Life is Like a Board Game
If you were a kid growing up in the 1970s or 80s, you probably spent rainy weekends playing board games, like me. Did the games teach us valuable life and money lessons, and did they way we played them reveal our futures in some way? May-haps. Consider:
Monopoly
What: A classic board game where you choose a figure (boot, car etc) and make your way around the board trying to buy London suburbs and build on them, while occasionally being forced to pay up if you land on someone else’s property or pick up unexpected tax bills. OR suddenly being sent to jail.
How: Generally it was clear after about the fifth throw of the dice who was going to win. The rest was either a smooth path to riches or a bumpy ride to bankruptcy.
Me: If I was winning, I was so benevolent. I’d loan money to my struggling co-players and let them skip the odd rent payment. If losing however, I’d sulk, and there were times I’d flip the board over, sending game pieces flying everywhere, and stalk off in a huff, much to everyone’s justified annoyance.
Game of Life
What: A deathly dull game which involved lots of paperwork: insurance, bonds, lotteries etc as you made your way through different life stages on the board with the spin of a wheel.
How: The aim was to make money and have a prestigious career, family etc, if you could be bothered.
Me: I skipped about 90% of the paperwork and just moved around the board having babies and inheriting fortunes.
What board games did you play as a kid? What did they teach you for ‘real life’?
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Friday, September 14th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
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I think Monopoly was th eking of board games in my time. It was so brutal in length (sometimes lasting for more than 3 hours) and its dependence on pure luck of the dice. As a 10 year old, I think I loved it and hated it in equal measure. My god it was boring at times! Mayfair and Park Lane, oh the prestige…I wanna play this weekend now!
Yahtzee was my game. Ok so the roll of the dice decided pretty much all of the game but you gotta love chucking six dice in to a faux felt mini oval arena - really hard !
September 14th, 2007 at 10:35 pmGreat post!
September 14th, 2007 at 10:48 pmI would say my life is like the UNO card game. I am looking for the fastest way possible to finish up all the cards. It’s all about the results
Cluedo taught me that if you’re going to murder somebody, don’t use a candlestick. You get found out eventually.
September 14th, 2007 at 10:58 pmmonopoly definitely teaches you how to cheat with your younger brother and make all kinds of crazy math up for money so that you came out on top.
i played a lot of poker with my family and i guess that teaches you how to be quiet, maybe that’s why they always wanted to play
September 15th, 2007 at 6:26 amAh, the nostalgia… I remember Yahtzee. Does it mean ‘To roll six dice on faux felt mini oval arena’ in Slovakian or something?
I don’t think I ever played UNO but I sure played a lot of poker… yes, knowing how to bluff can help you through life no worries.
And Cluedo: I always had to be Miss Scarlett. I suspect Rhys, with the Spanner, in the Ballroom!
September 15th, 2007 at 11:09 amBah, caught me at it
I was always Reverend Green, always had to be. We also had a version of the game that had a bunch of other characters (such as Dr. Peach) that we only played at Christmas.
Oh, and Mousetrap taught me that over-complicated forms of pest control do actually work.
September 15th, 2007 at 6:58 pmYou know a family is serious about Clue (for all you North Americans out there) when they have a version especially for Xmas. That’s hard core.
Mousetrap was gold! I don’t think we played the actual game bit once though… just set it up and watched it fly!
Did anyone ever play Scotland Yard? I remember asking for it for Xmas one year and causing chaos because it was too complicated for anyone to learn in 5 minutes.
September 15th, 2007 at 8:54 pmHow did the Xmas version of Clue(do) go? Was it less murderous and more festive?
Mousetrap also has a good work:reward ratio. Takes time to set up, but once moving it’s all worth it.
Never heard of a game called Scotland Yard. I’m guessing it was about solving crimes, though.
September 15th, 2007 at 10:02 pmI wrote a few articles about what you learn from board games. Here’s one:
http://jergames.blogspot.com/2007/05/five-types-of-games-that-help-you-live.html
Yehuda
September 16th, 2007 at 6:31 amI played lots of Ludo. Life lesson: Sometimes you have to step on people to get ahead. Just kidding.
September 17th, 2007 at 11:05 pmHi, Glad to know there is another self confessed Monopoly board flipper out there. I used to be obsessed with buying the cheaper houses possible, then not understanding why I was losing. That’s probably why I was so hopeless with money for the first few years after leaving school!
September 18th, 2007 at 4:47 pm