Announcing my next game, and auditioning for players.
I'm delighted to announce that steemit will be holding it's first game of Monopoly, and we'll be playing for real money.
Posting the chessmatch gifs and running commentary really put my face out there in the community.
This time I'm taking a step back from the limelight and extending the same opportunity to 6 eager contenders.
I'll be paying you steem (1 steem = 1 monopoly dollar) for passing Go, mortgaging property, and drawing a beneficial Chance or Community Chest card, etc.
You'll be paying me for property, developments, taxes, street repairs, and any other negative Chance or Community Chest card, etc.
You'll be paying other players directly for landing on their property, when directed by Chance or Community Chest cards, and for any deals you freely negotiate amongst yourselves.
To keep everybody honest with the 'luck' aspects of the game, the rolls and draws will be generated, logged and publicly visible over at this multipurpose dice site
You'll want to log in with a username/password, to stop any trolls from rolling in your name, like I just did to Dan.
For standard rolls just type "#d6;d6" (Two six sided dice)
For Chance and Community Chest, type "#d16" (then check result on table below)
Go visit the steemittest room I've been mucking around in and have a few practice rolls. It's very simple, and everything is logged, keeping everybody honest. I'll start a fresh room for the actual game.
We'll be playing as per standard rules found on the Hasbro site here, with a couple of minor, necessary changes.
- When you land on a property, you are liable for the rent, the other player doesn't need to notice/request it.
- All debts must be paid in full before you take your next turn. As soon as you pay, leave a comment 'Paid' on the post in which you acquired the debt, this will help us keep track.
- If you land on a property and don't want to buy it, the auction will take place in the comments section of your post.
The highest bid after the remaining players have all commented that they have dropped out, will be the winning bid. Before his next turn, the winner will send me the steem, write 'paid' in the original post, and notice that my next update will show the property assigned to him.
- I'm the banker, and will act like one. If I think you likely to default, I won't offer a mortgage on your property.
- Different players will start with different balances. You have whatever steem you have at the start, and you walk away with whatever you can, whenever you like.
(Think of this more like a cash poker game than a tournament.)
- All rolls are logged, and your first roll after the previous player completes their turn (rolled at rolz.org and posted to steemit) is your official roll.
- If you leave, or fail to complete a move within 48 hours after the previous player, you're out of the game.
If you leave behind a debt, it will be paid out of your abandoned property.
If you're in the black, I'll consider your properties available for sale to any player who lands on them.
- No flagging/downvoting. This is my game, and I won't have it destroyed by flagging wars. If you think somebody is somehow cheating or doing the wrong thing, let me know and I'll address it. If you flag another player, you're out immediately.
- I won't be covering player's debts. If somebody lands on your hotel on Mayfair/Boardwalk, owes you 2000 steem, and leaves the game without paying, I'll pay you half the value of his houses/hotels, and give you all of his properties.
If that doesn't cover the bill, the only other thing you'll get is the satisfaction of having one less competitor between yourself and victory.
- Different countries use different property names. If in doubt, google is your friend.
- Being engaging will encourage spectators to upvote your posts, giving you more money to spend on property and developments. If they really like you, they may even shout you a house. (By sending me the steem, and telling me what it's for). (Keep this in mind if you're planning to gamble on the outcome)
This will add something of a 'Hunger Games' flavour to the match, so put the effort in and watch it pay off.
If you'd like to be selected as one of the starting 6, you have 3 days to post your pitch under the #monopoly tag.
Show me your character and your creativity. Show me what your moves will look like. (I used a lego horse/rider as a token, since the canon wasn't showing up in the gif, and makeshift paper dice for the same reason.
I'll also be checking wallets, looking for a minimum balance of 1000 SP.
I don't want any players crippled by an inability to buy property early, that's no fun.
When the game begins, don't just post the gif, give us some commentary. How you think the other players are doing, who's in trouble. Tell us how your Uncle has been watching the game and how you helped him start an account.
Your steemit post is how you tell us the story of what happened, so rehearse it. (Put the card you randomly drew at rolz.org at the top of the pile to shoot your gif.)
It's not live coverage, its a short documentary, recreating your move.
At the end, I'll string them all together and we'll have an uninterrupted game.
If you've been looking for an opportunity to become more engaged with the community, but have struggled to find your voice, this might be just what you were looking for.
I've been wanting to play monopoly for real money since I was a kid, and I'm itching to get started.
An interesting idea for dicerolls that i was thinking about for other random number stuff. If the player just posts "roll 2D6" you can take the transaction sig from the post (which i think is random) and convert it to 2D6.
So its a hex#, so you can use an algorythim to get 2 random numbers between 1 and 6. Like maybe divide by 2, and if the result is greater than 6 move on to the next least significant digit until you have 2 rolls.
