A Lifer's Diary, Part 4: Tie-Breakers

A Lifer's Diary, Part 4: Tie-Breakers

For much of its history, Hasbro's Game of Life did not include rules for when two or more players finished the game with the same net worth. This is called a tie, and so far both of my simulated games have ended in this fashion, with a three-way tie in the first game (based mainly on the Generation III rule set) and an even less believable four-way tie in the second (based primarily on the Generation II rule set). However, the official Generation II rule set stated that if two Millionaire Estates retirees had the same amount of cash on hand, they would receive two Life Tiles each.

Even so, it wasn't until Generation V that an actual tie-breaker system was implemented. The rule is simple: if two or more players have the same total net worth, then the first of those players to retire wins the game. Decades before this, however, some players realized that this would be a great way to resolve a tied game, and implemented it unofficially.

For this reason, I have decided that it would be best to implement this as an additional house rule in all of my simulated Games of Life going forward. As stated above, in the event of a tie for total net worth, the first player to retire wins - it's as simple as that. Let's face it - if this doesn't work, I might have to come up with a different means of breaking ties, but I hope it never comes to that.