The Game of Life

Do you remember playing the board game when you were a kid? Picking what color car was just given to you to play with and getting in line to "attend college" at the start? When I was younger I actually did the math to figure out how old you were supposed to be when each of the major events happened on the board. Please don't ask me what it came out to, I don't remember and have no intention of doing that much math again.

Looking back at this game now I cannot understand why it was fun because it is so unrealistic. Maybe it was fun, BECAUSE it was unrealistic. Just looking at the Big Green "Pay Day" squares gets on my nerves. Automatic pay day? Really? I wish I got an automatic payday for driving around in my car.

This game made me believe that if you went to college, you got a cool job. That was all: college = job. This is false and the makers of the game should rethink that. Even more aggravating, though, is that everyone bought a house. Everyone automatically had enough money to buy one, wanted one, and got one at the same time. There was no "apartment living" or "crashing on a couch", no, everyone bought a house, even if it was the beat up trailer option.

I want to remake The Game of Life into something more realistic so that no other generation of children grows up with such butterfly and rainbows expectations. Changes will include:

  • Instead of "have a baby girl" the space will read. "pregnancy test positive" and then there will be 2 options "have the baby" or "abort!" Aborting will get you a life LIFE token.
  • Rockstar will not be a career option. It will be replaced with Unemployed.
  • There will be no stop sign forcing you to marry or buy a house or get a job, there will be no stop signs at all.
  • Loans for college will now be $80,000 instead of $40,000. Maybe college cost that little back in the 60s when this game was created, but not anymore.
  • Paydays are not automatic, they only happen when you spin a 10. Then you will realize how lucky you are to be getting paid.
  • You walk your little person around the board until you can afford a car.

It is sad how unrealistic everything is when we are children. From Disney movies to board games, we grew up with some very false ideas in our heads. I guess it's time to grow up and play Gin Rummy instead. Gin and Rum are things that haven't changed since we were kids.

2 comments:

  1. I agree! It's so frustrating going through life believing that if you follow the rules and do well in school, things will work out - an education will get you a job, money and homes are easy to come by, and love and kids are a warmly welcomed requirement. As a kid, it's nice believe that everything is perfect, but it's earth-shattering when you realize that's not true. If only there was some middle ground...

    ReplyDelete
  2. I definitely agree with you. Gin rummy has never changed. Unlike the card games and board games way back when we were children. In our present life, we need to be responsible to live and continue with the daily activities. It's entirely different from our past when we were very dependent to our parents. We need to move and act now.

    ReplyDelete