Devlog 14 - The Landlord's Game

The Landlord's Game created by Elizabeth Magie, was made to sell the ideas and benefits of the single tax movement. The Landlord’s Game is significant to US game history because it was the first game to be granted a US patent in 1904. It also led to the creation of one of the most well known modern board games, Monopoly. The reason The Landlord’s Game has been mostly forgotten is due to multiple reasons, however the biggest reason is simply Monopoly took the spotlight and captured audiences. Elizabeth failed to get The LandLord’s Game published by The Parker Brothers Game company, as they stated the game was “too complicated, too educational, and wasn’t at all fun”. The game was also too political, so the Parker Brothers didn’t want to get their hands on it for obvious reasons. By 1934 Charles Brace Darrow had played The Landlord's Game and made his own version called Monopoly. Although Games were “enormously similar”,even having some of the same spaces and a similar board layout, Charles managed to successfully pitch the game to Parker Brothers. This pitch also may have succeeded due to the fact that Parker Brothers was under new management at the time. Monopoly being successfully published led to the game being distributed to more people. Unlike The Landlord's Game, Monopoly had secured a large audience and thus more sales. Maybe with some of the redesigns Monopoly was perceived less political than its earlier counterpart. Either Way Overtime Monopoly would inevitably overshadow The Landlord’s Game with its success. Seeing as the two games were practically the same, it was almost impossible for both games to succeed in the market and the public conscience. One would have replaced the other and due to circumstances it just happened to be Monopoly. Monopoly has now made a massive name for itself and only has to make newer and modern versions of the game to keep public interest. While they did eventually purchase Elizabeth's patent for The Landlord’s Game, there would be no reason to make a new updated version of the game. The game simply would not sell well and would fail to connect with a modern audience, being cast aside as a Monopoly clone. Why play a Monopoly clone, when you can play Monopoly. The Primary Reason the Landlord’s game is forgotten is due to Monopoly’s massive success, even though it was the original.