Today in the life of Mark Gosingtian

8 Realizations from “Monopoly” the board game

(Picture from sxc.hu)

Tonight I played Monopoly with a few of my friends for the first time in years - with an actual board and actual money (not any of that video game nonsense.)  After a very long, but very entertaining game, I can’t help but think of the countless ways that this game relates to our everyday experiences.

1. If you feel that you are being left behind, don’t panic - you can always catch up later.
We started the game with four players.  The game started, and after two rolls I was sent to jail.  During the early part of the game, this was a major disadvantage as all of the properties were still up for grabs.  After the first few rounds, due to bad luck, or probably horrible dice throwing skills, I was the one with the least amount of properties owned.  However, I still had cash, and so I decided to continue playing.  I was convinced that luck was only part of the game.

2. The easiest and fastest way to lose is to decide to stop playing.
After a few more rounds, I found myself broke - however I wasn’t the first one who ‘lost.’  Another player, who was convinced that she had no hope in winning and had to pay a hefty rent to another player decided to quit the game, though I am quite convinced that she could’ve done something to stay in the game for a couple more rounds.

3. Creativity is a more valuable resource than money or properties.
So, getting back, the other players on the board had more money and property than I had because of the 3 missed turns that I spent in jail.  However, by making creative deals with the other players, I was able to make more of what I already have.  I actually don’t know if this is against the conventional rules of monopoly, but, I agreed to give one of my properties to another player (the effect of which is the ability to create houses on the said property,) to the effect of getting 50% of the income that those properties generate.  Of course, I would also have to pay half to put the houses there.

4. Opportunities are never inadequete nor sparse.  If they seem to be, you’re not trying hard enough.
There is always someone out there who needs something only you can provide; if you can figure this out then you’re gold.  There is always that one piece of property that another player needs to build houses, or maybe another player needs monetary resources rather than properties.  Of course, you wouldn’t give this ‘something’ up so easily, as it is highly probable that you also need something from the other party - which brings us to number 5.

5. Knowing how to make good deals is a valuable skill to learn.
This is pretty self explanatory.

6. Learning to trust or to cooperate is not contrary to protecting your own interests.
A good deal is probably one that you benefit the most from; however, as players of a competetive game, your opponents would try to stop this from happening.  As this is the case, the player must spend time to think what would be best for him and the other player that he is making a deal with.

7. Even the most competetive game can end up with noone losing.
After a while, the two players who were left were me and another player who I great deals with.  We couldn’t decide on how to split up the properties that were left, and were convinced that continuing to play the game would probably meant that we would play another hour or so.  So, we just greeted everyone on the table with a “good game,” and closed the board.

8. You haven’t played Monopoly until you’ve played CHINESE MONOPOLY.
We were all Chinese playing in that game.  I don’t want to create a negative stereotype or anything, but I am not even exaggerating when I say that more than 70% of the time playing the game was spent on making deals and trying to haggle with each other.  Seriously.

After all these thoughts, I just had to come back to my main points, and realize that maybe these are things that could be said not only for a game of monopoly, but for how we look at life as well. (except for maybe number 8.)

The unspoken rules of Graphic Design

1. Your fonts will default to the worst possible font available on the machine you are showing your work on.

2. If you have two versions of a photo, the wrong one will make its way to the printer.

3. The less time you have the more useless your computer will become.

4. Promises made by the sales staff have no basis in reality.

5. The sales staff will promise anything.

6. If the text consists of two words, one will be misspelled.

7. Speed. Quality. Affordability. Pick any two.

8. If the run is wrong, it’s never the press operator’s fault.

9. Spell checkers don’t.

10. Grammar checkers don’t, either.

11. Proof raeders are useless.

12. Global search-and-replaces aren’t.

13. The index entry you leave out will be the first one the client looks under.

14. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is good comedy.

15. If three designs are shown to a client, your least favorite will be chosen or any combination of worst components of each.

16. If two designs are shown, a third will be requested. If provided, then one of the first two will be chosen.

17. If you ask for more copy it will be sent as a .jpg. If you ask for images they will send powerpoint presentations.

18. Clients don’t have their company logo in a usable print ready format so don’t bother asking.

19. Blue line proofs reveal previously invisible errors.

20. The best designs never survive contact with the client.

21. You will misspell the name of the client’s spouse.

22. Your best idea is already copyrighted.

23. The best way to find errors in your code is to show a client “a new feature”.

24. There is no stock photo ever made that matches the image you have in your head.

25. Creative inspiration flows in inverse proportion to the distance from the studio.

26. Time allowed to complete work is inversely proportional to time taken by client to work out what to complain about.

27. Doctors, astronauts, and plumbers need training to do their jobs, but anyone with a computer is a graphic designer.

28. No matter how detailed the tech support FAQ is, nobody has ever heard of your problem.

29. The number of colors in a client’s design will equal the number of colors in the original bid specs, plus two.

30. The client’s disk won’t run on your equipment & when it does will contain unusable copyrighted images.

31. If you purchase new equipment to read your client’s disk, it will be the last disk of that type you will ever receive.

32. Your client will often not like your design but not quite know why.

33. Computer crashes always happen exactly 30 seconds before saving.

34. A client who knows exactly what he wants is worse than one that has no idea.

35. Clients who do not provide content upfront will complain about the use of Lorem Ipsum.

36. Everything has to be done immediately, deadlines are incredibly important unless client has to provide materials or approve your work.

37. The customer is always right . And an idiot.

——

This post was taken from Adland, posted by James_Trickery on May 10 2005