My initial expectations of this game was "it's a parody, it might be a laugh, but then it'll be useless beyond one playthrough." But no, this game is much more. It was a fantastic experience, and some buddies and I are looking forward to playing it again. It also goes by much more quickly than normal monopoly.

Here's the premise: you live in a small community, which is a socialist utopia. There isn't any competition, but developing and improving the community is always good, so we'll do that. Unfortunately, developing the community costs money. But since it's all for the community, just in case you don't have the money to pay for it, the community will make up what you can't! And the "community fund" starts at $1848 (the year that the Communist Manifesto was published).

Now, if you're a good citizen, who cares for the community, when you make money you can give it back to the community. On the other hand, if you're a greedy capitalist, you can keep it for yourself to use. You can also have bidding wars to "manage" (not own) different "projects" (not properties), which will make you money when they are developed and people land on them.

Did we have bidding wars that got the price of some projects higher than the actual price of the project? Absolutely. Were we all bidding with the same pool of money in the community fund? Yes, yes we were. After all, if the community permits me to use an extra $50, I am certain that I can manage that project better than you for my own pro--err, the community's profit.

The downside of course, is accuracy. Money literally appears out of nowhere (the bank). I have to wonder, why is it that someone using the fully developed project makes money for the community, instead of costing money to the community (to run the facility)? After all, it costs $50 to use the community shuttle, I'm assuming for the fuel prices (our socialist utopia didn't invest in cybersecurity for its pipeline). Also, the living wage you collect passing go, why does it just appear? Shouldn't it hypothetically come out of the community fund, and not the bank?

The reasons for these inaccuracies are that without them, the game would end, very quickly. There are two conditions which end the game: either all 10 of your development tokens are on projects, or the community fund runs out. In the former, congratulations, you win (you evil capitalist)! In the latter, the structure of society collapses and everyone loses! Did one player run the community shuttle around the board 4 times just to deplete the community fund so we'd all lose? Absolutely - after all, what good is a socialist utopia if you can't drive through it on the free transportation?

The dynamic at the table was also very interesting. You could easily play off of "you should be a good citizen, and contribute back to the community, by putting all your profits in the community fund, and if you don't we're all going to shun you and make it hard for you to win, because winning shows that you think you're better than the community." Are we all secretly trying to win? Sure. Do we all know, that we're all secretly trying to win? Sure. But never, never make those intentions plain to the table, if you can cloak it in the veil of benefitting the community. After all, sure, maybe playing my development token gets me one step closer to winning, but really, that's not my concern - helping the community by developing a project that brings money into the community fund is what it's really about, and I'll even donate my profits to the community fund too!

We also thought of some rule variants. There's an event card where "your offshore account was discovered" and you go to jail. Variant: the community decides an additional penalty - one of which is seizing the means of finance from this account, and adding $300 to the community fund - or maybe redistributing your projects to other players. If there's less than 4 players, the unused development tokens become "community tokens" which must all be placed before you can place your last token (and win!). Another variant: "no player left behind," where you can only play your second token once everyone has played their first (and so on throughout all 10 tokens). Finally: if the "we're all winners school" is fully developed, and there is $3000 in the community fund, everyone wins!

Overall, excellent game. Much more entertaining, and quicker, than normal Monopoly. Can you actually work together, or will enough funds be used in pursuit of selfish gain to the detriment of the community? It's easy to give up selfishness in the game, but less so in real life (one player said "I can help the community instead of myself, because it's fake money"). For a parody, it deserves replay and variation, because it is so much more than just a parody or a themed monopoly. 10/10

My sister and I joked about a reverse monopoly and then she tells me she found a socialist monopoly and I couldn't believe it. This game is a good way to show people that socialism DOESN'T WORK! There's no real way to win the game and it doesn't come with enough pieces for everyone to play (hilarious). They make you make your own pieces if you want everyone to play. A great gift for someone who thinks socialism is the best.

