This kind of makes me want to bust out the Monopoly board.

No shit. That makes it a whole different game. I can see it causing more fights to break out than Risk played that way.

Ha!

I recall that we always played the "short" form of Monopoly - and that when you play Monopoly with children (which is what I and my brothers are) there are somethings that you don't bother with - like auctioning property.

One of my co-workers has a son who is playing with a couple of local municipal bands. One of them has Johan de Meij guest conducting and he contributed music to the LotR symphony. Isn't that cool?

And in Mexico a 15 year old was arrested for "cartel killings" - he says he started murdering people when he was 11. Yikes.

In happier news: check out this Iron Throne cake.

I don't think I have ever played Monopoly the whole way through. I always found it super boring. Although maybe with this auction things it would work. The funny thing is that without the auction, the only thing that ever seemed to make it fun was cheating and bribing the banker and stuff

Even played by the proper rules, Monopoly is still pretty flawed. It can be fun while properties are still unowned and you're trying to finish your sets, but thereafter, working your way to a winner can be a bit of a grind. (And it's usually apparent who the winner will be a while before it happens. This is another area where common house rules make things worse.)

If you like the auction mechanism, here are some other games worth looking for:

Taj Mahal
Ra
Modern Art

If you like trading games, here are some good options:

Bohnanza (I love this one, it's light and can really get people into the swing of things)
Pit (adrenaline rush!)
Genoa
Settlers of Catan

Settlers of Catan

This is an awesome game.

Fox is going to limit next day streaming on Hulu to paying cable customers.

Love Settlers of Catan!

I'll speak up for Settlers of Catan, as well as its sister game Cities and Knights of Catan, which adds elements of Risk and Chess into the rules.

I've actually soured on Settlers a bit. A couple of bad experiences with people who took it way too seriously. It was quite the revolution in board games though.

If you like Settlers, I hear tell that the expansion, Cities and Knights of Catan, adds a lot to the game. I also like a spinoff, the standalone game Elasund. It loses the trading aspect, but keeps the die roll for resources deal, and has some other innovative ideas. Oh, and the robber gets replaced by pirates! (Yarr.) I played it with Emmett once, the pirates were a definite hit.

Oh man, my grandmother and great-aunt were vicious Pit players.