Life

There are two significant games bearing the name “The Game of Life,” one of which is not really a game at all, but an experiment in cellular automation, while the second is a popular family board game.

Conway's The Game of Life is named for its inventor, mathematician John Horton Conway, and was presented in the October 1970 issue of Scientific American. It was based on the work of game theorist and mathematician John von Neumann. This “game” is not really a game at all in the common sense of the word, but rather a mathematical simulation of cellular genetics—an intellectual puzzle.

A checkerboard is used and each square is deemed to be a cell that is either “alive” or “dead.” As turns progress, cells either die or come to life, depending on the number of living neighbors they have; a cell with two live neighbors dies, one with more than three dies, one with three stays stable. A dead cell with three live neighbors comes to life.

The Game of Life is fascinating for several reasons. First, it has the characteristics of a Universal Turing Machine, as modeled by Alan Turing, in that it can process any set of well-formed instructions. Second, the complex patterns that emerge from simple rules and an initial set-up has profound implications across a range of sciences. It is important to the study of games because it helps show how simple rules can produce very complex results.

It can be debated whether The Game of Life is, in fact, a game at all: Once the board has been initially set up, there is no player intervention. This has—with some justification—led it to be called a zero-player game, but [Page 362]it would be easy to argue that the initial setup of the game board constitutes “playing” the game, even though there are no set goals, nor any winner.

The Game of Life is an ideal game for family members of all ages, as winning is slanted more toward luck than skill.

Life, also known as The Game of Life, is also a popular board game. It was first created in 1860 by Milton Bradley under the name The Checkered Game of Life, and as a result of its success, Bradley was able to form the Milton Bradley Games Company; MB Games, which is now a subsidiary of Hasbro. In 1960 the game was resurrected and redesigned for MB Games's centenary. Now called The Game of Life, it is still published today, though there have been design tweaks since the 1960 version.

Players progress along a track, spinning a wheel numbered one to 10, rather than rolling a dice. A choice can be made between paths: career (business in the 1960 version) or college. College places one in debt, but means a higher salary later on. The playing pieces are cars, to which pegs are affixed to represent extra family members when a player has children or gets married. The board features mountains, giving a pleasing three-dimensional feel. Other features include such things as insurance policies, “major life feats” (like climbing Mount Everest), promissory notes, and stock options. Many of the details vary, depending on the version of the game. The 1992 version adds rewards for such things as recycling and learning CPR.

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