Board game riches games that permitted players to emulate the capitalist heroes of the age. One of the first such games, "The Game of the District Messenger Boy", encouraged the idea that the lowliest messenger boy could ascend the corporate ladder to its topmost rung. Such games insinuated that the accumulation of wealth brought increased social status. Competitive capitalistic games culminated in 1935 with "Monopoly", the most commercially successful board game in U.S. history. McLoughlin Brothers published similar games based on the telegraph boy theme including "Game of the Telegraph Boy, or Merit Rewarded" (1888). Greg Downey notes in his essay, "Information
History of the board game Monopoly Democratic Republic. One official version of the game was printed for the Soviet Union by Parker Brothers in 1988. After the Cold War ended, official editions have been published throughout eastern Europe by Parker, Tonka and Hasbro. Hungary was the first, in 1992, followed by the Czech Republic and Poland in 1993, Croatia in 1994, Slovenia in 1996, Romania and a new edition for Russia in 1997, and Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia, all in 2001. In 1936, Parker Brothers published four further editions along with the original two: the Popular Edition, Fine Edition, Gold Edition, and Deluxe Edition, with