The last dance: saying goodbye to Commonspoly after 10 years of learnings

In 2025, it will be ten years since the first prototype version of Commonspoly was launched. Now, after a long journey of growth and exploration, we pause to reflect on what we’ve learned and announce the final sale of the last 100 physical units of Commonspoly – Green Edition.

The story of Commonspoly reflects how we’ve arrived at this point: 2015 was a year full of discussions about participatory governance. Four years had passed since corruption, inequality, and austerity measures sparked widespread outrage in the streets. In Spain, the 15-M movement’s legacy remained alive in neighborhoods through local assemblies and initiatives like the “tides,” which defended public services and opposed privatization. That year, for the first time in nearly 40 years of democracy, Spain’s largest cities were no longer governed by established political parties, but by new grassroots municipal movements. At the same time, many communities were finding creative ways to challenge the existing power structures. There was an opportunity to push for social justice and collective care for both people and spaces, which required dismantling dominant narratives and imagining new possibilities.

“Caring for the City: Reclaim the Commons” was the theme of the final ZEMOS98 festival that year. We knew it would be our farewell, but we didn’t know it would plant the seed for something much bigger than a board game. During the festival, a group of participants set out to correct a historical misunderstanding tied to Monopoly, one of the world’s most popular board games:

Elizabeth Magie, an American feminist writer and engineer, patented “The Landlord’s Game” in 1904 to educate people about the harmful effects of monopolies and wealth accumulation. Decades later, after her patent expired, Parker Brothers bought the game’s design, made it simpler to play, and turned it into Monopoly—a household game that celebrated and normalized privatization and capitalist speculation.

At the festival, the group decided not just to restore the game to its original purpose, but to hack the familiar Monopoly board into a tool that encouraged imagining new socioeconomic systems. This design process, moderated by Guillermo Zapata, included contributors like Vassilis Chryssos, Francisco Jurado, Carmen Lozano, and many others.

The collective authorship of the game created something special. For a while, the game stayed safely stored in our office. Occasionally, someone would ask about it, but out of respect for the group effort, it remained untouched. That changed in 2016 at the Idea Camp, where Vivian Paulissen and Menno Weijs of ECF (the event organizers) requested a digitally printed board. Several sessions, facilitated by Carmen Lozano and Vassilis Chrysos, brought the game to life. This encouragement made us realize that Commonspoly had the potential to go further. We decided to nurture the idea and explore its transformative possibilities.

Even though we had no experience in producing or distributing board games, in 2017, as part of the “Culture, City, and the Commons” project, we printed 200 copies of the game, packaged in simple cardboard boxes. We also uploaded the first online version, available for free download and customization, promoting collective authorship. This marked the launch of the second version of Commonspoly, and the first official series.

A new chapter began. In 2018, we produced the third version of the game with significant updates and a professional production run. For the first time, we made it available for sale to the general public. While keeping the game free to download, we needed to cover printing and shipping costs. As it reached more people, Commonspoly remained a space for ongoing conversations and redesigns, constantly evolving through shared knowledge.

Beautiful and unexpected things began to happen. A family in Galicia wrote to say they’d handmade a nearly one-meter-square version of the game after struggling to print it. A UK festival organizer translated it into Esperanto. A Hungarian player designed a box that improved on ours. And then came the translations: Catalan, French, German, Italian… Commonspoly reached people we didn’t know, with purchases coming through our website. Schools, festivals, cultural centers, and community groups started using it as an educational tool. Thanks to the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation, the game even became a holiday gift for many people. It appeared in spaces like MACBA, the Reina Sofía Museum, small bookstores, and squatted community centers.

By 2019, with professional production and distribution through Traficantes de Sueños and independent bookstores, we began work on the Green Edition, our fourth and final version. This bilingual, enhanced version included tributes to activists worldwide, including loved ones like Moha Gerehou and Yayo Herrero. Special thanks go to Txelu Balboa, Carmen Lozano, Pablo Navarro, and others who contributed to its design. ECF co-funded this edition’s printing, helping us bring it to life.

In 2020, we joined the CreaTures network, a European project studying creative practices that support societal transformation. Commonspoly was included as a case study, alongside initiatives from other countries. The project also led to the creation of an international network of Commonspoly ambassadors in Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Finland, who organized games and documented their transformative potential.

In 2022, the Cerezales Foundation invited us to adapt Commonspoly to address environmental struggles in northern Spain. This resulted in “Commonspoly: Future Energies,” a prototype developed with Guillermo Zapata and a board designed by Ricardo Barquín. This version tackled issues like renewable energy installations by large corporations in rural areas, sparking debate about their long-term social and ecological impact.

Much has happened since ZEMOS98’s final festival in 2015. Now, a decade later, we feel it’s time to close this chapter and say goodbye to Commonspoly as we’ve known it. Once the last 100 units are sold, we won’t reprint the Green Edition, though it will remain available online for free download.

