The Game of Real Life

A friend received a parody of the Game of Life called the Real Game of Life for Christmas.  We played it recently and it was interesting to say the least.  You roll a character and play the game going through realities of life earning or losing health points and money and also collecting happiness points along the way.  To win, you must collect the most happiness points.

A few examples of the situations you go through include a first kiss, choosing whether or not to use drugs or commit crimes, whether or not to get married, and whether or not to have kids.  All these things have positive or negative consequences on your health and bank account.  In our game, none of the players lived to the end.  My character lived the longest, but died just before the end and unfortunately didn't collect the most happiness points.  We wrote down each step of each person's life and told their story at the end.  Most of them had pretty tough lives.  On one hand, the game was funny since it felt like no one in real life would have such terrible luck, but on the other it seemed kind of sad that there really are people out there with unhappy, unhealthy lives.  Either way, I find this game much better than the original version.  When played with the right group of friends, it's a hoot.