Paper or plastic?
That question is at the center of the controversy over Hasbro’s updated The Game of Life: Twists & Turns edition.
For this update, Hasbro partnered with Visa and replaced cash with a Visa-branded credit card. Hasbro says plastic reflects life today.
But critics see marketing run amok. They worry about introducing children as young as 9 to plastic before they can understand credit. Card issuers throw cards at college students, and critics see the Game of Life’s credit card as a way for the industry to reach younger kids.
“A bad idea,” says Robert Manning, director of the Center for Consumer Financial Services at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. He says consumerism has been creeping into children’s games.
In the Game of Life, players move through life’s experiences from college, marriage and children to getting hit by taxes, a stock market slump and a career change during a midlife crisis. The player with the most money at retirement wins. Some parents used the game to talk to children about finances.
Janet Bodnar, author of “Raising Money Smart Kids,” says the Game of Life has been her favorite money game for children, topping Monopoly.
So Bodnar was dismayed this year to hear of Hasbro’s plan to replace cash with plastic.
“Now you don’t even need a banker to keep track of the money,” she says.
With the new version, players insert Visa cards into a gadget where dollars and points are electronically added and subtracted. Hasbro spokeswoman Pat Riso says the new Game of Life edition recognizes that life is not just about accumulating the most cash. The game allows children to test-drive life choices, she says.
