The Game Of LIFE Board Game

This post on the The Game Of Life Board Game is part of my 21 Challenge. I am taking The 21 Challenge to raise money to support homeless and at-risk young people in Australia. There are more than 32,000 young people who sleep on our streets every night and I blogging a kids activity daily to raise funds to go to Open Family Australia who support these youths.

My challenge is to blog daily an activity I do each day with my kids, using only things we have at home or use what we have on hand when we are out. You can see all the children’s activities I have posted as part of the 21 Challenge by clicking on the tag 21 Challenge here.

********

The Game Of LIFE Board Game

I actually had The Game Of LIFE Board Game as child and loved playing it. We bought this game for our eldest son a couple of years ago. The basic premise of the game remains the same – you need to make your way around the board, making life decisions along the way. At the end of the game the winner is the one who has had the most successful life. The success is defined by a forumla.

This newer version is electronic. There is one ‘LIFE pod’ and each player has their own card (like a credit card sort of) and you enter the card into the LIFE pod for your turn. The ‘LIFE pod’ keeps track of your money, your life experiences, your education, marital and child status etc.

At the start you determine how many ‘years’ you want to play for. The more years the longer the game:

  • 10 years equates to around 45 minutes (we usually play for this amount of time, especially if the younger kids are playing)
  • 15 years about an hour
  • 30 years about 2 hours

Game Of Life Board Game
How long you play for determines the strategy you will develop for the game. There are four distinct areas on the board:

  • Learn it (knowledge and achievement)
  • Earn it (investment and money)
  • Love it (family and friends)
  • Live it (adventure and fun)

When we play for 10 years only, there isn’t much time to ‘learn it’, so everyone usually starts at one of the other sections first. If you are playing longer and want to earn greater income, you may need to go through ‘Learn it’ to obtain the qualifications for your promotions.

Game Of Life Board Game

The game is all about choices and an underlying philosophy that life experiences are worth more than money. The rules state that 1 LIFE point equals an average of $100. It ranges from $80 – $120 but it is set differently for each game.

Game Of Life Board Game
The ‘LIFEpod’ runs a secret formula at the end of the game to convert your dollars and LIFE points into one number. The player with the highest number is then the winner.

There are many practical lessons in the game to talk about with the kids like:

  • Buying a car – At the end of the game cars are sold for their current value. Economy cars lose $1000 a year in value and luxury cars lose $5000 a year. The rules advise to add up how many years you expect to own the car and see if it makes sense to buy it.
  • Having children – you earn 350 LIFE points per child each year (turn), but your salary is reduced by 10% per child, per year (turn) up to 40%. You need to consider if you can afford to have the number of children you would like.
  • Buying a house – they increase by 6% in value each year (turn) but you pay 10% per year on any outstanding debt you carry.

The game is recommended for children aged 9+ and you can see why with the above factors to consider! When we played the game today, I played with the 8 and 6 year old. We kept it pretty simple and stuck to the Earn it, Love it and Live it sections of the board. We also didn’t buy cars or houses.

Game Of Life Board Game
The younger kids love this game as much as the older kids even if they don’t completely understand the complexity of it. A huge part of the attraction I think lies in the LIFE pod and its cards. They love putting them into the pod and pressing all the buttons.

Game Of Life Board Game
You have reference cards, so you can easily refer to them to see how to enter the right information for each turn you have.

Game Of Life Board Game
Around the board there are spaces which have cars and houses marked on them. When you land on them you can choose to buy them or draw a LIFE card instead. This is what we did – the kids would just pick up a card. The LIFE cards are a risk though – you can win or lose big depending on what your card serves up.

And I couldn’t not mention the lottery. My kids adore the lottery. There are lottery spaces marked on the board and if a player lands on one, they get to set up a lottery in the LIFE pod. The LIFE pod will set an amount available to win, the player who landed on the spot gets to choose three numbers, while all other players choose only one. You have a spin on the LIFE pod and keep spinning until a player’s number comes up and someone wins the money.

Get Your Own Copy of The Game Of LIFE Adventures Board Game

game of life adventures
Hasbro Australia have very kindly donated 5 x Game of Life Adventures Game (worth over $40 each) in support of the 21 Challenge. This is a different version of The Game of LIFE to what we have.

The focus for The Game Of LIFE Adventures is on travel and you guide your character across different islands experiencing and learning along the way. Also note it has a spinner and not a LIFE pod.

To win a copy of the game, all I ask is you make a commitment to donate to my 21 Challenge. This is how it will work:

  • Leave a comment below saying how much you would like to donate to win.
  • Minimum donation is $5.
  • I will close comments 5pm Monday 18th June.
  • The highest 5 donations will win the copies of the game.
  • If there is for example only 10 comments all bidding $5, I will select the first 5 readers who left a commitment to donate.
  • I will notify winners by email, so please make sure you leave an email address that you check regularly.
  • If I don’t receive a response within 48 hours, I will choose another winner.
  • Winners will make the donation to my 21 Challenge.
  • Once the donation has been made to the 21 Challenge, I will organise to have the game sent out.
  • It is open to Australian residents only.

If you have played The Game Of Life before, what is your preferred strategy for a 10 year game?

If you enjoyed this post, you are welcome to sponsor me in my 21 Challenge. Donations are tax deductible and can be made securely online here. Thanks!