Michael “Let’s Play By The Old Rules” Redus (0 wins)
Corey “I Know What I’m Doing” Flynn (N/A)
Bobby “Fuck This Game” Avant (0 wins)
Trevor ”-ing” Shipp (1 win)
Chris “Going For Broke” Weathers (3 wins)
Don “I gotta go. My girl calling me.” Drel (7 wins)
Charles “Chuck Luck” Brown (2 wins)
Scott “It Wouldn’t Have Made a Difference” Woodard (3 wins)
John “I Love Trading With Scott” Campbell (7 wins)
And myself, Aaron “I Told Ya’ll It’s Chi!” Lanton (19 wins)
If you were a student at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, you might have seen us in Clement basement on the weekend playing Monopoly. Not just one game. We averaged 3.58 games each weekend and normally found time to sprinkle in at least three more at some point during the weekdays. People be coming back from the club, and we down there engaged in heated discussions about how these three way trades should go. Monopoly is some real shit. Intense. Frustrating. Bonding.
Oh look, it's the Bobby edition!
After you have played five full games of Monopoly with someone, you have learned everything about that person you need to know. Five full games is enough to see someone fall from the top (even if from just ten minutes of luck) to the lowly bottom – Do they sell all their property and ruin the game for others just because they are losing? Will they continue to play and take their loss? If they run out of money, do they try to sneak an orange boy ($500 bill) out the bank? Do they purposely miscount the dice to avoid payment? You would be surprised how accurately these things reflect a person’s demeanor outside the game.
I do not recommend playing Monopoly with everyone. For example, DO NOT PLAY MONOPOLY WITH A ROMANTIC INTEREST! Why? Well, what if said “romantic interest” needs you to trade with them? Gloat at the table about your guaranteed win or lose coochie points? Don’t ruin the game for the rest. Also, do not play with quick talkers – the biggest cheaters and they think that every transaction is meant to keep them from winning cause they are new to the table. Plenty of other scenarios but just choose wisely who you actually play with. Monopoly can ruin good relationships.
I would feel remiss if I didn’t also mention the magic of the board. The Monopoly board feeds on the synergy of the players. Whatever the players feel as a collective whole happens on the board. Sounds crazy don’t it? You gotta be there. I mean why else would we have made up the word “trevoring” (user attains +30 agility and won’t die on any player even if they have no money), although I am the original user of “chi.” The magic sometimes gets out of hand. One weekend we had to burn the board. No, that’s not lingo for some real cool shit. We burned the board. It was that crucial. If someone request it, I will explain it some other day.
That's still so hard to look @.
Anyways, the best part of Monopoly is the community of the game. It’s not the winning I look forward to, although I was 12 wins ahead of everyone *cough*, but the excuse to kick it with my friends. Buying each other food, having the introspective and facetious conversations (LPPA, Little Penis People of America, hunting down the gifted is just among the topics), meeting new folks who were into the game, etc.
I’ll likely expound on this another day but it just made me chuckle thinking about it again. Look forward to whooping upon you all next year.
Signed,
The Fall 2008 Champ
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