The online game of Monopoly City Streets was launched by Hasbro, in partnership with Google Maps, on September 9th 2009. Within a few hours the website was swamped with over 1.75 million eager players wanting to build a property empire. The game is scheduled to remain online until January 31st 2010. Here’s a beginners guide to the rules.
Please note, an unexpected announcement was made on December 2nd 2009 saying that the online version of Monopoly City Streets will end early.
Monopoly City Streets Registration
Registration to the game is easy and simply involves typing in a unique username and password. An email address is not required although this has its drawbacks. Blog tales talk of gamers creating multiple identities in order to access more than one start up purse. Gamers exploiting the system this way can buy large areas of the board and eventually sell streets to one of their alter egos, thereby creating one super wealthy user.
Once a username and password has been selected, a new player is able to log in immediately. An initial start up purse of $3,000,000 is available to begin building a property empire. This, of course, is what the game is all about. As the How to Play section of the website says: “Your goal is simple. Become the richest property magnate in the world!”
Buying Streets in Online Monopoly City
A player can buy almost any street in the world that appears on the Google Maps interface area of the game – although there are a few streets that are not available because they are too small. Streets which have already been bought by other players are coloured blue. Streets owned by a particular player when viewed by that owner are coloured red. Streets which are available for purchase are coloured purple.
To buy a street, click on the “Buy Streets” wad of money icon at the bottom of the screen. The application then does a search for streets around the area of the displayed map and gives details in a list. The list shows street status information along with its name and price. Click on an available street name and buy it when prompted.
Viewing Properties Owned in Online Monopoly
The “View My Property” icon at the bottom of the screen allows a player to view a list of owned streets. Clicking on this icon prompts the system to display the “Your Property” list giving details of owned streets along with values and indicators as to whether or not there is a hazard or a bonus building.
Hazard buildings include factories, sewage works and prisons. A player is able to build a hazard by receiving a random chance card. Hazards can be placed on any street by any player and prevent rent being collected from properties on that street until the hazard has been demolished. Demolition can only be achieved by the collection of a bulldozer chance card.
Bonus buildings include parks, hospitals and stadiums and again are collected by a player through the random chance cards. Once a bonus building is placed on a player’s street, no other player can build a hazard on it. This means that any buildings put on that street will always collect rent.
Buying and Selling Monopoly Property and Collecting Rent
Properties can be placed on streets, at a price, by a player as long as there are sufficient funds in the player’s purse. There are several different types of property at varying prices and rental values to be bought. Once placed on a street, properties immediately earn rent, unless blocked by a hazard or demolished by another player.
Rent is automatically collected by the application and is deposited in a player’s purse on a daily basis. Players can negotiate with others to buy and sell streets. This facility is something to bear in mind because property rental payments are higher if a player owns blocks of interlinking streets.
For a free and family friendly online game, once its initial teething troubles concerning performance have been resolved, Monopoly City Streets looks set to be a worldwide hit. The online exposure will certainly act as a marvellous public relationship boost for the non-virtual boxed Monopoly City board game in the run up to Christmas.
Sources:
Monopoly City Streets Website
Elaine Findlay - An expert cook, Findlay's passion for food is evidenced by the size of her kitchen and her library of old recipe books
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