Mark W
United States
East Islip
New York
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So I got iOS Monopoly for myself on Christmas, I played several times to get the hang of the game again (it's been ages), and eventually I learned how to play pretty well. Then I reset my scores and said to myself, "OK self, see how well you can play if you try your very best. Show these AI bots no mercy!" 9 games later, my record is 8-1. Every game was against 3 AI bots, difficulty "Hard" for 6 of the games. ("Easy" only for 1.)
The AI is exploitable in some ways but overall it's pretty darn good. It knows how to estimate the value of properties given who owns what, trades pretty well (except on Easy), it builds houses intelligently, it tries to drive up prices in auctions, sometimes it even seems to have its players collude against a dominant player. In some ways it's worse than your average human, in other ways better.
It's exploitable in that it doesn't learn from game to game. I often use an aggressive early Railroad acquisition strategy which it never picks up on. Any three humans would eventually block me from picking up all four RRs. I think this is where I own it.
But still the AI isn't nearly so dumb that it's just handing me the game. Now, I'm not going argue that Monopoly is a hardcore strategy game, but how could I pull this off if the game were as luck dominant as I always hear? If the game were ALL luck, then unless the AI were completely stupid, there's a .009% chance, or about 1 in 11,000 of my winning 8 out of 9 games, if my math is correct.
You'll just have to take my word that I didn't keep resetting my stats and retrying until I got a lucky streak (at 1 in 11,000 odds that would take quite a few attempts), or otherwise cheat. I don't have THAT much free time.
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Kelly Bass
United States
Venice
California
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I don't think Monopoly played by the actual rules is ALL (or mostly) luck. The problem is when played with most people, they would rather add house rules that add luck and lengthen the game.
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Chris Broggi
United States
Southwick
Massachusetts
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I believe you. I haven't played the iOS version, but the AI on other computerized versions I have played is not very strong. I usually win almost all games played against AI too.
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Greg A.
United States
Madison
Wisconsin
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NeonPeon wrote: It's exploitable in that it doesn't learn from game to game. I often use an aggressive early Railroad acquisition strategy which it never picks up on. Any three humans would eventually block me from picking up all four RRs. I think this is where I own it.
Owning all four railroads is VERY powerful. It only took me doing it once for my opponents to learn their lesson.
NeonPeon wrote:
You owned all 32 houses at one point? What's the story there? I usually switch to hotels before that happens.
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Mark W
United States
East Islip
New York
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YellowPawn wrote: Owning all four railroads is VERY powerful. It only took me doing it once for my opponents to learn their lesson.
Agreed - very powerful indeed. Once you've railroaded (pun intended) some human players I think they'll pick it up quickly.
YellowPawn wrote: You owned all 32 houses at one point? What's the story there? I usually switch to hotels before that happens.
I don't quite remember that particular instance, but sometimes I try to hoard houses to keep other players from buying…Though at that point I was probably dominating so strongly it didn't matter.
My record is 8-2 now. 
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Steve Dell
England
London
Enfield
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NeonPeon wrote: My record is 8-2 now.
You obviously upset Luck, and she's evening up the scores....
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Mark W
United States
East Islip
New York
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Badgeroonie wrote: You obviously upset Luck, and she's evening up the scores....
Clearly. 10-2 now. I need another 8 more wins to get back to where i was. 
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Mark W
United States
East Islip
New York
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Because this is very exciting stuff...
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Jeffrey Fitzwater
United States
Ohio
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YellowPawn wrote: You owned all 32 houses at one point? What's the story there? I usually switch to hotels before that happens.
Causing a housing shortage gives you a greater advantage than building hotels.
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Greg A.
United States
Madison
Wisconsin
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bobcatpoet wrote: YellowPawn wrote: You owned all 32 houses at one point? What's the story there? I usually switch to hotels before that happens. Causing a housing shortage gives you a greater advantage than building hotels.
I'm not talking merely about a housing shortage, where all the houses are distributed among 2, 3, or 4 players.
I'm talking about a situation where one player has all 32 houses. I would think that'd be unnecessary to seal the win. He must have just done it for the sake of novelty.
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