Hazards (Washington DC)

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Under Assault










US Capitol Under Assault







I noticed that people seem to get a kick out of placing Hazards in famous places. Multiple Hazards were placed within minutes near the White House (where the President lives and works) and the US Capitol Building, where the US House of Representatives (Congress) meets.


I checked the Supreme Court Building, and there were none as of 8ish am this morning:








Where have you noticed a lot of hazards while surfing in Monopoly City Roads?

MCS Game is Now Live!

Get ready, On Your Mark, GO!!!!


Monopoly City Streets is now live again after a bit of tweaking. I'll be back later and offer a few observations about game play and some reporting on the progress of the game in western North Carolina. 


Check it out.

Last Chance

Monopoly City Streets was supposed to be a breakthrough in social media and gaming, one of the first truly mainstream massive multiplayer social media games; the game was supposed to change how companies with established brands (like Hasbro and Monopoly) look at social media and online gaming; it was supposed to revolutionize the way that companies market themselves on the internet and aggregate themselves through social media.

Monopoly City Streets was supposed to be all of these things and more, but when the game launched last week, it didn't actually work. At all.

Thanks in large part to the huge amount of attention the game received on social networks like Twitter (see The "Twitter Effect" Sinks Monopoly City Streets, the game's launch was wildly popular, with hundreds of thousands of gamers around the world rushing to get online and start building their Monopoly empires. That rush of users was unanticipated by the digital agency responsible for Monopoly City Streets, Tribal DDB, and the game spent it's first 24 hours completely unusable by most of the world; only after Tribal DDB tripled server capacity did the game become intermittently available to players - and that was when the problems really started.

Source: Twittown--Last Chance for Hasbro: City Streets Will Reset Today

Commentary

I still can't believe that the stupid tax structure that caps property ownership at 38 streets made it through to implementation. 

That tells me that there are no effective BS Filters in place at Hasbro or Tribal DDB.

What the Changes Mean

With the new changes that have just been announced...the mechanics of the game have been completely re-arranged. 


The taxes are the most important change. Here is what it means...

 Players will not be able to amass vast geographic empires.

Here's why (from the Game Guidelines):

Tax

There is only one certainty in MONOPOLY City Streets. Tax. Just like in real life, tax now plays an integral part of the game. Tax works as follows: The first 5 streets owned are not taxed. Thereafter, the current tax rate is 3% PER STREET you own.

For example, if you own 15 streets your tax will be 30% of your total rent collected every day. If you own 25 streets your tax will be 60%. Remember, at 38 streets you will effectively be taxed 100% and so won’t be making any profit and your bank balance won’t increase.

Source: Guidelines (also MCS blog post) 


There is now absolutely no margin for owning any street that is worth under 1 Million or in the cities because those people will be far outstripped by players who buy the longest roads they can for 1 Million and put the most expensive buildings on it they can afford. 


The tax is effectively a Socialist Cap on your income and a limit to your growth rate. No monopolies will be formed in this game as it currently operates.

Changes in Game Posted

The time for Re-Launch of the game is getting closer!!! The MCS Blog has been updated...

Streets can only change hands ONCE per day

In other words, no street can be bought or sold more than once per day. So, be wise about your street selection.

Bidding Cap Removed

For level 3 players and above, we have removed the bidding cap of M1.5 million on streets. Have fun.

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Tax

There is only one certainty in MONOPOLY City Streets. Tax. Just like in real life, tax now plays an integral part of the game. The first 5 streets that you own are tax-free. The current tax rate is 3% per street. For example, if you own 15 streets your tax will be 30% of your total rent collected every day. If you own 25 streets your tax will be 60%, etc.

Street Protection

Many of you noticed that if there is an offer made on a street, it was protected from hazards and the bulldozer while the street is under negotiation. No longer. Streets will no longer be protected when they are included in negotiations.

Forced Repossession of Streets

It pays to play regularly. If, after 2 weeks, there has not been any activity on your account, the bank will automatically repossess ALL your streets. Ouch. So, keep buying, building and negotiating - you never know what chance has in store for you…

For the updated guidelines click here.

Cheaters

They've been watching the cheaters, and will continue to do so...[Read More]

After the Reset

My strategy after the game resets is to start my empire in the boondocks to avoid unnecessary conflict for the first week or so as I try to work my way past my first 100 million in assets.


Day One


I think the best strategy is to focus on buying streets worth 1 million and putting as many of the 50K Green Houses on one street as I can afford so I can recoup the investment on the very next day.


Day Two


I will get 1 million from the game plus about 2 million in rent from the Green Houses I built the day before. My plan is to buy another 1 million street and start putting as many Grid Buildings on it as I can, which will be only 4 (at most).


Day Three


My 1 million for logging in will be combined with my approx. 2 million in rent from my Green Houses (built on Day One), plus 1.8 million from the 4 Grid Buildings (built on Day Two) to give me about 4.8 million in income.


My plan is to buy and place 9 Grid Buildings on the street I purchased on Day Two.


Day Four


My 1 million dollar log-in will be combined with the 2 million rent for my Green Houses and 5.85 (or so) million from my Grid Buildings for about 8.85 million in income.


My plan is to buy another 1 million street and 14 Grid Buildings, which will bring in another 6.3 million in rent the next day.






Of course, all this is predicated on not being attacked by a nearby player, put in jail, or receiving excessive fines and penalties through Chance Cards...and that the rules of the game have not been tweaked to a point that would render this strategy useless.


So, these are my plans (so far unspoiled) plans for beginning my empire, what are yours, and what do you think about mine?

Game Reset

At 11.00 am EDT, the Monopoly City Streets Game went into reset and will be rebooted within 12 to 24 hours of that time.

If you were playing the game before the reset, what will you do differently this time?