Over the past decade, we’ve learned so much by playing and observing games. We know Commonspoly isn’t perfect and has its limitations in reflecting real urban conditions or the dynamics of cooperation. But it has been an incredible tool for fostering participation, bringing countless joyful and memorable moments. Here are some lessons we’ve learned that extend beyond the game itself:

1. The Game as an Act of Insurrection and Collective Imagination

Commonspoly has been a powerful tool for awakening the activist within us. During gameplay, we become more humble and curious, take risks without prejudice, ask questions we’d dismiss in other contexts, and push the boundaries of what we thought possible. Conversations naturally become deep and thought-provoking because we’re simply playing.

Each game is completely unique. The charm of Commonspoly lies in its incomplete or ambiguous aspects, where the methods for communalizing resources vary depending on the group and the dynamics they create to find innovative solutions. Of course, there’s always the chance someone might secretly steal Well-being points when the game master isn’t looking, putting players in an ethical dilemma while everyone laughs.

What’s even more fascinating is how insurrectionist rebels emerge during games, proposing changes to the rules, stretching limits, or even sabotaging established norms to enhance the shared joy of playing together. Far from hindering the game, these acts of popular sovereignty are often triumphs of collective imagination.

2. Challenging Individualism and Neoliberal Thinking Through Humor and Play

It’s been intriguing to see how different people approach Commonspoly over the years. For players unaccustomed to games where winning isn’t an individual achievement, the rules and elements can initially feel overwhelming. Yet, in most cases, little explanation is needed—things unravel naturally as they play. From an observer’s perspective, it’s fascinating to watch the spark of common strategy ignite as group dynamics take shape.

Playing “the villain” can also be fun. The Speculator in Commonspoly embodies the cruelty and banality of neoliberalism, far surpassing the traditional Monopoly banker. Focused solely on privatizing as many resources as possible and penalizing those trying to communalize them, this antagonist offers collective catharsis through humor. We’re acutely aware of how brutal individualism and neoliberal thought can be. Yet, we need spaces to embody and critique them through comedic mechanisms—playing the villain to laugh at them. But let’s be clear: we’re talking about playing, not becoming a villain in real life.

The Situation and Global Cards also add a layer of humor and sci-fi flair. Individual challenges like “You’ve developed a chocolate intolerance, lose Well-being” or “You understood an 8-hour climate change performance, gain Legitimacy,” and global events like “Social media collapses after Justin Bieber’s death,” make for unforgettable moments.

3. Small Actions to Address Abstract Dilemmas

Games often spark theoretical debates about terminology and philosophy. Sometimes, competitive logic spills over from the board into heated discussions. One of Commonspoly’s strengths is how it activates these conversations. Yet it’s equally fascinating to see how the philosophy of the commons surfaces intuitively through gameplay, even without intellectual consensus. When players connect with the group and act as a collective, they tend to agree there are no universal solutions—each context requires collective agreements tailored to its unique circumstances.

Another abstract but tangible concept in the game is how Well-being and Legitimacy are invaluable community resources. In real life, they don’t take the form of currency, but in the game, they do. These tokens remind us that individual conditions enable collective action. In the game, as in life, no collective change happens without these values present among participants.

4. Building Collectivity Without Losing Individuality

A common criticism of collective models is that they risk erasing individual identities. Commonspoly challenges this notion. Each player has specific skills that enrich the group, demonstrating that in the fight to reclaim shared resources, not everyone excels at the same tasks. Recognizing our strengths and weaknesses helps us contribute effectively. The group becomes stronger when it values individual contributions and organically aligns around each player’s abilities.

Interestingly, the spark for collective mobilization often comes from a single person’s courage to inspire the group. In a game promoting cooperation, it’s striking to see how sometimes one person’s decision to lead breaks through individualistic tendencies, unifying the group toward a common goal. While we don’t want to romanticize this, there are moments when the collective just “clicks,” creating a wave of actions that lead to success—all thanks to one person rallying the group’s energy and potential.

5. Celebrating the Joy of Cooperation

The most powerful moment in Commonspoly is the Collective Insurrection Action. This in-game gathering at the Central Agora, akin to a protest, requires players to spend collective Legitimacy to simultaneously deprivatize several types of resources, such as environmental assets. We’ve witnessed this moment many times, and it’s always thrilling. Watching players stand up and celebrate the mass deprivatization of resources is an image that stays with you.

At the end of a game, whether or not the Speculator is defeated, players always recall and relive those moments of shared understanding with collective joy. Without the competition we’re used to in games like Monopoly, many players find that collaborative efforts can be just as—if not more—engaging and fun.

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Not everything has been perfect. To avoid using Amazon, we relied on a small distribution company, resulting in high shipping costs for distant locations. Sometimes, we failed to track shipments properly or delayed responses. We also lacked experience in board game distribution. For this, we sincerely apologize.

Despite these challenges, we still believe the fight for the commons extends into the small tools that shape our beliefs. Thank you to everyone who bought, downloaded, hacked, laughed, and reflected while playing. Commonspoly is closing a chapter, but the urgency of caring for the commons remains. See you in the streets, online… or in the games.