This may be a bit much for monopoly, but ive been thinking about how to incorporate random number generation into the blockchain for other types of games.
example below:
Roll 2D6
SO we can look at the transaction that put this post on the blockchain here: https://steemd.com/tx/d86423c91f18ce61355e6335b6f3e1969adb1946
We could take the signature or the transaction ID, (i think both are random-ish, or at least unpredictable if not you could hash it)
before hand, we can set algorythims to get 2D6 out of say the sig. Something like start with the least siginficant digit. Turn it into a decimal. If its a 15, 14, 0, or 1 skip to the next digit. Otherwise, divide by 2 and drop and .5s.
so the last 3 digits of the sig are 603
the zero gets skipped, and we have a 1 and a 3.
just some interesting deep thoughts about on chain gaming.
Or we could try to integrate with PeerPlays once it's up and running.
didnt it take them like a year to bring rock-paper-siccors online (and no, i dont believe that rock paper sccissors was the hard part and its all downhill from there)
Can't find any audition posts. Is it too late to apply? I'm happy to buy steem to get up to 1500.
Great to see that enthusiasm. I didn't get any audition posts at 1500, but a lot of people showed an interest in the idea, so I'm relaunching at $10 / steem. (You'll get 20 steem for passing go instead of 200).
Otherwise exactly the same game.
Do an audition post, tagged #monopoly, and (assuming it's good)
I'll link to it in my relaunch post, calling for others to do the same.
The game will start when I have six viable candidates :)
Ok, so I've had a look at the whole post and a long think about the rules. I'm a former monopoly obsessive and I think the rules are very carefully thought out to make a well balanced game. The idea of each player starting with $1500 is, to me, absolutely essential. If you allow any player to 'open-endedly' buy properties you're essentially handing the game over to the biggest investor. They can offer silly money to buy monopolies and kill off any competition. This might not happen initially, but once players draw enough money from the bank (again the game is set up to ensure a slow drip feed of money to the players) it will become financially viable to offer prices only whales can afford.
I think a fixed buy in for a fixed amount of monopoly money is the only way to ensure a fair and enjoyable game. Players could earn a share of post rewards and/or prize money.
Does this perspective make sense?
I think also the ability for players to leave at any time is a concern. If I make a deal to buy Mayfair and Park Lane and develop them with hotels, I am spending money with a view to making more money from the future rental returns of those properties. If another player then decides things aren't looking good for him and leaves the game, I will never see a return on my investment. I may win kudos for winning the game, but still lose out financially.
Thanks nikflossus. I've given your observations a couple of day's thought, and I think we're already too far removed from a standard game to be purists, although that's always my first instinct too.
If we use steem as the in-game currency, but ringfence it, then each player needs to keep two separate sets of books (or do nothing except play monopoly, declining payouts on each post), to differentiate between money that's part of the game, and money incoming from other sources.
The players could post a running tally over at rolz.org after each turn, but auditing for consistency would add another layer of complexity to the game, and leave the spectators no scope to financially assist their preferred player(s) with their upvotes.
Since the in game currency will have external value, while monopoly money doesn't, we need to face the prospect of players walking away before the end of the match. I think if we make this an option for anyone at any time, then all players can take this into their calculations from the outset, rather than being upset when it inevitably happens.
As to whale action, while it is certainly a possibility, I think it adds an extra touch of the dramatic. The idea that a minnow can put his hand up to play, land on Mayfair/Boardwalk, buy it for 40 steem and have a whale offer him undreamt of riches... that's the kind of drama the folks came to see, and it's a pretty sweet deal for the minnow too.
A whale who desperately wants to win the match and doesn't mind putting in more money than he pulls out is certainly a contender, but whales are just as petty as the rest of us.
I can imagine underdogs being gifted houses, hotels, or straight up cash by other whales.
Certainly the game I'm talking about won't be 'fair' in the sense that everybody starts with the same resources, but it will be fair in that all of the players will get the chance to show their character, entertain the spectators and attract upvotes and followers, for as long as they manage/choose to stay in the game.
Those who start with a lot more money will have a lot more to spend, and those who start with only a little have a chance to walk away with a lot more.
If I'm playing poker against Bill Gates, a tournament is fairer, but a cash game has the potential to be far more lucrative.
Interesting concept and I am trying to decide whether to participate and trying to understand the economics. Just wanting clarification, at the end of the game, or if one decides to leave early, they leave with their cash only, and get no value for their properties and houses/hotels? I'm just trying to get my head around it, because from memory, at the end of the game, one is generally very asset rich but can be lacking in cash.
Also, do you have any thoughts on policing player collusion? I could see a "Coles/Woolies"-style duopoly do quite well making favourable deals among themselves.
That's right, you leave with cash only, which will no doubt affect purchasing decisions toward the end of the game. The final two might end up selling properties to each other at a discount.
Naturally if I bought everybody out at the end, the game would be a losing proposition for me, as the bank.
To be honest, the fact that I don't know what will happen is a big driver for doing it. We're in beta after all, so let's do some testing :)
I've done some rough estimates in Excel, and I think it is better to be the banker. You (the banker) start out with over $11,000 of assets (properties and houses/hotels; valuing these at an average of $125 each). Your players have to stump up their own starting stack to pay for these properties and buildings.
