Dice, paper money, property ownership, capitalism, inequality, pain, begging, crying, flipping tables. So goes the average game of monopoly. Equally as painful is the fact that the game was first created to try and convey the inherent faults of a capitalistic society….and ended up being one of the highest grossing board games that has come to define the entire genre. There are two sides to this paper money coin. On the shimmering bright side there is the fact that Monopoly’s success has spread the infectious bug of board gaming across vast swathes of culture that most of its predecessors only dreamed of being able to reach. On the cold shadow stricken dark side of this coin is the horror stories of house rules, merciless slaughter, and days-long shootouts ending in an anticlimactic roll of the dice. The pain of Monopoly comes from the fact that their is almost never any middle ground. You are either ahead, raking in loads of money and spending said money to make your properties more valuable. Or you are crushed, constantly on the backfoot, betting all your life savings on that one chance at possibly staying afloat for one more round. This inequality, though painfully attuned to our current societal economic fortunes, felt remarkably out of place in a game marketed by every major movie franchise, tv show, and pop culture reference as a family friendly game night classic. Being in the lead makes others want to concede. Staying behind is slow, painful decline. The difference between these two outcomes results from a slightly higher probability of landing on the blessed money spots (pink,orange, red). Dice rolls determine the speed of the game and the distribution of property.
Thus there is never an “aha!” moment in gameplay where a failing monopolist can realize where they have messed up and adjust accordingly in future games. This is a key element to what makes games like Suburbia so inherently replayable. All players start with the same 3 properties and the same amount of cash, but over the course of the game developing communities must adjust course as new opportunities present themselves. They must choose to pick tiles that are most advantageous for their specific goals or choose to actively block the plans of surrounding communities, encouraging player interaction. Compared to Monopoly where the ultimate strategy boils down to “well I landed on this color, does anybody else have that color?”
Unfortunately Suburbia is not an adequate successor to monopoly as it lacks the chance dice rolls, paper money, and general sense of greed run amok that permeates capitalism. One place has a monopoly on this type of disregard for rational and responsible spending. Wall Street. Unfortunately Wall Street the game looks like my nightmares come to life. But a very close second in discretionary spending goes to Las Vegas.
Home to the glitz and glamour of craps, blackjack, and a metric ton of sequins, Viva Las Vegas has long attracted tourists intent on getting rich. Whether it be by way of robbing the Bellagio, pawing verifiable collectibles to a shop, or selling out magic shows on the strip, everybody knows it’s going to be different for them. Others weren’t as gifted or skilled or lucky as you.
Maybe you would like to try your hand at building a sprawling empire of decadence and debauchery in the deserts of Nevada. I mean how hard could it be?
In Lords of Vegas 2-4 players will embark on a remarkable journey towards the success of excess with only the 2 starting parking lots on their backs. Through grit, determination, and blind drawing of the cards, players will inherit new lots scattered along the prehistoric 1940’s highway 90. Each lot generates money each turn, helping ease the pain of never quite having enough dough. On a player’s turn they have 5 choices to make. They can choose to 1.Build a casino and start earning money from delusional tourists patronage at which point they could choose to 2.Sprawl their casino’s reach collecting more money along the way. Later on they may determine that their casino’s theme is going out of style and pay to 3.Remodel their once popular penthouse. If a player finds themselves in a position of co-ownership of a casino they may choose to upend upper management and wrest control from another player by 4.Reorganizing the power structure. If a player is only a small loan of a couple million dollars off from what they need they may choose to 5.Gamble in any other player’s casino to make up the difference. Each option, except gambling, can be done as many times per turn as the player wants or can afford. Because of this there are turns where a player may sit almost entirely dormant waiting for the opportune moment to boost their point and monetary income.
Why would a player choose to wait to strike it rich? Probability of course! Much in the same way fashion rotates in an endless cycle of making cool look old and old look cool, Lords of Vegas has a built in element of tourist tastes. Life imitates the art of board games by presenting a distinct 5 types of casinos to choose from. As each casino is built there are less of them available to other players to build. Additionally as each new card is drawn and placed in a matching discard pile, the probability of that specific color being drawn decreases. These card draws lead to interesting decisions based on the unforeseeable deck and how soon your investments may or may not pay out.
This 5 piece puzzle cake is frosted with the added chance factor of drawing the end of game card which is shuffled in somewhere in the bottom 3rd of the draw deck. All these levers help to balance the control any one player appears to have on the outcome of the game. The beauty of these choices is you are never truly out of the game as you can create casinos, take over other player’s palaces, or even just horde all the valuable casino tiles. Each is a viable strategy with its own time and place if used correctly. For a game all about greed and getting that green god, the experience is remarkably giving in both its choices and interaction. You get to choose how to attack the vacant strip and if a venture fails you can sell off the lot to another player or keep it and gain money for it at the start of every turn. No waiting for it to possibly pay out on the off chance someone rolls some dice. You get a safety net of a small stipend every turn which tends to free players up to taking bigger risks in search of larger payouts. This is the actualization of a game that benefits from some late game planning but is not endlessly punishing for making early mistakes. Oh and the way the game does points as a type of catchup mechanism separate from money generation is also genius. Really there is far too much nuance and delight to capture entirely in text. The game has to be played with real life human beings to be fully appreciated. Please let me talk less, so you can play more!
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