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What is Monopoly City Streets? Monopoly City Streets is a new online game that turns the world's cities into a giant real life Monopoly City game board. This new game is an immersive experience that gives players a chance to experience the thrill of negotiating and building first hand. Players can personalize that experience and share it with their friends.
We're introducing this new game to get more players engaged in the thrill of negotiation - and to introduce a new game to the marketplace, MONOPOLY CITY.
Why did Hasbro decide to work with Google Maps? Google Street Maps application is one of the best known in the world. With Monopoly City Streets, Hasbro has created a new way to use Google Maps which allows us to overlay buildings, skyscrapers and sewage works to bring to life the game play of our new Monopoly City game. What can players expect when they log on to Monopoly City Streets?
Players will be invited to register and will be given $3 million Monopoly dollars to start play. You can search for a street, purchase it and then decide if you want to start building immediately or if you want to purchase another street. You can select streets from virtually every city in the world -- whether it’s the street where you live or a street in Paris, London or New York. The more you build, the more rent you earn -- and if someone owns a street you want, you can contact them and negotiate for that street. The person who accumulates the most money and property wins the game.
I can't seem to log in. Can you help?
When we launched MONOPOLY City Streets in September, we were thrilled that so many of you wanted to try your hand at global real estate domination. As many of you experienced, the initial rush led to slower servers, which in turn resulted in compromised data. You may have also discovered a few bugs while you’ve been getting to know the game and we’ve been hard at work to fix those problems. This restart does mean that everyone is starting over with $3 million and a world to discover. You will need register again and create a new login. We hope that you are successful in purchasing the street that is central to your future real estate empire and that you’ll enjoy buying, building and negotiating just as you can in the new Monopoly City board game. What is the cost to participate? There is no cost to participate in Monopoly City Streets.
How much money do I receive each day? Each day that you log into the game you will receive a payday amount of $1 million Monopoly dollars plus rent for your owned properties. The amount of your income is determined by the value of the streets that you own and the rent value of the buildings you have on each street. When do I receive my rent? Rent is released once a day at 12am (midnight) GMT. But you MUST log on once a day to have the rent paid out into your bank. Do you only get rent on days when you log in or does it accrue? Yes. You must log in to receive rent. It does not accrue.
I have a negative bank balance. What do I do? If you receive a Chance Card that fines you more cash than you have in the bank, you will find your balance fall below zero. The quickest way to get back into the positive is to sell some of your streets to the bank! Unfortunately, for half their total value, but beggars can’t be choosers. How does daily tax work? There is only one certainty in MONOPOLY City Streets. Tax. Just like in real life, tax now plays an integral part of the game. Tax works as follows: The first 5 streets owned are not taxed. Thereafter the current tax rate is 3% PER STREET you own. For example, if you own 15 streets your tax will be 30% of your total rent collected every day. If you own 25 streets your tax will be 60%. Remember, at 38 streets you will effectively be taxed 100% and so won’t be making any profit and your bank balance won’t increase. Does owning streets that are connected to each other have any special power/rent opportunity? No.
How can I protect my properties from being bulldozed? Players can protect their properties from Hazards by adding bonus buildings to their properties. Bonus buildings, which include parks, schools and stadiums, are available on the random Chance Cards that players are given during the game. But watch out… bonus buildings can be bulldozed. How can someone bulldoze my bonus building? I thought they were safe? A bulldoze card can destroy the following: any building on a non-protected street, any bonus building protecting a street, or, a hazard that has been placed on a street you own. Yes, a bonus building can be destroyed. A bonus building protects your street from a hazard being built on the street and protects all of the other buildings on the street from the bulldozer as long as the bonus building is still standing. Can I build a bonus building on my street if it has a hazard? Yes. Building a bonus building on a street that has a hazard will negate the power of the hazard. However, you can not build a hazard on a street with a bonus building. Can I bulldoze a hazard on another person’s street? No. I’m being bullied. Someone keeps bulldozing my properties. Can you disqualify them?
No. To protect your properties we recommend building parks, schools and other bonus buildings on your streets as soon as you have the opportunity by receiving a Chance card. We will not disqualify players unless we suspect that a player has an unfair advantage.
