, there are games on there that can be joined.

That isn’t d&d specific! It will work for all sorts of games, and there are all sorts of groups looking for people.

I know that not all people have space to actually get a group of people together. Sometimes libraries will have spaces you can access, or community centres.

WOW long post. I just like hanging out with people and playing games, and I’m really happy that there are lots to choose from now.

@Alan
Sorry, your English terms for things always trip me up. Here we call them slacks or pants, but I assume women’s pants has a different connotation over there.

@Rhuu
I think I used to play The Farming Game as a kid. Does it have little plastic figures of groups of cows and sheep? If so, I loved it!

@ kupo

Pants can mean trousers here, but it’s also (and perhaps more commonly) underwear. I like pants because it’s one of those inherently funny words. 🙂

@ jenora

I liked that link because it lead me on a wonderfully geeky legal wikiwalk; ta.

To get a bit feministy, I didn’t know Monopoly was invented by a woman; but then a man claimed credit and got all the royalties.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darrow

It’d be cool to have a reverse Monopoly where the way to win is to do the best job of enriching the community as a whole.

I’ve kept threatening to make a reverse RTS where you start with a big, fully-developed civilization and you gradually take it apart and return to nature.

@Katz,

Ecopoly

Areas of grinding poverty have some of the richest and most vibrant social structures you could want. Unless you have actually visited the poor where they live and talked to them[snip]

You mean checking a few streets in a few towns out with Google Street View doesn’t count?

Well we are talking about a guy who obtained an exclusive trademark on the word ‘Monopoly’.

That is indeed pretty meta.

The bizarre thing about Monopoly to me is that there are people who will defend it to the death as a game of complex, multilayered strategy.