GOLD!

As some of you may have noticed, I'm mildly (mildly???) addicted to the Monopoly Hotels game on my iPhone.

I have been spending a few hours too many on the game every weekend.

People have started to notice and some have even commented on it (the gall of some people!).

The game itself?

Not that exciting, if you really think about it.

You don't shoot aliens, there are no high-speed chases, you don't even need to tax your brain thinking through clues or outwitting duller-witted competitors.

You don't even have the opportunity to play against an opponent. Not even to the extent of joining in a bidding war when hotels go on sale (remember that 30% discount this past weekend?)

Like real-life real estate deals, the only hook is getting you to figure out what the best bang for your buck is in terms of buying rooms to put into your hotels. (You can find plenty of strategy posts and guides if you just do a quick web search, so I won't bother with details here.)

The cash aspect is fairly straight-forward. You put in a room, and, at intervals of several minutes (or hours, or days), you collect the "rent". Pretty straight-forward, as I said.

But then you discover that there are rooms, attractions, even entire hotels (AND the Ventnor Museum!) that you need GOLD to purchase. Gold bars, actually.

And they are HARD to find.

You see, you get a few free gold bars when you first start the game. Then, if you click on a room or attraction you'd like to purchase but cannot afford, the game offers you the opportunity to top up your gold reserves.

You can BUY gold, of course. Various price points.

I am cheap. I like FREE games, and, having installed a FREE game, I am not actually very likely to shell out cold, hard, cash just in order to buy some fictional property.

You can also collect gold bars by signing up for an Origin account and then using it to invite "friends". Right. Like any of my friends have the time or the interest ...

I've wound up asking Professor Google for some hints as to people's handles on Origin and then sending them "friend" requests. Fortunately, several of them have responded and accepted the invites, enough to help me earn 3 gold bars (for siging up) and then a further 5 gold bars for actually having "friends". I think it topped out there, so I haven't added any more in a while.

So, how *else* can you get some gold?

You can watch ads or sign up for various "free" memberships to things ... only, all of them require credit card details, and, guess what? I don't just hand out my credit card information for a game ....

Any other ways to get gold? Yes, actually. You can click the flying carpet when it comes by:

Then, as prompted, roll the dice:

And if you're lucky, you'll roll two 1s, which will reward you with 3 gold bars:

Much more often, though, it'll pat you on the back for your effort and hand out a few dollars:

And here's the addictive bit, the thing that has me spending hours on the dashed game:

The Monopoly dollars and the Community Chest (the flying carpet thing) float past on the screen as long as you're in the game. Clicking on the dollars gives you cash, but typically only one or two M$ (although I *have* seen it as high as M$19).

So really, if you want those gold bars, you have to either sign up for those credit-card-hungry "free" offers, or pay cash for gold, or .... you could sit and watch the screen, waiting for flying carpets.

I am still new enough to the game that I've chosen to do the sit and watch thing a few times too many, despite swearing "Not today, I won't".

Anyone know of any less time-wasting ways to "earn" gold?

I do wish Electronic Arts was a bit more generous with the gold bars. In their defence, I hear they did have a few days recently where the open-the-game bonus was gold instead of the Monopoly dollars ... but that was before I had even installed the game, so it obvioulsy did me no good. :)

Ah, it'll keep. I can still have plenty of fun with out gold bars ... and I really, REALLY don't have the time or the inclination to waste any more hours watching for flying carpets.

I mean, REALLY!