What happens when streets are sold with buildings on them? When you sell a street to another player, the buildings are included. They do not go back to the bank. Sell wisely! I can see my street on the map, but I can’t buy it. Why not? The streets available for purchase through MONOPOLY City Streets are limited to those included in the OpenStreetMap program and as such some of the smaller streets are not available for purchase. If it’s a larger street, please report the problem and we will try to resolve it as soon as possible. To find out more: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Monopoly_City_Streets All my streets and buildings have been sold. Why? And what do I do?
It pays to play regularly and doesn’t to not. If, after 2 weeks, there has not been any activity on your account, the bank automatically repossesses ALL your streets. Ouch. Unfortunately, you’re going to have to start again. This time, keep buying, building and negotiating on a more regular basis. You won’t need to set up a new account, just log with your username and password. I just bought a street, but now it’s telling me I can’t sell it. How can I sell it? No street can be bought or sold more than once per day. So, be clever about which streets you negotiate for. I received a counter offer but I can’t see it. Is there anything I can do? Try refreshing the page and clicking on the alert again. If I delete an alert, does this reject the offer included in the alert? No. You have to open the offer and click the reject button. Can I take back an offer that I made on a property? I changed my mind. No. All offers are final. A capitalist world is a cruel world. Be sure before you send that offer.
How many languages is Monopoly City Streets available in? Monopoly fans from around the world are invited to play Monopoly City Streets in one of the five available languages: English, Spanish, German, French and Dutch. Where do I have to live to play Monopoly City Streets? Anyone living anywhere in the world can play Monopoly City Streets as long as they have an Internet connection. When you play, you aren’t limited to your own neighborhood or country. If you’ve always dreamed of owning property in Paris, now’s your chance to move in on the neighborhood! Why isn’t my street on the map? The streets available for purchase through MONOPOLY City Streets are limited to those included in the OpenStreetMap program as we are subject to the streets that they have documented in their map database at the time we imported the data in to the game. To find out more: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Monopoly_City_Streets My street isn’t spelled properly. Why not? The information that is included in Monopoly City Streets is limited to that provided in the OpenStreetMap program as we are subject to the streets that they have documented in their map database at the time we imported the data into the game. Your leaderboard score reflects your net worth, this mean you total bank balance plus your streets and buildings value. Why is my scoreboard not updating? Scoreboards are updated once a day at 12am (midnight) GMT. They are not updated in real-time like your bank balance. I’d like to change the language I’m playing in. How can I change that? Clear your cookies and start the game again. Is there a way for me to change my starting location? For example, when I login I get sent to London, but I’d like to start in Chicago. Your starting location is determined by where you purchase your first street. You don’t have to stay there, it is simply your “home” page in the game. How can I make comments about any problems I encounter in the game? In the game is an area for reporting problems. Please leave comments there. I paid for a building twice and it doesn’t show up. What gives? This is a bug we are looking into. I’ve been playing for hours but still haven’t received a chance card. What do I need to do to receive one? Chance cards are dealt randomly. Please keep playing….you will get one... Cheaters. There seems to be a lot of cheating going on. As you know, our game is designed for the broad MONOPOLY family audience as an introduction to the new Monopoly City board game. We do not collect e-mail addresses of children and unfortunately this has left us more vulnerable to cheater attack. (The game clearly has surprising appeal to serious MMOG players, and we were unprepared for the time that some have dedicated to setting up multiple accounts, alliances and building BOTS.)
As we became aware of each new issue we investigated the problem and, where possible, clarified the game rule and posted this on the blog.
We clarified our position on multiple accounts and we have since been going through a process of deleting multiple account players. We are acting faster (and tougher) on the multi accounters. We have built new systems to analyse data but we have to be fair and pass a human eye before we hit the delete button so that we are doing everything we can to avoid deleting other players who may be at the same location. It is fair, but it does slow us down a bit and we hope this is appreciated. We are also implementing a reduction of the number of chance cards given per turn so that the ‘cheats’ can’t take too much of an advantage (thanks to the community for this suggestion).
