Board Game Flaws: Volume One

I found a critical flaw with the classic Milton-Bradley board game LIFE. Right at the beginning, you are assigned a job based on where the little spinner-thing lands. If you’re a lawyer, you’re at a huge financial advantage over most other careers and players for the rest of the game because every time you pass a “payday” spot on the board, you get a lot of money. There are several problems with this.

First, most lawyers at most law schools end up not making all that much more than a good public school teacher or construction worker so this financial advantage is highly inflated. Second, if you were to be one of the corporate lawyers making a lot of money, then the game should also take into account what the trade-offs would be. For example, around the 3rd or 4th payday spot, the box should also read “your spouse divorces you…you find out 6 weeks later because given your 85 hour/week schedule, you never see him/her. Give half your money to the banker and collect a new spouse.”

The game of life? Pfff...hardly.