‘œYou have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.’ ‘“ Albert Einstein

Game of LifeLast Christmas, Trent at The Simple Dollar reviewed five board games that teach valuable lessons about personal finance. The Game of Life by Milton Bradley (now sold by Hasbro) made the cut.

He writes, ‘œLife is one of those ‘˜standard’ board games that are often found in the back of a grandparent’s closet, pulled out once every few years to be played by the kids during holiday get-togethers. Yet hidden behind this simple facade is a game that teaches a number of valuable and interesting lessons about the progression of a person’s financial life.’

It’s a simple game. You can play it in less than an hour and it teaches some key truth. These are the five things that Trent thinks can be learned from it:

  • The impact of random events
  • The use of insurance
  • The progression of life events
  • Setting individual goals and meeting them
  • Different lives have different issues

But the goal of the game remains: have the most assets at the end. Is that still the game of life?

Lawrence Downes at The New York Times captured my feelings about playing. He writes, ‘œIf life’s a game, I can only hope it’s not a game like the Game of Life. That’s the one where you drive a plastic car along a winding path, going to work or college and picking up pink and blue pegs for children until you end up at a McMansion and get to count your money.’

He played it with his young daughter a few times and found it excruciating. Why? He continues, ‘œProbably because of how effectively it boiled life down to its plodding essence, a march to suburban retirement. It made me long for the solace of death, but that is not an option in this game.’

Assets and retirement. Is that still the end game? Most of us are looking for fulfillment these days.

Well, there’s a new Game of Life called ‘œTwists and Turns’. Downes writes, ‘œIt splits the route to bourgeois bliss into four paths of fulfillment: money, education, family and fun. Or, as the board has it, Earn It! Learn It! Love It! Live It!’

‘œThe idea is that life is not just about money. It’s about money and experience ‘“ or Life points, which you get by earning degrees, buying things, having babies or traveling. You don’t slog to retirement now; you go around in circles until time is up.’

Awhile back, they tried to make the game less about money. I learned this by reading the profile on Milton Bradley and the history of his game by Jill Lepore in The New Yorker. She writes, ‘œThe game is so relentlessly amoral and cash conscious that a nineteen-nineties redesign team, eager to make it less so, pretty much gave up.’

‘œWhen I visited Hasbro in February, a game designer told me that whenever people tried to make the game less about ‘˜having the most money it got really complicated.’ They did add Life Tiles, which allow players to accomplish things and do good deeds, except that the only way to be rewarded for your virtue is in the game’s only currency: cash.’

‘œExactly because the 1960 Game of Life is so hard to change, Hasbro is about to launch its new, new, new game of human life. Money is a big part of the Game of Life: Twists & Turns. But there’s no cash. Instead, each player gets a Life-Visa-brand ‘˜credit card’ to insert in the game’s electronic Life Pod, which keeps track of Life Points ‘“ earn more, spend more!’

Well the new game shipped in August and there were lots of write-ups about it earlier this year. The funny thing is, in this new Game of Life, you can still play even if you rack up the debt. Maybe that’s the point.

But not so though in my favorite childhood game’¦ Monopoly. If you overextend yourself there, then you’re watching! I also liked Risk but quickly learned that my middle sister had more skill and ambition in taking over the world. While she was conquering continents, I was passing Go and buying up properties.

My middle school mentality told me to buy whatever I landed on. It probably was not the most sophisticated strategy and often times, I would find myself out of cash and forced to sell what I considered a less desirable Utility or Railroad to hold me over until I passed Go. Back then, my goal was to buy and hold, unless I was trading up.

I was obsessed with being the first player to have hotels. Often times, this was at the expense of keeping enough cash on hand but over time, I think I learned from that mistake. There’s nothing like a growing portfolio of properties. Or is there?

Maybe I didn’t like the Game of Life because I was forced to marry by adding a ‘œblue’ peg to my car when I really wanted a ‘œpink’ one riding next to me. Or maybe I just thought the game was monotonous.

Why does life have to be only about making money and then retiring? Well now, according to Hasbro, it’s more about the twist and turns. So what’s your end game these days?