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 World (board game) History of the World (board game) History of the World (often abbreviated HotW) is a board game designed by Ragnar Brothers and originally published in 1991. It is played by up to six different players in seven different epochs; each player playing a different empire in each epoch. The first edition of "History of the World" by Ragnar Brothers was released in 1991 (with a tea-towel board). Following English, Dutch and German versions by various publishers, it was published by Avalon Hill in 1993. In 1994, "History of the World" won the Origins Award for "Best Pre-20th Century Boardgame of