Last night we played the game of Life. And all I have to say is: this game is in serious need of updating. Put another way: the game sucks! And I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who feels this way.
Granted, I don't feel strongly enough about it to emblazon my proclamation of disdain across my chest in a permanent manner, and I do suspect the person in this picture may be commenting upon more than the Milton Bradley game, but I do feel that the board game is no longer politically correct (if it ever was), and my family members agree.
First of all, just as each player must choose between attending college or going directly into the workplace, there are certain other aspects of real life where choice is a factor, and accordingly, this damn game should present them to the players as such. For example, since when is marriage a given? Only I should have the say-so as to whether I am joined in my vehicle by a little blue or pink companion. When it comes to the question of marriage in the game of Life, put me down as Pro Choice! Having made the college/no college decision, players should then be given the choice of marriage/no marriage, where each option then precipitates appropriate benefits and/or disadvantages (I'll leave these to your imagination).
The next decision (you can see what's coming, right?) should be that of whether or not to have children. The board game, as currently constituted, presumes that everyone desires the pitter patter of little feet in their lives. Pardon me for stating the obvious, but—hello!—not all do! Once again, players should be given the choice whether or not to have kids, which then results in appropriately corresponding benefits and/or disadvantages.
As we finally ground our way to the game's finale (and it was a long time coming, I assure you—if only real life lasted so long!), everyone began to contemplate the ultimate reckoning. I refer to the criteria which establish who is the winner—do you recall what those criteria consist of? That's right, the winner in the game of Life is the player who ends up with the most money—the greatest net worth.
Seriously?
I sincerely hope that, when I die, nobody presumes to judge how successful a life I had based upon how much money I had when I died. It would be absurd. While money may be important and necessary for survival, it is a poor barometer of how happy or successful or worthwhile of a life one has had.
In the film It's A Wonderful Life, George Bailey is reminded that "no man is a failure who has friends." With all due respect to the friends I have had, and to Frank Capra, I would submit that life is not a popularity contest, and the merit of my life depends on the number of friends I have had no more than it does upon the number of dollars I have had. If, after I've died, I were given the chance to judge the success of my own life, I would consider my life successful to the degree that I made it the kind of life I wanted it to be. And I think everybody else's lives ought to be judged by the same criteria. It's not about how much you loved or how much you were loved, it's not about how much money or how many friends you had, and it's not about how successful others considered you to be. Your own criteria are all that matter with respect to your own life. And there's no reason that all of us can't be winners. Milton Bradley—take note!
Life flows on, in and around us—we takes our chances, we makes our choices, we lives with the consequences—and it is what we make it.
D.E.S.
Granted, I don't feel strongly enough about it to emblazon my proclamation of disdain across my chest in a permanent manner, and I do suspect the person in this picture may be commenting upon more than the Milton Bradley game, but I do feel that the board game is no longer politically correct (if it ever was), and my family members agree.
First of all, just as each player must choose between attending college or going directly into the workplace, there are certain other aspects of real life where choice is a factor, and accordingly, this damn game should present them to the players as such. For example, since when is marriage a given? Only I should have the say-so as to whether I am joined in my vehicle by a little blue or pink companion. When it comes to the question of marriage in the game of Life, put me down as Pro Choice! Having made the college/no college decision, players should then be given the choice of marriage/no marriage, where each option then precipitates appropriate benefits and/or disadvantages (I'll leave these to your imagination).
The next decision (you can see what's coming, right?) should be that of whether or not to have children. The board game, as currently constituted, presumes that everyone desires the pitter patter of little feet in their lives. Pardon me for stating the obvious, but—hello!—not all do! Once again, players should be given the choice whether or not to have kids, which then results in appropriately corresponding benefits and/or disadvantages.As we finally ground our way to the game's finale (and it was a long time coming, I assure you—if only real life lasted so long!), everyone began to contemplate the ultimate reckoning. I refer to the criteria which establish who is the winner—do you recall what those criteria consist of? That's right, the winner in the game of Life is the player who ends up with the most money—the greatest net worth.
Seriously?
I sincerely hope that, when I die, nobody presumes to judge how successful a life I had based upon how much money I had when I died. It would be absurd. While money may be important and necessary for survival, it is a poor barometer of how happy or successful or worthwhile of a life one has had.
In the film It's A Wonderful Life, George Bailey is reminded that "no man is a failure who has friends." With all due respect to the friends I have had, and to Frank Capra, I would submit that life is not a popularity contest, and the merit of my life depends on the number of friends I have had no more than it does upon the number of dollars I have had. If, after I've died, I were given the chance to judge the success of my own life, I would consider my life successful to the degree that I made it the kind of life I wanted it to be. And I think everybody else's lives ought to be judged by the same criteria. It's not about how much you loved or how much you were loved, it's not about how much money or how many friends you had, and it's not about how successful others considered you to be. Your own criteria are all that matter with respect to your own life. And there's no reason that all of us can't be winners. Milton Bradley—take note!
Life flows on, in and around us—we takes our chances, we makes our choices, we lives with the consequences—and it is what we make it.
D.E.S.
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