As the game progresses, it costs you roughly $41 per player roll (based on averages of players drawing Chance and Community chest cards and passing Go). It would take more than 270 player rolls before you start losing out, and this is where it gets to the limits of my estimates, because I didn't take into account the street repairs and property repairs cards in the above estimate. These would be more valuable to the banker towards the latter parts of the game as the board is more developed.
My estimates are quite rough, but I just wanted to get a general idea of where the odds lie.
Turns our that it's a bit like real life: I think I'd rather own bank shares than property :)
I just realised I didn't take into account the tax squares either, which would reduce the per player roll cost to the banker. Rough estimates for these brings the cost per roll back to around $33.50 and pushes breakeven point for the banker out to 333 rolls (still not accounting for the repair costs players incur).
Get out of jail costs are hard to estimate because you can roll your way out or use a card. At $50 a pop, I think it is small enough to ignore in my estimates.
Despite know that the odds are against me, I am kind of still keen to join.
I'm not precious about the role of banker. Its yours if you want it.
Frees me up to be a player :)
That's fantastic brendio. I never even thought of crunching the numbers like that.
I guess what scares me a little about being the banker is that almost all transactions are decided by others. If half of the six players just want to lap the board without buying then leave when it starts becoming expensive, I could well pay out more for passing go than what I get for properties.
It's risky because I can't choose. I can't choose to leave and I can't choose not to pay for passing go, or making bank errors in their favour.
I'm thinking of taking the stakes down a factor. $10 = 1 steem instead of $1 = 1 steem.
Means 150 minimum to play instead of 1500, which is probably a bit too rich, at least for the first try.
The SBD from the chessmatch is almost finished its 3.5 days conversion to steem, so I'll pay out for that then revisit monopoly.
I'd be in for those stakes.
Collusion is very difficult to avoid, but I'm willing to take the chance/risk, for the sake of the experiment.
I'm well in front after our chessmatch, so even if we don't see many upvotes and I lose some or all of that, at least I've done something cool and helped to grow the platform :)
If C, D and E all believe A and B are colluding, there's nothing stopping them from doing the same. A bit like Survivor, its all part of the game.
What an awesome idea :) I've been meaning to reply to your comment, but the reason I haven't is part of the reason I can't do this-I have seriously procrastinated everything Christmas related and will be running around in circles for the next week. Also, I just don't have that kind of scratch here yet :) But I wish you luck and I'll be following along on the fun, voting your posts up ;)
Yes, I'm hearing that a lot. We'll get the Christmas rush out of the way, and reconvene in the New Year.
If need be, I'm happy to wait a while for more people to pull together more steem.
Resteemed and very interested in playing
Thanks mallorcaman. I look forward to your audition post. You have a gorgeous family, by the way :)
How much steem is needed in estimate to play?
ok, just read 1000SP. Thats Steem Power or Steem?
Steem would be better. In monopoly, each player starts with 1500.
If you have 1000 steem power, you'll need to power down to spend it, which takes too long. (If you have 13,000 sp, you can liquidate 1000 in one week, but if you have 3000 sp, it'll take a month to liquidate 1000 steem.)
sound fun. I am a little short on funds, I am not saying I wont play yet. When will the game start and how will it end? will one person have all the steem? like 6000 steem?
The game will end when there's only one player left. It'll start in one week. Applications close in 3 days, but I need some time to power down a bit and I'm assuming some others will too.
If the game is popular, upvotes on moves will add to the total, so we will likely be playing for quite a bit more than what we started with.
Sounds good.
Scratch that. We'll get past Christmas and kick it off in the New Year. Jan 1st.
Sounds like a lot, LOT of fun. I love monopoly. But....too rich for my blood. I don't have enough to play. Good luck to everyone and have fun!
There's no reward without risk. If you're popular with the spectators, you could make enough in upvotes to cover a lot of your costs, then you're making money rather than losing it :)
hmmm.....well.....I don't know how "popular" I am....I'll watch this one and see how it goes. I'm competitive, but not a risk taker.
Imagine being the banker. I'm committed to the whole game, even if I end up with half a dozen players who like to just lap the board without buying anything.
This could turn into a very expensive exercise, but it might also be the biggest thing that happens in beta.
Bitcoin has the iconic story of the 10,000 btc pizzas, maybe steemit will have the monopoly match. That's something I want to be a part of :)
I love being the banker in monopoly. I feel lost if I don't get that job.....and the scotty dog....I have to have the scotty dog.
Believe it not, I still don't get where the money is coming from on Steemit, what bitcoin is .... I am reading and trying to get a handle on it but it's a different language for me - I try to think of it like euro dollars, but that doesn't help either. So I' m on Steemit for something to do and a place to connect and write posts. Other than that...beats me :)
I'm usually the cannon, because I was in the Australian Artillery back in '96.
When I was a kid I liked the car.
I think we're going to have some fun :)
Way to go Matt! Have fun!
Thanks, Imma. Not sure how much 'fun' bankers have, but I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens.
It will be interesting i can feel it.am following you so i'll get to see it ;)