In today's world, new games are all about challenging the previous ones. Zapak's Anti-Monopoly is a new twist to an old game and has a lot more to offer by way of rules, utility prices and the rents. As my family and me sat down to play the game, we doubted its fun quotient, but as the game progresses it catches speed and once you get the hang of it, you'll love it.
Real deals
The basic concept is that the players are split into two different factions. You either play as the Monopolist or as the Competitor. This is a really good way of developing team spirit. Everyone starts with the same amount of money and can spend the money on houses or apartments.
The competitors can build houses without having the need to own a group of similar coloured streets whereas monopolists cannot do the same; they need to own all the streets of the same colour to build houses. It is rather difficult to win playing as a competitor — the rent they charge is lower and fair; unlike the monopolists who charge ridiculous rents.
The idea of the game is to be the richest competitor after all the monopolists have been bankrupted or to be the richest monopolist after all the competitors have been eliminated.
This new game can be related to the scenario of the real business world today, where competitors clash with monopolists and work hard to make money, but the two go about the tasks in different ways. Competitors sell their goods at the market price and monopolists prefer to wipe out competitors so that they can fix prices according to their whims.
I may not be a serious board game player but I can surely say that you will enjoy playing Anti-Monopoly. It's a game worth having.
VANESSA BAGDY, II Year, B.E, C.Sc, College of Engineering, Guindy
