Setting aside the monopoly tourism modifier what are people's thoughts on Products?
In every game I've played with them they have arrived too late to impact the game. I think they merit a rethink and they honestly appear a bit unfocused but they are an addition to the game that I'm glad the mode has endeavoured to include. The tourism and yields per turn they generate are inconsequential and the requirement to house them in a tier 3 building means that you can't export products to cities that might benefit from the % bonuses they bestow.
I'm assuming that the Mo & Co Game Mode is Firaxis' way of testing the waters for an Economic Victory and more complete Economic Play in Civ VII. With that assumption (which may, of course, be completely Wrong on my part - wouldn't be the first time, GK) here are the major changes/additions I think they still need to explore:
1. Expand the Resources and Products, in that the Manufactured and City-State Resources like Cinnamon, Jeans, Toys, Perfumes, etc are not included yet. Manufactured goods are in fact the greatest source of both revenue and Trade in the Modern World, and getting "Quick Gold" from dominating trade resources from a City State should be a possibility from at least the Classical Era on, whether it's White Jade from Teotehuacan or Amber from a Baltic proto-city.
2. Expand the possible Monopoly/Corp resources to include Strategic as well as Amenity. The folks on the steppes made a very good thing out of trading good Horses to China and the Middle East, the latter starting in the Ancient Era, the former in the Classical, and later Oil, Niter (the Chilean deposits especially), Iron (Swedish ores from the late Middle Ages on), and Timber (ship timber from Norway) were all very lucrative Trade goods. I could make a good case for Bonus Resources as well, as salt cod (Fish) was the mainstay product of the Hanseatic League trade in the Medieval Era for an obvious example. That, however, will probably require a complete rethinking of the Resource system, so I'll leave it alone for now.
3. Possibly, with a rethinking of Barbarians/Tribal Huts, expand sources for Resources to include 'Barbarians' or other Non-City-Building groups on the game map. See above: the 'northern Barbarians' were a major source of good Warhorses for centuries to China and other 'civilized' neighbors, as was Amber to the Mediterranean Civs from barbarous northern Europeans. This could open up an entirely new aspect of game play in more varied interactions with these groups, which now are related to gobbling up Tribal Huts and defending against/attacking Barbarians only.
4. In the last Era(s) of the game, some of the most Gold-Producing 'Resources' traded are not physical, they are Intellectual Property or Entertainment/Production boosts. Among the most lucrative international 'Trading' Corporations/Monopolies in the Information Era are Apple, Microsoft (personal electronics and productivity electronics), Google (electronic services), Amazon (more efficient selling of other companies/nations products), and all the companies in Hollywood and Bollywood (personal entertainment) - none of which are directly related to trading any physical Resource from the map. This ties in with (1) above, in that manufactured Resources, including those 'manufactured' by creative rather than industrious labor, are the mainstay of modern commerce, not raw commodities.
