THE GAME OF LIFE

What do you see in your future, class?

There’s a standard, set out for all creeds and colours, and all classes and genders. It’s been this way for the longest time, unopposed, until recently. And that is the template for what counts as a successful life. Meet your soulmate young, get a job, work hard, get married, have kids, and then put your own life on hold until they fly the nest.

Life.

But that’s not how it works any more. We live in a generation that is “woke“. A generation that is well aware of the limits that these templates place on us, and well aware that the exceptions are not the problem, the rule is. When that was the template for a successful life, nobody could have predicted how far we’d come on important issues like equal marriage and the ability to adopt no matter how you define your sexuality. Nobody could have predicted how far we’d come with gender equality, and that a woman could be the breadwinner whilst the man stays at home keeping house.

I used to play a game when I was younger, called the Game of Life. It was heavily based on the concept I just mentioned. The idea was that you played along the board, spinning a number to move your piece and picking up various jobs, partners and kids, until you got to the end of the board, to be crowned victor based on how rich you were and how quickly you built up that fortune. The irony is that although to many people that is what life becomes, life shouldn’t be that way. Life should be about stopping and taking your time for the little moments that make you happy.

But the Game of Life is an old game, and much like our views on gender and equality and what we expect a “good life” to look like, the world of games has moved on too. When Game of Life was released in the 60s, we were still a few years away from Pong, considered as the first video game by many. Two simple lines that represented paddles or racquets, and a pixel that represented a ball, ricocheting between them.

This was considered revolutionary. But look at the last 50 years and where we are now. No longer are we limited to 8-bit pixels dancing on a CRT screen. No longer are we limited to huge technology that takes an engineer days to turn on because its so complicated and cumbersome. No, now we have the world of gaming at our fingertips. In the last decade alone mobile gaming has spawned franchises such as Fruit Ninja and Angry Birds, recognised by the newer generation more easily that staples like Sonic and Mario.

It’s hard work keeping up with the developments in the gaming world, just ask Gameboy. He must be so tired from keeping up with his own world that keeping up with this world too is just one step too far.

So Gameboy, hit pause, put down your controller and take a rest break. Your game is over, for now.