LIFE experience: a retrospective (of sorts)

(1)The interactivity of LIFE (and board games in general) was much different from that of the lcd games in that it rises to another level. Other people enter the picture and the dynamic changes. On the other hand, there's really no skill involved, where even with the skill-level very low on the handheld games, some coordination was necessary. In the game of LIFE, ironically, it was all about chance, unless there is some sort of spinning technique I'm missing out on. (2)This could become an art piece if the game was brought to a whole new scale, similar to the idea of Issei's BFA show last spring. Including actual human beings into the movement of the board would make it more about experience but would also enter a whole new realm, performance art. Subversion could be another interesting avenue, changing up the game spaces, the cards, the journey across the LIFE board would become all together different. (3) There is definitely some sort of psychological factor when it comes to playing this game, or maybe that was just me. Getting so close to graduation and entering the "real" world gets a person a little on edge. Playing this game (and losing horribly... losing at LIFE) kind of bothered me somewhere in the back of my head. START OVER or GO BACK 15 SPACES while the rest of my fellow players went on their jolly way, discovering Uranium mines and playing the stock market (or ponies) was a bit of a hit to the ego. Also, due to a Share the Wealth card, Liz and I are not friends for one week. This game ruins people! (4) As far as dislikes go, I don't have a great many. I actually had a pretty good time playing it and being banker is pretty much the coolest. The psychological element is pretty interesting, as we were talking about before during discussion, there's a cetain element of art that is all about screwing with people's minds. This game definitely has a bit of that built right in.