The Game of Life (Plastic Edition)

Anyone looking for signs of a top in the epic credit bubble that has swept across Anglo Saxon countries during the past few decades should look no further than game maker Milton Bradley Company and their recently announced plans to make the use of credit cards integral to the classic board game The Game of Life.

What next home equity loans and cash-out refis?


According to this story in yesterday's LA Times, parent company Hasbro Inc. has teamed up with Visa International out of San Francisco to not only introduce plastic money to game players but to remove the cash.

No longer will eight and nine year olds be able to feel the imitation currency in their hands or organize it neatly in front of them along with life insurance policies, home loans, and stock portfolios.

That's infuriating some experts on children and money, who say the update, scheduled to launch in August, will unravel the game's sage money lessons and inculcate the preteen set with a credit-card mentality.

"Oh, Lord. It's terrible," said Janet Bodnar, parent of three and author of "Raising Money Smart Kids: What They Need to Know about Money and How to Tell Them."

"It's bad enough for teenagers to have exposure to credit cards. It is really bad for a 9 year old," she said. "This is exactly the age group when you want to be teaching about cash money."

Beacham agrees. "To succeed in real life, our kids need to learn to manage money — starting with hard cash," she said. "The child who doesn't may end up back in their old room after college with nothing but a boatload of credit-card debt in tow.

"A credit card is a valid update. But I can't agree with the removal of cash from the game."

With the revised "Twists & Turns" edition of The Game of Life, players will get a Visa-branded card at the start of the game and an electronic "LifePod" that will keep track of players' financial data and monitor their game status. The player with the most accumulated cash and "life cards" — experiences such as having a child, inventing a product or earning a Nobel Prize — wins.

What a creative bunch there at Hasbro - a "LifePod". Maybe the LifePod somehow works with an i-Card.

To really bring the game up to date the company should somehow factor in inflation during the playing of the game. People are living longer and the rising price of energy and healthcare will play an increasing role in their lives and will play havoc with their finances.

Back in the 1970s, midway through the production of the then-current version, they felt the need to double all the dollar amounts for salaries and expenses in order to keep up with rapidly escalating wages and consumer prices.

Maybe in a new update to the game a player could pick up a card that says, "Core inflation remains at 2.4 percent, but your health insurance premium just rose 12 percent!"

That would be a real life lesson.

Aside from the obvious cash versus credit shift, the partnership also raises new questions about product placement and the assault on the minds of the young.

As if it weren't difficult enough to raise kids these days, parents will now have to explain credit cards and product placement to their kids before they get to experience the joys of puberty.

"Advertisers are looking for new ways to market their products because the 30- and 60-second advertising spots are not as effective as they once were," said Linda Swick, president of International Promotions, a North Hollywood-based product placement firm. "Recorders are allowing people to zap out their commercials. So wherever a company can get their brand name out there, they're going to do it."

Visa and Hasbro say that no money changed hands under their marketing deal.

"What Visa is going to do is advertise this game now in all of their different outlets," Swick said. "That's a lot of money for Hasbro. Even if it is not dollar transferred, they get a lot of advertising in all of their different venues."

A Hasbro spokeswoman said the game would still impart valid money lessons because it cannot be won without managing money wisely.

Indeed, the update may provide an opportunity to teach children to be skeptical about advertising.

"As a mom who is in the advertising world, I am constantly making my kids aware that they are being advertised to and that they have to be very careful about evaluating any messages they're receiving," Swick said.

"I have normal kids who say, 'We want this because they say this about it,' " she added. "I say, 'Wait a minute. What is the perspective that they are coming from? Is the information biased? What is best for you?' "

No wonder today's parents are more medicated than any preceding generation. Oh yeah, the kids too.

So what implications exist for other venerable board games?

One comes to mind.

After the world-wide real estate boom of recent years, just think of the possibilities for applying modern financial innovations to Parker Brother's classic board game Monopoly - bringing it "up to date".


Asset appreciation, subprime lending, negative amortization loans, mortgage backed securities, credit default swaps - the possibilities are endless.

Or, maybe those financial innovations are best suited for The Game of Life.