Monopoly go is a mobile game developed by Scopley that was released in 2023. The theming based on the nostalgic board game and heavy reliance on integration with Facebook indicates that the target audience of this game is middle aged people, although truly anyone could be drawn in by its aesthetic and gameplay. By integrating randomness and chance into nearly every aspect and moment of the game, combined with and ease of play and satisfying sensory experiences, this game expertly and maliciously hacks the dopamine system to get people addicted.
Although this game purports to be a single player version of the popular board game, it’s more accurately described as a slot machine themed after a board game. The following is a screen recording which shows many of the different ways chance is incorporated into the gameplay. I’ve noted all of the unique times that chance plays a role in the game.
When you press the red button, you roll a pair of dice which will land you on a space of varying utility [chance]. Most of the tiles, such as the first one landed on in this video, give you a bit of money with a predefined amount. But when you roll and land on a railroad, you have the opportunity to win a lot more money. One of two possible mini-games is selected randomly [chance]. The first in the video lets you can attack someone else’s building, which may or may not have a shield on it [chance]. In this screen recording, there’s no shield and I win more money than I would have if it did have a shield. I then roll again and end up on a “chance” space [chance] (this one’s a little on the nose). The rewards from these cards can vary greatly, but in this scenario it takes me to the next railroad where I play the other type of minigame. There is a small possibility that you go to an uber-luxury vault with higher rewards [chance]. In my scenario, I go to a regular one, which is just a scratcher–you reveal icons until you’ve uncovered three of a kind [chance].
These aren’t all of the different ways chance is baked into Monopoly Go. There are packs of trading cards that are randomized, a wheel to spin with rewards on it, Clearly chance is extremely pervasive throughout the game, but what’s the actual effect? To get deeper into this, I’d like to make a brief detour into what causes dopamine to release (maybe you can tell I’m in BIO 150 right now).
While many people think dopamine release is about reward, it’s more about the anticipation for a reward. This means that dopamine levels spike right before an anticipated reward. The higher the uncertainty about the reward, the more dopamine that’s released. The highest uncertainty is when two outcomes have equal probability, ie, there’s 50% chance of the “good thing” happening. In slot machines, you can’t give the player a 50% chance of winning big because you’ll lose money as a casino. But since Monopoly Go involves fake monopoly money which has no real-world value, the designers can let you win a higher percentage of the time.
When you roll, you hope to land on a railroad tile–dopamine release. When you land on one, you hope to get the bank heist minigame–dopamine release. When you get the bank heist minigame, you hope to get the high-valued bank–dopamine release. When you get the high-valued bank, you hope to tap on the high-valued items–dopamine release.
At every single step of the way, you are hoping for something which, for the most part, has a very high uncertainty one way or the other. No matter whether you get the preferred outcome, you immediately have something new to hope for.
I chose this game because I knew it was an addictive cash grab, and I was fascinated to observe how it works. When I started my critical play, I was scoffing at how blatantly every addictive trick is incorporated. From the extremely satisfying sound effects perfectly accompanied by haptic feedback to the lighthearted, fun visuals to the thoroughly mindless gameplay it seemed ridiculous that people could actually fall for this.
Now, usually for critical plays I play the game for a few hours in a sitting and write the critical play. However, over the past few days since I downloaded this game, I’ve found myself frequently telling myself that I should play some more so I have a better idea of the game for the critical play. I’ve used this justification a few too many times.
In short, this game has gotten to me. It’s expertly manipulating my brain’s reward center and even though I can pick up on so many of the tricks they’re using, the tricks still work.
When I’ve played the game with friends, I made them play on my phone because I didn’t want them to befall the same fate as me. They too laughed at how comically obvious the game was about having the primary incentive of activating your reward center. And then, when I got a text on my phone which I wanted to respond to, they didn’t want to give me my phone because they had more dice to roll. They agreed that the game was all luck, but as I’ve dug deeper, reading reviews and watching YouTube videos on the game, I’ve learned that many players see it as a very skilled game with deep strategies and tactics. And as I’ve unlocked more mechanics, I’ve realized that they’re probably right.
While the game’s initial mechanics are all grounded in chance, as you progress there are new mechanics which allow you to go deeper. Trading cards are won randomly and can be exchanged with members of a trading group to complete packs and win more dice. There are ways to optimize when to spend the money earned to build buildings to progress, and times when you should increase your bet to use more dice to multiply the reward. While this game draws people in with the dopamine from chance, it gives the prefrontal cortex something to do as well, if you want to.
Monopoly Go deviously combines nested layers of chance to always give the player something to hope for, introduces social mechanics to give players something to think about, and, of course, gives the players something to buy. Players can buy more dice to get more chances and activate more dopamine and continue the cycle indefinitely.
Now that my critical play has been written, I have to decide whether I will keep playing. I really really hope I delete the insidious, harmful, manipulative game. But I just got a few more dice, so maybe just one last roll.
