Posted 9/11/2009 at 3:06 PM By whatamaroon
My World in My Hands
Since 10:15am PST, September 9th of this year, I have been able to purchase not only three different streets I lived on while growing up, but one of the streets my grandparents lived on, and several of the streets surrounding those. Do I need to clarify? Not only did I live on those streets, but I now OWN them! The same streets I used to skateboard on, ride bikes on, daydream on, I now own. They are mine to either make spectacular, neglect, or even turn around and sell for a quick profit! Since Monopoly City Streets is based on Google Maps and OpenStreetMaps, the developers have turned “the globe into one giant game board!” On that game board, players start off with $3 million monopoly money to begin making street purchases. The game allows searches as broad as looking for cities and as narrow as specific addresses. When a purchase is made, the “money” is debited from the “account” and the street is marked on the map as purchased. Players can make offers on streets that are owned, entering into negotiations over price with the owner... (cont.)
Check out the rest of our early Monopoly City Streets impressions, After the Break!
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Continued...
(cont.) Once a day, everyone who owns property “collects” the rent on streets owned, along with a $1 million monopoly money allowance. This enables people to start to buy up more real estate in the game. The interface is very sleek and efficient, which makes the game very easy to just pick up and play. Since it is internet based, the game can be played anywhere in the world with an internet connection. It does not require an installer to play.
You Get What You Pay For
All this being said, we need to remind ourselves, that Monopoly City Streets is a free game. It is internet-based and released around the world at the same time. They had been load testing the game for a month prior to launch. In the developers’ dreams, they never expected to have over 1.7 million unique hits in day one alone (which is what they claimed to hit Wednesday). So, guess what happened, Shogunites? The servers experienced some issues! It was admittedly hard to register, let alone purchase property Wednesday. I spent much of my time clicking a menu item, then alt-tabbing to some work, then alt-tabbing back minutes later to find the menu I was waiting for open and awaiting further input. The developers were forthcoming on their blog about the problems and their efforts to correct them. By 6:30pm PST on the 9th, I was able to spend some “quality” time with the game, making some purchases and dreaming about the streets I would try to grab the next day. On Thursday, the game was more tolerable, and having been in the game today, I can tell you that it seems as if the worst is behind us. The game is finally very responsive. I look forward to providing a full review once I have had a chance to get into more of the game. However, in the meantime, go over to the game's official website and give it a shot, I think you just might enjoy it!
*UPDATE - According to the Game’s official blog, due to the rocky start, the game will be reset. See the quote below..
“Once we are comfortable with how the game is performing we will reset the game. We are expecting that it will be in the middle of next week. We will give everyone at least 24 hours’ notice before we make the switch.” Mr. Monopoly - Monopoly City Streets Blog
It sounds like I may have to redo all my “hard” work. Now, don’t go squatting on my streets! I’ll keep the updates coming as this story develops.