Unlike later versions, the original game didn't have money - it relied instead on points on squares to calculate the winner. 'And gambling was bad.' As an alternative, Bradley developed a spinner - though the original device was a top-like spinner called a teetotum.īradley's morals were deeply embedded in the original game of Life in other ways, too. 'Milton Bradley didn't believe in dice, because dice were associated with gambling,' Snyder says. The moral backstory behind the game of Life spinnerĮver wonder why the game of Life has a spinner? Often, the money from Life even fueled other educational ventures, like the production of teacher supplies and educational materials. That philosophy lent the game of Life a dual purpose: moneymaker and vehicle for moral instruction. The game of Life is very much about taking the moral high road and walking the appropriate path.' It was an opportunity for people to be educated in the way he thought they should be. 'He viewed everything as an educational opportunity. 'Everything Milton Bradley published had a really strong moral tone to it when he was still in charge of the company,' Snyder says. Snyder believes Bradley's background in early education led him to make games that, like the Froebel Gifts, could help people learn through play. Bradley also attended lectures by Elizabeth Peabody, who developed the first English-speaking kindergarten in 1860 (Bradley was such a fan that his company published her portrait). Froebel's innovations included Froebel Gifts, play materials that helped children learn. The game of Life is about taking the moral high roadīradley was a follower of Friedrich Froebel, a German educator generally credited with inventing kindergarten. Snyder says Bradley's interest in games came out of his experience as a printmaker, but he also incorporated his other passions: education and the quest to live a virtuous life. he seemed very interesting, but in some ways probably pretty rigid in terms of his view of what was appropriate or not.' She's an assistant professor of art education at Austin Peay State University, and she wrote her dissertation about Bradley's unique life. 'Bradley was very much a product of his day,' Jennifer Snyder says. Milton Bradley was an educator with a deeply moral bent That simple game would fund his true passion. But the unusual success of the Checkered Game of Life was due to Bradley's unique obsessions.

In 1866, Bradley patented the game and secured his fortune.īradley, along with his collaborator George Tapley, had become a hitmaker. By 1861, he'd sold 45,000 copies of the game and was bundling it into a popular game pack for Civil War soldiers. Soon thereafter, Bradley invented the Checkered Game of Life, with the game's board mirroring the ups and downs of his own career. Unfortunately, Lincoln grew a beard in the meantime, and the portraits failed to sell, nearly bankrupting Bradley.įrom that failure, however, his greatest success was born. Bradley had printed thousands of portraits of Abraham Lincoln, hoping for strong sales based on Lincoln's presidential nomination.

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.īut in 1860, disaster struck. How Milton Bradley made Life - after screwing up Lincoln's portraitīorn in 1836 in Maine, Milton Bradley grew up in Lowell, Massachusetts, where he dropped out of college to begin a career in the printing business. Why did the early game of Life feature the chance of utter ruin alongside high-minded goals like honesty, perseverance, and industry? Why was it so depressing? And how did a game about values transform into one about getting rich? The answer is rooted in the unusual and fantastic passions of the game's inventor, a man named Milton Bradley. And that included the risk of suffering some incredibly depressing consequences - like suicide or poverty:

The goal wasn't to be a millionaire, but simply to live a good life.

The game of Life is more than 150 years old, and its early incarnations were very, very different. 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.īut it wasn't always that way. The original game of Life was depressing.

Game of game of life game board