10 World-Changing Inventions That Were Total Rip-Offs
9. Monopoly Vs The Landlord's Game
Monopoly actually has a long, strange history outside of being the catalyst for roughly half of any given family arguments that break out over Christmas (with the other half being all Pictionary's fault). It's been around for way longer than you think, even being used as a means to smuggle tools to POWs during the Second World War. You'll most likely recognise The Fast-Dealing Property Trading Game as a production of either the Parker Brothers or Waddingtons, because that's who Charles Darrow sold the rights to back in the day. But he didn't originally come up with the concept, despite being credited as such. In fact the Monopoly had its origins as The Landlord's Game, a self-published board game produced by Elizabeth J Magie Phillips back in 1903 as a way to educated the general populace about the dangers of monopolies. Ironically, she had the idea stolen by Darrow and, well, monopolised.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
