The Game of Life

We gave Chef Junior that game of childhood for Christmas-we gave him Life. Ed dubbed tonight "family game night" and the three of us sat down playing Trouble and then Life. Gameboy admitted fatigue and put himself to bed at 7:30pm. Should have checked him for fever.

Apparently, in the twenty odd years since I've last played Life, the game has had a revamp. There are student loans, midlife crises (a few of them, IIRC) and ways to earn more buckaroos. I read the rules to the menfolk and got the typical glazed over thing that guys get when confronted with instructions. C'mon Mom, we want to PLAY!

Okay, we start. Ed cracks that he's not going to make the same mistake in the game that he did in the real world-he's going to college (only now in the game, you're 100k in the hole before you go one space!) All three of us go the college route. I'm proud to report that my son became a doctor. Ed became an artist and I don't think you have to guess what I became. At least the game pays better than what I make in the real world!

Son is quite happy with his 100k payday and quickly takes the lead-buying a nice house, getting married and skipping having kids. He keeps raking in the bucks. Meanwhile, I'm quietly plotting my strategy (Ed calls me on it-if I'm quiet, I am up to something). He's ticked that he went to college to become an artist. At least one of the updates in this game is switching the salary cards. His fluctuates, and at one point, he's got Chef's 100k payday.

At one point, Ed took the wrong car for Chef's turn. This resulted in Chef having a midlife crisis (at 8? Man, kids are growing up fast nowadays but a midlife crisis? at 8?) and he becomes an entertainer making 30k a year. The child throws out a bunch of hilarious comments, basically saying his life sucks because he's broke, a pauper, penniless (all with about 500k in funny money in front of him, too!) and he's miserable.

It's at this point that I observe "Hey, that's the white car!" and Chef's salary and status in life were restored. It made paying out that 35 grand to host a charity concert seem like peanuts. A few turns later, Ed earns that coveted salary switch and he grabbed Chef's 100k card, opining that it could be worse-he could be an entertainer making 30k a year. Too funny.

Now the game has these "life" cards that you earn for philanthropic and altruistic endeavors. I kept getting them, the men-not so much. You're supposed to keep them face down, so we didn't know what the cards contained.

Once we hit retirement at the end of the game, Chef and I both thought we'd made the most money, while Ed wasn't so sure. This meant a count off and I had 1.4 odd million, Chef had 1.05 and Ed had 1.15. I had 6 'life tiles' and earned the four that the top person in Millionaire acres gets. This put me way in the lead.

It was a lot of fun to revisit Life. I never owned my own game. Instead, I spent many hours playing this at a few different friends houses. Since Chef Jr is really into playing games, I figured it was time to bring out this blast from the past. The updates didn't detract from it-quite the contrary, it provided fodder for Chef to be his entertaining self.

He is a little cut throat, which makes me think that its a good idea to wait before introducing Monopoly!