A Lifer's Diary, Part 10: Six into Four Won't Go... Or Does It?

A Lifer's Diary, Part 10: Six into Four Won't Go... Or Does It?

When the Game of Life went from being a six-player game to a four-player one for Generation IV, not everyone approved of the change. While this made sets cheaper, simpler, and quicker to produce, it also removed the possibility of playing the game as a larger group (5 people or more). To this day, I am still conflicted about Hasbro's decision to make it this way. So let's take a look at how this situation came to be.

As originally designed, Milton Bradley's Checkered Game of Life (the predecessor to the modern Game of Life) originally supported four players. This seems perfectly adequate given that the rule set was drastically different from those used in its successors. However, when Generation I of the Game of Life debuted, it became a six-player game for the first time ever, to emphasize the fact that this was now a true family game. In particular, large families and groups of friends found this change to be especially popular.

When Generation II debuted in the early 1990s, six-player support was retained, because the new rule set was equally conducive to large-scale games (i.e. those with at least four players), if not more so. This was still true after Generation 2.5 rolled around a decade or so later. However, Generation III was the last version of the Game of Life ever to honor this tradition, and in retrospect, it's easy to see why. 

Under the new rule set, Spin to Win was effectively treated as an extension of a turn, wherein players could choose whether or not to wager any of their cash (and if so, decide exactly how much they would bet) on the number to be spun, and this process took some time. In particular, when four or more players participated, this could potentially make Spin to Win take longer than anticipated. Moreover, players who retired still had to spin for Long-Term Investments until every player had retired. All this meant that the six-player setup present since Generation I had to be abandoned after Generation III.

Generations IV and V reverted to a four-player setup, as the original 1860 Checkered Game Of Life had used. Despite a mixed reaction from fans and players alike, the game still sold well, mainly because games now tended to be shorter than before. One of the reasons for this is that players are no longer required to spin at all after retiring. In addition, the College Path at the start of the game is even shorter than it had been in previous versions, thus allowing players to graduate sooner.

In short, turning the Game of Life from a six-player game to a four-player one from Generation IV onward may have been one of the most controversial changes in its history, but one that players have generally embraced. Even I am no longer as skeptical of this decision, and have accepted that this reduced limit is here to stay for at least the current version, and possibly beyond.