Monopoly Secrets

That’s right. Just a few more days to enjoy Monopoly City Streets. It officially ends December 9.

Overall, reviews have been mixed. Many serious gamers felt the game was not as developed as it should have been. Cheating ran rampant throughout. Hasbro intended this game for families, and many parents have enjoyed it with their kids.

As the final days of the game come to a close, what’s your take? Good game, bad game, or indifferent? Share your reviews in the comments.

It’s confirmed. Rent values on large properties has completely changed.

It looks like the old cap of $1 MIL property values has return, except only as it applies to rent values.

You see, rent is calculated in part by the property’s value. (Building Rent = Street Purchase Price x Building Purchase Price x Rent Multiplier — details here.) When a lot more expensive streets appeared after the restart, they were very attractive for this reason.

Then, yesterday, without warning, the developers changed the rules. It looks like the “Street Purchase Price” when it comes to calculating rent has been capped at $1 MIL. In other words, even if your property cost $30 MIL, your building rent calculations will only “see” $1 MIL of that value.

Anyone that made sacrifices to purchase these more expensive streets, expecting greater returns, are now left out in the cold.

And the official Twitter and blog has been silent for almost 24 hours. Hmm…

So what’s the new strategy?

Some users are reporting that their rent earnings are dropping for no apparent reason.

Are the developers changing the rules, unannounced?

Have you noticed a change?

UPDATE: It’s confirmed. Rent values to have dropped across the board for all properties. The change seems to be tied to a change in the upper limit of one of the values that determines building rent.

The new game is now live!

I’ve only noticed a couple changes so far that weren’t announced in the official blog.

Property prices aren’t as well rounded as used to be (instead of $1 mil they’re $1.039 mil, $1.216 mil, etc.). And more properties are all the way up in the $2 million range and beyond.

What changes do you see?

Turns out there are several directories that will give you sneak previews of the pending re-release. Nothing too exciting, but worth a look for those who can’t handle the wait.

http://assets.monopolycitystreets.com/img/buildings
http://assets.monopolycitystreets.com/img/facebook
http://assets.monopolycitystreets.com/img
http://assets.monopolycitystreets.com/swf

One of the directories is called “Facebook”… Is there a Facebook app in our future?

Not much else that is noteworthy except for the leak already posted here.

Thanks for the lead Edward!

Last week, Monopoly City Street launched with a bit more publicity than expected.

More than 1.7 million players crowded in, completely overwhelming servers and brining the first day of gameplay to slower than a crawl.

Fortunately, the game creators made the right call and announced that everything will be reset tomorrow, Thursday September 17, at 15:00 GMT. For those of you who don’t live in Greenwich, that’s:

• 11am Eastern
• 10am Central
• 9am Mountain
• 8am Pacific
• 5pm Central European Time
• 1am Australian Eastern Time (Friday, September 18)

So what happens to all that hard work you’ve put in so far, buying property, building buildings, and putting as many hazards on your enemy’s properties? It’s gone. All gone.

Fortunately, we all got some practice before the real launch that will take us to the game’s end in January.

So what are the best strategies? Stick around and see. It’s all coming to this blog and to this blog only.

Be sure to subscribe to subscribe to this blog via RSS, or by email (see the right sidebar).

Update: The times mentioned above are for when the take will be taken offline to prepare for the restart. No official word on the exact time of the restart, but it will be somewhere within 12-24 hours…