We can’t reveal all, but please note we are constantly clearing the game of cheats, just this week we have deleted over 10,000 individual accounts and released more than 100,000 streets back to the game. If you’ve noticed someone cheating then please let us know. We are making a list and checking it twice. Why don’t you tap into the community for suggestions for future development, to fix the flaws of the game or help with game support? We appreciate the enthusiasm this community has shown for our game. In fact, we love it. We know a lot of people are convinced that this is a beta for a bigger game, but (honest!) we never intended the online game to last beyond its intended promotional period this Fall. That’s why we didn’t plan for the kind of development dialogue that players expect of an MMOG and, in fact, we didn’t originally plan to have a blog. It’s taken us a while to gather the resources needed to engage the community. We’ll continue to listen to suggestions but we have no plans to further change game rules during the promotion, now scheduled to conclude in December.
Response time to e-mails, blog posts, Twitter questions. As you many have likely gathered, it has taken us longer than we would have liked to get the resources in place to respond to the e-mails. We have addressed this and we are making progress in this task. Bugs in the game We know that as you have played the game you have discovered bugs in the game. We appreciate that many of you have reported these bugs so that we can address them in order to make the game fair for all players. The bugs and issues that we have addressed include: security concerns around the password reset, ballooning rent calculations (which were capped) and the ability to accept offers on other players’ behalf (removed). We have also addressed the concern about streets appearing in property portfolios multiple times. This has been corrected and your portfolio will be corrected at your next login.
We know that there are still bugs to fix in the game and we are prioritizing them based on your comments and will continue to fix them during the promotional period. Our main focus is the offer system and the integrity of your user data. We also have a significant performance improvement coming soon.
Specific bugs that we are currently working to fix: re-enabling buildings to be built along the full length of long streets. streets in limbo following being offered in a negotiation. updating leaderboard once cheats have been deleted. Recognizing and posting fan sites We really are overwhelmed by the dedication of so many players to support the game with fansites, forums, help sites, blogs and more to discuss the game. We appreciate your enthusiasm. However, because this is a game that is targeting our broad MONOPOLY family audience, we do have to be careful about the links that we include and endorse on the blog and in the game. While most of the sites are fine, there are some that would be inappropriate for children to view. Why does the game slow down? I can’t move around the map and it’s taking a long time to load or build houses or find someone to sabotage? We are constantly working to make the game perform better for all players. To date, we have increased server capacity significantly and it is supporting the level of traffic adequately. Despite the increase in server power, the wide interest in the game and increasingly complex cheating methods being deployed have slowed the game down from time to time for all users. We’ve put in a number of tools to combat the cheaters, such as multiple account detection and throttle systems. As people change their cheating behaviour, we too have to make updates. Unfortunately this will slow down the game for everyone else. But we are making code changes as necessary and splitting processing across more servers to help speed things up.
Why is it taking so long for me to login, time to buy streets or build buildings? As the result of us working in the background to improve the game, you may experience slowness or may not be able to access your account from time to time. We apologize in advance if this catches you off guard. Please note that sometimes, Internet conditions are out of our control i.e. during the day or at peak times traffic around the world can slow down.
We’ve also seen in the last few days that some people on some machines are reporting continuous slowness when moving around the map or loading their game. Currently, we don’t believe the ‘slowness’ is a result of server capacity being too low. Rather, as the world becomes very populated with buildings we believe that the time taken to ‘draw’ the landscape as people move around makes it appear slow. We have some ideas for how to do this differently that we are exploring.
What does this error “You’re making too many requests too quickly, please slow down” mean? You should only receive this message if you’re trying to build a property more than once in a few seconds. We’ve seen this type of behaviour with those who have used a front-end script to buy buildings. We have also seen that most of the front-end scripts have added a time delay to play more like a human, fairer for all. Occasionally users with multiple browsers open who are playing fair but fast have received a slow down message as there is a throttle in place to stop the unfair advantage players with BOTs have. Occasionally players who aren’t cheating get caught in this throttle and we apologize for the inconvenience. We’re currently reviewing and optimising the BOT tracking and slowing system , if you do get the message we suggest you wait 30 seconds before your next move.
Why can’t I build on the entire length of my street? Or, When trying to develop my streets, why have I got a message saying ‘you’ve reached your limit’? We found that as players developed some of the longer streets, we were starting to see data corruption. To give us the time to prepare a full fix, which includes a data tier change, we implemented a ‘long street’ patch to temporarily fix problems some users have reported when trying to develop long streets. This short-term fix will not allow building over a certain number of buildings, which has reduced the data corruption we have seen on the long streets. Please note: this is not a rule change and should only affect those with very long streets. It is also a temporary issue and we will let you know as soon as you can develop as many buildings as much as your bank balance lets you.
