What board game involves buying and trading properties?

The classic board game known for its distinctive board and colorful play money is Monopoly, a game centered around the acquisition and exchange of real estate. Players traverse a board, aiming to purchase unowned properties they land on, with the goal of collecting full color sets. Once a player owns all properties of a particular color group, they can begin developing them with houses and hotels, dramatically increasing the rent collected from opponents who land there. Strategic trading with other players is also a crucial element, allowing participants to complete sets or gain needed cash to avoid bankruptcy.

Interestingly, the game's origins trace back to Elizabeth Magie, who patented "The Landlord's Game" in 1904. Magie, an anti-monopolist, designed her game as an educational tool to illustrate the negative economic consequences of concentrating land in private monopolies and to promote the economic theories of Henry George. Her original intent was to demonstrate that an economy rewarding individuals is better than one where monopolies hold all the wealth.

Decades later, Charles Darrow popularized a version of the game, which he sold to Parker Brothers in 1935. The properties on the original game board were named after locations in and around Atlantic City, New Jersey. Since then, it has become a global phenomenon, licensed in over a hundred countries and printed in dozens of languages, making it one of the most recognized and played board games worldwide.