Game of life (game)
| game of life | |
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| Game data | |
| author |
Milton Bradley (1860), Reuben Klamer (1960) |
| publishing company |
MB games , Hasbro |
| Publishing year | 1861 (original version), 1960 (USA) 1980 (Germany) |
| Art | Board game |
| Teammates | 2 to 6 |
| Duration | approx. 40 to 90 minutes |
| Age | from 8 years |
The Game of Life is a board game by Reuben Klamer , which has been published in the USA since 1960 and in Germany by Milton Bradley (now Hasbro ) since 1980 . It is a board game with elements of dice , in which a résumé from high school through to retirement is played through in different stations, whereby it depends on the individual decisions of each player with regard to career, family and finances. The goal is to have as much capital as possible by the end of the game . Status symbols that have accumulated in the course of life also count here ( lifestyle cards in later editions) such as B. to have been elected Chancellor or to have written a bestseller , which are also offset in money after the game for the sake of simplicity.
There are now numerous versions of the classic, u. a. as a card game game of life adventure or as a computer game for smartphones , PCs and game consoles .
Furnishing
Numerous plastic structures such as houses and hedges are attached to the relatively large, detailed game board. No dice are used; in their place there is a large wheel of fortune numbered 1 to 10. There is also a plastic stand for the money (not available in later editions), numerous cards and, as toy figures, cars, in which you first insert a figure of the desired gender.
Game flow
All players move in turn, the dice are rolled with the already mentioned “wheel of fortune”. Each player has just finished high school at the beginning of the game and is faced with the decision of whether to "start working" and receive an immediate salary or take out a loan for a degree , which gives them more options with regard to their future salary and also a better prospect gets a higher salary. As soon as a player has taken up a profession (from “salesman” to “rock star” to “lawyer” there are a wide variety of representatives), he receives his salary before each of his further moves, then turns the wheel of fortune and advances the corresponding number of spaces. He has to stop ahead of time at red stopping fields, and at fork in the road he has to decide where to go. Finally, he carries out the instructions of the field on which he landed. The spectrum ranges from winning or losing small amounts of money to casino games to the birth of children who then take a seat behind their spouse in the car. So every round rolls the dice, buys as many status symbols (as a long-term investment) and life insurance (as protection against bad events) as possible, until you finally retire . From this point on you still have to overcome about 25 fields, which make the majority of the saved assets lose again, before you finally arrive at the "Manorial Villa", unless you have already gone bankrupt and are waiting for the remaining players in the retirement home kills time with gambling . When the last player has finally arrived in one of the two buildings, the money is counted; the wealthiest player has won.
Comment and criticism
The game is a pure game of chance; the players only have the choice between high and lower risk for the turns . This makes the game suitable for relatively small children. The interactions between the players are low, so that the game for adults loses its appeal in the long run. The game is all about money, with no didactic distinction between different ways of acquisition (e.g. won in the casino) and loss (e.g. through donations).
history
The game is based on the game The Checkered Game of Life , developed by the lithographer Milton Bradley in 1860 and published in the USA in 1861 , which in turn is based on the much older spiral running game Gänsespiel .
In 1959, the toy and game developer Reuben Klamer was commissioned by MB to develop a game to mark the centenary of Milton Bradley. He was inspired by The Checkered Game of Life , which he discovered in the Milton Bradley archives. In 1960 the game was released in the United States as The Game of Life . The game is still available today and is distributed in 20 different languages by MB buyer Hasbro . There are also computer game versions.
Over time, changes were made to the German version. So the salaries of the various professions changed (originally via the university: doctor 20,000, journalist 10,000, lawyer 15,000, teacher 8,000, physicist 10,000 or assistant 6,000; if you chose business, employee 5,000), and the 20,000 bill that was used in the was still available for the first time (in addition, the color of the 50,000 note changed from light green to the yellow of the 20,000 note). The amounts on the fields have also been changed. In the first version, for example, the maximum amount that could be received in a field was 400,000 (license fee for an invention).
There have been several significant changes in the rules of the game. In older editions you had to decide before the first move whether you wanted to start your business life straight away (no different professions possible, salary 5,000 marks, later salary increase to 12,000 marks) or go through the university (depending on the occupation 6,000 to 20,000 marks salary unchangeable for the entire game, the luck of the dice was the only factor that decided the job). Usually no loan had to be taken out for the studies, as each player started life with 3,000 marks in start-up capital. The profession was kept for the entire game; you couldn't get fired or study again. There was also no choice of getting married or starting a family with children; They got married in any case, and children were decided solely on the wheel of fortune.
There were no career cards, house purchase cards, salary cards, lifestyle cards, no salary increase cards, no investment cards (the status symbol cards had a different function) and no career fields either, instead there were status symbols ( which one could acquire, but did not have to, when one reached a corresponding field). The function of the shares was designed completely differently, there was only one possibility to buy shares, take out life or fire insurance, etc.
When retiring ("day of reckoning") you had to decide whether you would go straight to retirement (the capital you had gained up to then was safe, you continued to draw your previous salary in each round, you could keep it or speculate with it ) or four more fields to the stately villa (on the way there was a small risk of losing 100,000 marks once, otherwise the capital already gained was safe here as well), where you did not receive a salary, but solely from the income from your status symbols (if any) lived.
Overall, the course of the game in the older editions was more dependent on chance and less influenced by player decisions.
The winner of the game was whoever had the most cash at the end (material assets such as status symbols were not taken into account).
Japan
The Japanese version Jinsei Game ( 人生 ゲ ー ム , Jinsei Gēmu ) was introduced in 1968 by Takara (today: Takara Tomy ). By 2008 it had sold 12 million times there. Until 2005 it appeared in 38 versions. In addition to the standard line, a Heisei version ( 平 成 版 , Heisei-ban ) was published every year from 1989 to 2001 , aimed at the adult target group. B. Catastrophe scenarios were included: The Jinsei game Heisei-ban VII ( 人生 ゲ ー ム 平 成 版 VII ) from 1995 contained the Kobe earthquake and the poison gas attacks of that year and the Jinsei game Heisei-ban 1999 ( 人生 ゲ ー ム 平 成 版 1999 ) contained one End time scenario. In addition to this line, franchise versions such as B. on Hello Kitty , Dejiko , Tokimeki Memorial 2 and Doraemon .
The game system is based on Sugoroku (Japanese backgammon ), in which the wheel of fortune ( roulette ) is used instead of dice . The player starts at infancy, then goes to elementary, middle and high school and can then decide whether to study or work.
Similar games
- Mankomania - in this game the principle of the game is reversed: The winner is the one who is the first to lose a million.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Game of Life. In: superfred.de. Retrieved October 7, 2018 .
- ↑ The Game of Life. EA, accessed May 4, 2012 .
- ↑ IGN : Game of Life .
- ↑ 自 分 だ け の 「人生 ゲ ー ム」 オ ー ダ ー メ イ ド サ ー ビ ス タ カ ラ ト ミ ー . J-CAST, January 10, 2008, accessed March 28, 2009 (Japanese).
- ↑ 人生 ゲ ー ム Museum. (No longer available online.) Takara Tomy, archived from the original on June 18, 2008 ; Retrieved March 28, 2009 (Japanese, Japanese Version Timeline). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Web links
- Game description at Hasbro
- Game of Life (1980) in the Luding game database
- The Game of Life in the game database BoardGameGeek (English)