Monopoly Auto-Play Mode

An example of the "Move History" feature, which shows the moves Monopoly Auto-Play made on the player's behalf.

<infobox> <title><default>What Do I Want?</default></title> I give freely this idea away, hoping someone will make it a reality. Even though you're under no obligation, this is what I'd like if you decide to make my idea come true.

• Creative input on the Auto-Play feature
• Input on making other aspects of the gameplay as fast as possible

</infobox> Monopoly can become tedious once the board has been fully built out. Players repeatedly circle the board until all but one is bankrupt. What if you could skip the boring part and go straight to the next significant event in the game? Monopoly Auto-Play mode does just that!

The End of Monopoly Gets Boring

In the later stage of a Monopoly game, once all the properties have been purchased and built out, most turns no longer require players to make a choice. On any given turn, you may pay money or you may owe money but neither are a choice you're making- you simple do as instructed when you land on the space.

This is where the game becomes monotonous. Players go around and around the board, sometimes hundreds of times, waiting for the rest of the players to go bankrupt.

The Fastest Game of Monopoly You Ever Played

When you turn on Monopoly Auto-Play mode, the computer plays for all of the players until a significant event happens. The boring part of the game is over instantaneously as the computer move the tokens, pays and collects rents, rolls to get players out of jail, etc. The computer plays until a player needs to make a decision or goes bankrupt. Auto-Play may make hundreds of moves before a human needs to intervene, skipping over the most boring part of the game.

All of the moves the computer made on the player's behalf show up in a running list. This makes it easy to review the game's progress while it was in Auto-Play mode.

Returning Control to Human Players

The computer stops playing and hands control back to humans when one of two things happens:

1. A Player Needs to Make a Decision

For example, a player may need to mortgage properties because they don't have the cash to pay the rent.

Whether to roll or pay to get out of jail doesn't need to be a decision. Most players will opt to stay in jail once there are no properties left to buy.

2. A Player Goes Bankrupt

Bankruptcy is a noteworthy event likely worthy of a pause in auto-play. However, some may see this pause as optional since no decision needs to be made. Players may prefer to leave Auto-Play running until only one player remains.

Another reason to make the pause optional is, in practice, a player is likely to have to raise cash (mortgaging, selling houses or trading) just before going bankrupt. This means Auto-Play will already stop just before a player's bankruptcy.