Games Britannia Part Two Monopolies and Mergers

Part Two of Games Britannia followed on from the ancient games in part one with the growth of consumer board games industry  in the uk. 

A large part of this episode was spent talking about the well known game monopoly. Which originated as a to illustrate the specifics of Georgism economics. Which is the belief that the value of a community should be split between the community. So the game known as “The LandLords Game” showed how if that did not happen and the current idea of people buying up land and making a profit by charging high tax to the citizens was bad for the economy. So the game showed that by attempting to be unfair to players by charging them high amounts in the hope that they would realise that the system was unfair. However that did not work and eventually the game eventually evolved into the modern day Monopoly which had flipped the origin idea into a game that encouraged the idea of gaining wealth. 

In the documentary the shows presenter Benjamin Woolley played a game of monopoly at the uk monopoly championship where the winner would go on to play in the world monopoly championships in las vegas. This shows the size and importance of games in society just like how in part one the significance of games where shown. 

Also in the documentary Woolley a group of independent developers who are making a game called war on terror that is highly satirical. However because of its content no publisher will make it. However that dose not deter these developers which shows the detection amongst those in the industry. 

This episode also talks about the rise of role-playing games such as dungeons and dragons and how they helped making gaming the cultural phenomenon it has become.