Why have my buildings disappeared? We have had data problems when users are building many hundreds or thousands of
Why is a street I’ve sold still appearing in my list of properties? Or, why are some streets appearing twice in my property list? This was a bug in the game. We have since fixed the issue and added an update that will correct people’s street lists and what they own when they log into the game. We’d appreciate feedback if this is not the case. Also, for those who played during a busy load time and experienced slower game performance, there may have been data lags and inconstancies, which caused your property lists to be out of date. Why am I being attacked by so many sabotages? We can’t say exactly…you may have property that everyone wants…or you may just be unlucky. It may be that there are some players who are trying to “bully” you into giving up on the game so they can take over your properties. Please feel free to report any suspicious behavior.
Why am I being sabotaged when my street is protected? The rule is that a protection building placed on a street protects that street from a hazard, but not the protection building itself. For example, if Main street has a Park (a protection building) and a dozen buildings, the following are protected: 1) the street is protected from the placement of a hazard on the street, such as a sewage works and 2) the buildings on the street are protected from the bulldoze card. However, the protection building (in our example, a park) is not protected from the bulldoze card. A player can bulldoze your protection building and then build a hazard or destroy your other buildings. How do I reset my password? To reset your password, please put in your username and any old password. Then, follow the link in the message that comes up. A screen will appear that asks for memorable information and a new password. You must re-enter your new password and the “captcha” text (the text or numbers that appear in the box). The password will then be reset to what you have entered. If you cannot remember their username or your memorable information, we’re very sorry but we cannot help you to recover your account.
Why isn’t the leaderboard updating? When the game launched, there was an error in the calculation of the score on the leaderboards. Since that time, we have updated the calculation. Now when your account value (cash balance + value of all your streets and property) drops so will your position on the boards. This will prevent multiple cheat accounts from filling the leader board.
Why are some cheats still appearing in the leaderboard? When we see someone on the leaderboard that appears to be a ‘suspect account’ we start investigating that account. Once we have verified that the account is engaging in suspect behaviour, we delete that player as per the rules in the game. The leaderboard should update in real-time, however, at times there can be delays. In some cases, we’re deliberately leaving the cheats on the leaderboard as we investigate their portfolios. When an account is deleted, their score immediately drops to 0, but sometimes they will still appear in the leaderboard until a new player with a higher total score has logged into the game.
I’ve offered someone some money for a street, it’s been 7 days and I still haven’t heard anything? It may be that someone else has made a higher offer and your offer is no longer on the negotiation table. The money from your original offer is credited back to your cash balance, which happens the next time you log in and will change as your cash total changes with your rental income. There isn’t a specific alert to tell you the cash has been credited back if your offer has been rejected. How do I know if my offer/s have been rejected? You should receive an alert from the person you made an offer to, saying your offer has been rejected. You will need to check your message alerts to find out.
Why do I keep getting negative tax chance cards? The tax is worked out based on your total income. But the tax rate is based on the number of streets you own. So 'tax free' is always the first 5 streets then the tax rate applied will depend on how many streets you own after this. Just like in real MONOPOLY, Chance Cards are random, but in MONOPOLY City Streets, TAX chance cards depend on how many streets you own. Tax deductions will be made from your daily rent. Please remember, you have to login in once a day to collect your rent and rent does not accumulate. So if you haven’t logged in for a few days you will only earn rent for the last 24 hour period from 12 midnight GMT.
What are you doing about cheaters? We’re addressing this on several levels. The biggest one is that we are acting faster (and tougher) on the multi accounters. We have built new systems to analyse data but we have to be fair and pass a human eye before we hit the delete button in order to ensure that we’re not deleting honest players who may be at the same location. It is fair, but it does slow us down a bit and we hope this is appreciated. We have also implemented the reduction of the number of chance cards per turn so the ‘cheats’ can’t take too much of an advantage (thanks to the community for this suggestion).
We can’t reveal all, but please note we are constantly clearing the game of cheats, just this week we have deleted over 10,000 individual accounts and released more than 100,000 streets back to the game. If you’ve noticed any suspicious behaviour, please let us know. |