Simulating and Balancing Games - Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design - page 179

Playing with Monopoly
For our first detailed example of an automated Machinations diagram, we will
explore the balance of the game Monopoly . We'll look at how this balance is affected
by the different mechanisms in the game and how design patterns might be applied
to improve the game.
Figure 8.4 represents a model of Monopoly . It is slightly different from the models
we have used for Monopoly so far. The important differences are as follows:
n It represents a two-player game. Earlier in the topic we used a source and a drain
to represent the player receiving and paying rent, but this has been replaced by two
gates that transfer money between the two players. In this case, every property that
a player has generates a 4% chance that the other player has to pay one money unit
every time step.
n The number of available properties is limited. In this example, there are only 20
properties in the game initially stored in the Available pool. Once they are gone, the
players cannot buy more property.
FIGURe 8.4
a two-player version
of Monopoly
We also defined two artificial players that control each player. Both artificial players
have a simple, single-line script. This script reads as follows:
if((random * 10 < 1) && (Money > 4 + steps * 0.04)) ire(Buy)
The effect is that each artificial player has a 10% chance that it will buy a prop-
erty in each time step. It will buy property only if it has enough money, however.
Initially the player must have more than four money units in its pool in order to
buy, but this value gradually increases as the game progresses (this is why the steps
value appears in the condition). This condition was added to make sure the artificial
player did not exhaust its money too quickly and lose the game early on. We set