ORIGIN OF MONOPOLY
The first board game ever made was what we now know as Monopoly and falls under the category of strategy board games. It dates back to the early 1900s and was called the ‘Landlord’s Game’. Patented by Elizabeth Magie in 1904, the game espoused the principles of economics and property ownership. All players had to try and own as much property as they could, with the ultimate objective to rule the world! Soon, in 1910, a group of college going student got together and created the modern version of Monopoly.
In 1934, Charles B. Darrow of Germantown, Pennsylvania, showed the MONOPOLY game to the executives at Parker Brothers, who rejected the game, citing the reasons for there being several design errors. Mr. Darrow, however, remained unfazed. So sure was he of his game’s exciting promise of fame, that he was motivated to produce 500 hand-made sets of Monopoly with the help of a printer friend. Needless to say, the game was a major hit and the demand overrode the supply. Unable to keep up with the demand, he once again approached Parker Brothers, who readily agreed to produce this game this time over. In its first year, 1935, MONOPOLY became the best-selling game in America.
Today, Monopoly is a popular board game which has a simple set of rules and well-defined strategies and is played by audiences world over. Designed to suit a vast number of ethnicities, Monopoly has been produced in more than 37 languages and sold in over 100 countries.
