The Next Monopoly?

A couple weeks ago I got a new game in the mail. It's called Mogul and is supposedly "the game of real estate acquisition, finance, and management." Checking out their website, I got a bit more detail:

Joel Harden’s MOGUL is the newest and most realistic board game to simulate real-world real estate business transactions and management.  Easy to learn and fun to play, MOGUL immerses you in a world of high-stakes deals and cutthroat competition, all the while teaching you the importance of analyzing deals, the importance of cash and credit management, and dozens more real world skills. Build empire, crush your opponents, and become a Mogul.

Ooooooooo, "crush your opponents." I like it already!!! ;-)

We haven't played it yet (our family life is very busy right now), but I'm looking forward to it since it resembles an old favorite game of mine, Monopoly. After all, it's a board, has houses, you buy and sell stuff, etc. What's not to love?

There's one huge drawback I see already -- the price of the thing is $99.99. Yep, for a board game. I must admit that the packaging and the game itself is very, very nice -- very high end -- but $100 for a board game seems a bit over-the-top, don't you think? Then again, if you look at is as $100 to get an education in real estate, maybe it's worth it? What do you think?

I did a bit of digging and found what others had to say about the game. Here's coverage of the game from the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Sales are down 50 percent over the last year, even in the predominantly African American moderate-income neighborhoods where Harden does business. He says those locales aren't normally affected by "the highs and lows" of Center City. Harden's response to the slump includes three new businesses. [One is] a real estate board game, Mogul, which Harden started selling last fall. It's like Monopoly, but with promissory notes, cap rates, unsecured loans, noncredit tenants and other real-world elements.

"In high schools, they don't teach basic financial literacy. Understanding what the game teaches can help them learn to achieve the lifestyles they want to live," Harden said. He said he had sold "a few thousand" games, at $99.99 each, to clients like Andrew Carswell, a University of Georgia economics professor, who said: "It really gets down to the intricacies of property transactions."

Wow. A few thousand at $100 a pop is some nice coin.

Turns out, $100 is a deal. From The Real Deal:

The Philadelphia developer hopes the $99.99 (lowered from $199.99) board game -- which just hit the market -- will teach financial confidence, making real life financial transactions easier. The player with the highest total net worth -- each player receives a financial worksheet to fill out, and players have bills and credit ratings -- wins the game.

Yikes! $199.99?? Double yikes!!!!

I also found some thoughts from Off World:

I can't say whether Joel Harden's Real Estate Mogul game is good or bad, but I'm pretty sure it's at least suffers from bad timing. Here it is debuting at Toy Fair when you really can't think of a less appealing business to be in. [And] the game's $99 (!) price tag may prevent mogul wannabes from being able to put a down payment on anything in the short term.

And from the LA Times:

Perhaps an advanced version of Mogul will nurture dark real estate skills such as bad-rapping the competition, renegotiating a deal at the last minute and fighting over sales commissions. It better, if it really wants to be "the most realistic real estate trading game ever created."

I haven't yet seen a review from anyone who's actually played this game, so it could be the greatest game ever or a bomb. But from looking at it, I can be reasonably sure of the following:

• There's a big investment of time upfront in learning how to play. Its complexity appears to make Monopoly look like checkers.

• It's probably very realistic and very educational. Should be interesting to see what my kids think of it.

I'll give you the low-down once we do play it (assuming there's something noteworthy to share), but for now, you can check out the basics of the game for yourself. And if that's not enough, they even have a blog for more details on the various aspects of real estate!

Comments

[the weakonomist]

That sounds like a really fun game. The problem will be no one will play me because they'll assume I have a leg-up on the competition with my knowledge base. Let me know how easy it is for non-finance types to pick up on it. Looking forward to your follow-up.

[Strick]

I remember another board game that I thought was ridiculously expensive and came out during the '82 recession, but it did quite well. Of course, I think the simplicity of Trivial Pursuit (simplicity, not ease) led to its broad popularity, but this sounds like a hit for the readers of this blog and a good teaching tool!

[justin]

Sounds fun... but if there's one thing I've learned. It's never trust anyone from Philly

[Eugene Krabs]

This reminds me of the costly game that is Robert Kiyosaki's Cashflow or something like that. Last I heard the first version also cost about $200, and the second version is even more!

[t]

I play all sorts of board games (from Avalon Hill, WOC, Fantasy Flight, Rio Grande Games, etc) and I can see some board/war/simulation games costing more than $50 just with production costs involved. However, Kiyosaki's game and this one are not in that category. My girlfriend's brother bought Kiyosaki's game for over a hundred, which really shocked me. I thought to myself that he could of gotten several great PF books and come out ahead reading those.

[Sarah]

Seems to me this game is aimed at the same suckers who go to the seminars and buy the workbooks, except maybe poorer. The most expensive computer games, representing thousands of hours of sophisticated labor, don't retail for more than $50.

[CentsInTheCity]

$99 is too much for a board game. I don't think I'd spend over $20, especially since there are plenty of cheaper options out there.

[Blaine Moore]

I was just going to mention that Guy Kiyosaki had gone the same route w/a board game and seemed to do pretty well with it.

[Nick B]

I would like to win a free game.

[Pat]

Thanks

[brett]

Board games are great

[Brian S.]

Board games rock. I would love to win this game and build upon my burgeoning collection.

[Steph]

It sounds like a good way to learn real estate. I'd love to try it!

[sandra jensen]

This sounds fun! I might have a hard time getting my family to join in - after I womp them the first time!

[Brett]

If you want to play a free financial sim game, try http://www.toxicassetsgame.com/

"You are the CEO of a financial institution with fifty million dollar in deposits to invest. But the bubble has burst, property prices are cratering and borrowers are defaulting out at a rapidly increasing rate!" Uh-oh!

[M.B.]

Thanks for the contest!

[Sara]

I hope I win - this game looks neat.

[Jonathan]

If I play this game do I have to get Donald Trumps "haircut" or are there other designs that I can choose from?

[Steve]

The price is right when it's free.

[Matthew Minegar]

Thanks for the opportunity!

[Ron]

I'd like one, thanks

[Rajs]

A free one is better than to to pay for one.