×
Yükleme devam ediyor

The original Game of Life was incredibly dark

1 üye

The Game of Life was dark for a reason.

This video is sponsored by Simplisafe. Visit https://simplisafe.com/vox to learn more.
SimpliSafe is award-winning home security that keeps your home safe around the clock. It’s really reliable, easy to use, and there are no contracts. Check out SimpliSafe here: https://simplisafe.com/vox

In this episode of Vox Almanac, Vox's Phil Edwards explores the real meaning of life.

Subscribe to our channel! http://goo.gl/0bsAjO

The original game of Life was depressing. Really depressing.

When we think of the Game of Life, the candy-colored 1950s and '60s version comes to mind — featuring the glossy American dream of buying a house, piling kids in the car, and becoming a millionaire.

Born in 1836, Milton Bradley grew up in Lowell, Massachusetts, where he dropped out of college to begin a career in the printing business. He quickly acquired a monopoly — he owned one of the only lithography machines in Massachusetts outside of Boston — and it made him a wild success.

But in 1860, disaster struck. Bradley had printed thousands of portraits of Abraham Lincoln, hoping for strong sales based on Lincoln's presidential nomination. Unfortunately, Lincoln grew a beard in the meantime, and the portraits failed to sell, nearly bankrupting Bradley.

From that failure, however, his greatest success was born. Soon thereafter, Bradley invented the Checkered Game of Life, with the game's board mirroring the ups and downs of his own career. It turned out to be a hit. In 1866, Bradley patented the game and secured his fortune.

After Milton Bradley died in 1911, the game of Life began to transform from board-game-as-moral-tract to board-game-as-escape. The version familiar to modern players makes success all about money and achievement rather than virtue.

That makes a couple of questions surprisingly tricky to answer: What should the meaning of Life be? And which version of the game is actually more depressing?

Want to learn more? Your best bet is probably James Shea's history of the company: https://www.amazon.com/Its-all-game-James-Shea/dp/B0007DPUPK

Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com.

Watch our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/IZONyE
Follow Vox on Facebook: http://goo.gl/U2g06o
Or Twitter: http://goo.gl/XFrZ5H

Sonraki bölüm
S01E1109 - Are Australia’s koalas going extinct? We asked an ecologist.
Bölümü izleyin

Bölümler (1595)

Sezon %sezon%

Benzer seriler (10)

Explained
Explained
Les évadés du bureau
Les évadés du bureau
Vsauce
Vsauce
Psych2Go
Psych2Go
100 amis
100 amis
Darren fait une dépression, la websérie londonienne
Darren fait une dépression, la websérie…
Sans gêne
Sans gêne
Ça rime à rien
Ça rime à rien
Deux Italiens à Paris
Deux Italiens à Paris
Sexe opposé
Sexe opposé