cavalier973
Hero
D&D has gotten a lot of bad press over the years, being accused of imposing a variety of ill-effects on people who play them: people get too wrapped up in the character(s) they play; people become prone to suicide; people are introduced into occult magic and demon worship.
But I would rather my kids play D&D (I'm using D&D as shorthand for roleplaying games in general) than Monopoly, because D&D teaches them valuable lessons, while Monopoly teaches them some very bad ideas.
D&D incentivizes the use of imagination, develops the skill of creative thinking and problem solving. It teaches cooperation in the face of difficulty. It teaches the importance of balance between risk-taking and cautionary behavior. While both D&D and Monopoly can allow the players to practice math skills, the D&D math is a little more esoteric (especially older editions), and requires use of math more frequently. D&D can also teach the consequences of bad behavior (assuming the DM has not developed a campaign that rewards slaughter and plundering).
What does Monopoly teach? That the business world is zero sum. In order for me to win, you have to lose. That the way to accumulate wealth in the marketplace is by extracting it from other people rather than offering a good or service demanded by the people. That business competition is more prevalent than business cooperation. Monopoly isn't really a business game, anyway; it is more a fancy version of roulette. Nevertheless, it seems to me to be most people's idea of how the business world works. Not to say that every lesson of Monopoly is bad; the property trading aspect can be a useful lesson, and the lesson that the most expensive item is not necessarily the best value (the orange properties are preferable to the dark blue for a variety of reasons).
D&D also teaches the use of resource management; the acquisition, conservation, and use of items and powers, and how to use them to mitigate the random factors of encounters and other situations. Monopoly (aside from the trading part of the game) relies primarily on blind luck to move the game to its end.
And that concludes this short rant about the relative educational benefits of two popular games. I'm glad I got that off my chest.
But I would rather my kids play D&D (I'm using D&D as shorthand for roleplaying games in general) than Monopoly, because D&D teaches them valuable lessons, while Monopoly teaches them some very bad ideas.
D&D incentivizes the use of imagination, develops the skill of creative thinking and problem solving. It teaches cooperation in the face of difficulty. It teaches the importance of balance between risk-taking and cautionary behavior. While both D&D and Monopoly can allow the players to practice math skills, the D&D math is a little more esoteric (especially older editions), and requires use of math more frequently. D&D can also teach the consequences of bad behavior (assuming the DM has not developed a campaign that rewards slaughter and plundering).
What does Monopoly teach? That the business world is zero sum. In order for me to win, you have to lose. That the way to accumulate wealth in the marketplace is by extracting it from other people rather than offering a good or service demanded by the people. That business competition is more prevalent than business cooperation. Monopoly isn't really a business game, anyway; it is more a fancy version of roulette. Nevertheless, it seems to me to be most people's idea of how the business world works. Not to say that every lesson of Monopoly is bad; the property trading aspect can be a useful lesson, and the lesson that the most expensive item is not necessarily the best value (the orange properties are preferable to the dark blue for a variety of reasons).
D&D also teaches the use of resource management; the acquisition, conservation, and use of items and powers, and how to use them to mitigate the random factors of encounters and other situations. Monopoly (aside from the trading part of the game) relies primarily on blind luck to move the game to its end.
And that concludes this short rant about the relative educational benefits of two popular games. I'm glad I got that off my chest.
