The Attractions

You can add Attractions to your hotel ... supposedly to attract more visitors, but really, the only reason I've found (given the low payout for the cost of adding them) is simply to fill your sticker book and collect the occasional gold bar as a reward for adding a sticker.

No, not all stickers will pay out in gold.

There may be more attractions that will appear at a higher level (note, for example, that Pizza Shop will only be unlocked at level 16 - a few levels ago, I didn't even see this Attraction on the list!), so I'll update this page as I see more of them.

Some people will pay cash to purchase more M dollars and/or gold - so far I've resisted ...

I am at Level 14 of the Monopoly Hotels game (from Electronic Arts) ... and all I've managed to purchase so far are a few of the Cupcake Shops, one Floral Shop, and a Theater Room ... I am now saving up to buy either a new hotel (the cheapest one left costs M$100,000 or the Yoga Studio Attraction at M$150,000.

We'll see.

The normal Guest Rooms

Once you've purchased a hotel (okay, the first one is simply a ribbon-cutting ceremony - you don't pay anything to purchase it), you can (and should) fill it with rooms.

It seems like the whole point of the Monopoly Hotels game from Electronic Arts is simply to purchase high-value guest rooms and then sit back and collect the money (rent) and then parlay that income into more hotels, museums, etc.

And of course, you can (and should) use the income to purchase more rooms for your new properties or to upgrade the rooms in your existing properties.

Remodelling is fun!

Here is the current list (for my level, level 14) of what is available:

Note that it's not smart just to buy the rooms that have the largest payout. You really want to do a feasibility analysis: start with how much it costs, then figure out how long it will take to pay out, and finally, how long it will take to pay for itself. Anything above that payoff is gravy, and that is what will let you buy more and more and more ....

The Hotels

Just a quick sampling of the hotels available in the Monopoly Hotels game (iOS) from Electronic Arts as of July 31, 2012:

So far, the farthest I can scroll (right to left) on my phone is as far as Pennsylvania. Which costs a whopping M$40,000,000!!

Will I ever buy that hotel? Sure. When I have the "cash".

My own collection so far includes the Mediterranean (free at the start of the game), the Baltic, the Oriental and the Illinois.

Some of these were bought for cash - the Baltic and the Oriental.

The Illinois, however, set me back in GOLD. 25 Gold to be precise. And Gold isn't something that you collect easily ...

After saving up 25 gold bars to splurge on buying this hotel, you'd better believe I had some buyer's remorse: you see, the Museum on Ventnor only cost 12 gold bars, PLUS, the Illinois made me wait a whole DAY after I'd plunked down my gold - not a happy feeling for a likely-ADHD, zero-patience gal.

But then I saved up some more gold and plunked down my 12 gold bars for the Ventnor Museum - not ONLY did it also make me wait a day, I then discovered that my other properties weren't bringing in enough money to let me purchase any of the rooms available for the museum.

So there it sits.

EMPTY so far.

Ah well, c'est la vie.

As I said, this game is teaching me patience and strategic skills that should probably stand me in good stead in real life. Yeah. Sure.

GIMME MY MONOPOLY MONEY!

Time Waster Beyond Compare

July 14, 2012 was a wasted day. So was July 15.

If you don't know why, just check the blog title - July 14 was the day I discovered the Monopoly Hotels app from Electronic Arts. It was a gorgeous, sunny, summer day in Toronto. I spent the whole day indoors, glued to my iPhone, playing the game instead of going out and enjoying the day. I hasten to add that I only did that on the weekend ... I do have a "normal" desk job - one that involves many 12-hour days for 8-hour wages.

But I digress. Back to Monopoly Hotels.

As of this writing, the app is free for iOS devices. All I have today is the iPhone, so that's the version I've downloaded and installed.

Electronic Arts (EA) seems to release updates fairly frequently (I believe there's already been at least one, maybe two since I installed the app), so check back often and download the latest version. New versions seem to add things to various areas - new hotels (the game does not yet have all the hotels that appear on the board in the original game of Monopoly), new Guest Rooms, new Attractions ... presumably also new sticker collections and guests to sign your Guest Book.

Anyway, back to what I was saying: EA's Monopoly Hotels is an addictive little game, for all that it's not a shoot-em-up or other fast-paced action game. In fact, the name of the game here is patience. Something I don't have a lot of in real life. But this game sure teaches it to you!

I am still learning the game, so my insights may be very different from those of you who've had it for a while and have figured out all the tips and tricks and shortcuts.

The biggest eye-opener for me so far has been the calculation of a room's actual value - I'll put up some charts over time, as I do those calculations.

For now, suffice it to say, I discarded TV several years ago, deeming it a mindless time-waster.

Well, Monopoly Hotels has arrived in my world - and it's even MORE of a time waster than TV ever was (I've never spent a whole ten hours at a stretch in front of a TV, but I've done that a few times already with this game!)

Sicko that I am, I don't actually seem to mind the time wasted ... it's challenging my brain in some way, I think.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.