Part VII: March, April and May 1964

During the months of March and April 1964, Sid played numerous different combinations of the game. He mostly centered on the new ideas he wanted to introduce concerning 3M’s decision to not distribute stock at the beginning of the game.

On April 10th he wrote in his diary, “The players who had the chances to start chains came out ahead. I was dissatisfied with the way it worked.”

This is still a problem today in the game of ACQUIRE.

On April 12th he wrote, “Played ACQUIRE giving a bonus for causing a merger – 2 shares if chain has 10 or less hotels – 1 share if chain has 11 or more hotels. It makes more interesting play but the luck of the draw is very important.”

Sid always had a distaste for luck in a game, but he felt he needed to formulate something to keep fairness and the semblance of strategy in the game. On April 27th he entered into his diary, “Finished “stock option” cards for ACQUIRE.”

On May 1st he entered in his diary that he had received a check from 3M. The statement from 3M had a total of $1,147.39 in sales, while Sid’s 5% royalty payment was for $57.37, which was not much more for the first three months of the year than they sold in one month at Christmas.

He also wrote that he introduced the stock options into the game.

“Worked well even tho we didn’t finish due to time limitations.”

Through the rest of the month of May, Sid continually tried his different ideas for the game.