Commonspoly is an attempt to rectify a misunderstanding that has lasted for more than a century. Back in 1904, Elizabeth Magie patented The Landlord’s Game, a board game intended to warn people about the dangerous effects of monopolism. Years later, she sold the patent to Parker Brothers, the company that distorted her game, turning it into the Monopoly we all know today—a game that celebrates huge economic accumulation and the bankruptcy of anyone… except you.
Hackcamp
As part of a Hackcamp, organised at the 17th ZEMOS98 Festival in 2015, a working group (facilitated by Guillermo Zapata and with the participation of Vassilis Chryssos, Francisco Jurado, José Laulhé, Carmen Lozano, Rubén Martínez, Peter Matjašič, María G. Perulero, Virginia Benvenuti, Natxo Rodríguez, Igor Stokfisiewski, Menno Weijs, Carla Boserman and Mario Munera) created the first version of Commonspoly, based on their desire to reclaim Magie’s story.
Editions
Over the past years, the game has undergone many changes and resulted in a total of 4 editions. At the beginning of 2020, development began on this new and improved version 4.0, known as the Commonspoly Green Edition. This has all been possible thanks to the support of the European Cultural Foundation and it’s coordinated by ZEMOS98.
The Green Edition is also being used for a series of gameplays in CreaTures, a project which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 870759 (The content presented represents the views of the authors, and the European Commission has no liability in respect of the content).
Buy the Green Edition now!
Find your bookstore or buy the Green Edition here, in our website. We are delivering all over the world (not as fast an cheap as Amazon, but at least we don’t foster its monopoly ?)