In the beginning, we played it with a capitalist mindset (competition), and it seemed not to function. But then we decided to play again trying to think like a socialist (getting the most money in the community chest as fast as possible) and trying to help each other develop projects. LIke that, it was a lot a faster and made more sense. We have only played those two times. The game promo says the Chance cards can force you not follow your socialist ideals, but that is not true. You never really have to play a vicious Chance card against another player if you don't want to (you can save it for later and then switch it for a better card when you get a chance). Playing like a socialist requires a whole different way of thinking. Hasbro thinks the game will be funny as your capitalist mindset clashes with the dynamics of the game, but if you just "change your chip" to socialism, the game actually does work. It doesn't accurately mirror what happens in real socialist countries if all the players in the game actually cooperate, but perhaps that's the point: socialism doesn't really work well because we don't really try to help each other as best as we can (defies human nature). Also, when we played like socialist, my sister "won". It's not fun to "not win", but that is because I still think like a capitalist. If I thought like a real socialist though, in real life there is no end to the game, and if everyone is doing well, then I guess we all win.

* We played again with the whole family and discovered the game has a lot more intricacies than we thought. It really is the opposite though of classic Monopoly.

But it's 2019 and everybody's got to be at each other's throat about an inexpensive board game. Ironic, this variation of the game is about group cooperation, yet the original was infamous for causing discord. Granted it was designed that way, yet people still bought it and in all kinds of different popular media versions.

The irony alone convinced me to purchase this board game.

But I digress, this Socialism variation provides a different goal and challenge along with it. Having a group fail condition subverts the expectation that one can easily become the victor in this game. There are methods presented to win, but everyone is tied to the Community Fund.

This mechanic acts as a balance amongst the players. Even should you want to win, you inadvertently begin thinking of your neighbors who could end the game prematurely. Investing in projects and thinking together how to get the most out of the Bank is rewarding, literally!

Still, the crux of this game are the ruthless Chance cards. These can take from your Community Fund or prevent further progress in project development. Conversely, they can also assist in community growth. Of all the components to this game, I would say the Chance cards are the weakest since they're so heavily used through the course of the game. A special die in this Socialism variation can cause you to pick up one or two Chance cards. Talk about overkill!

My last remark would be that this game, much like the original Monopoly, is better with either three or four people. Playing with only two gets a tad stale as it's much easier to cooperate. Conversely, the game feels more punishing since not as many projects can be picked up as quickly.

And I guess make sure anyone playing can take a joke about hot yoga.

What a great game to teach the basic fault of Socialism. As once said, socialism is GREAT until you run out of other peoples money! No matter HOW many times you play this game, if anyone has any sense at all, you will AWLAYS loose, just like real life (unless there is a military to force socialism by slavery).

Bottom line, you are spending everyone else's money. It's a community fund, everyone starts with no money. But how much of the community money do you want to spend versus letting the other players spend? When you role the dice and land on a project, why would you not start it (buy it), because the funds come from the community fund, and if you don't spend the money, the other players will.

You can literally end this game in 2 rolls of the dices. First player roles and is inexperienced. They land on a project and don't want it. If they don't want to spend the community funds to buy it for say $100, then it must go to auction starting at $5. The problem with this, and with socialism, if you bid, you just bid $5 of the community funds...well, I'm not going to let you get it for $5 from the community funds so I bid $10, from the community funds...and the bidding will continue until the community funds have been depleted because why stop bidding from the community funds and let another player get it from the community funds; thus, one of you will win the project for $1845 leaving $3 in the community funds. On the next die roll, the player lands on Chance, which says the community fund must pay $50 to the bank...Now the community funds are out of money and the game ends, and everyone looses.

This games QUICKLY teaches you that you better spend your share of the community funds before the other players do, or you let them win and you loose, because if you don't, they will! Just like it works in real life!

That fact is (and again proven in this game), many people have the misconception that Capitalism is based on greed; but that's not true. Socialism is based on greed while marketed as a utopia for everyone, because everyone want's their share, and there is nothing like spending other people's money and getting your share of the community funds before anyone else does, and with no controls and a goal of winning or bettering your life, Socialism fails both in this game and in real life.