The other night I was playing snakes and Ladders with Cole, and realised what a futile game that is.

Most games tend to be a mixture of logic and luck to varying degrees. Chess and checkers are almost wholly logic (which makes them so much more enjoyable to me), while games like Ludo or Jenga or Monopoly have quite a bit more luck thrown in, but still require a lot of thought to do well.

Now Snakes and Ladders is one of the exceptions. There is NO skill involved at all. The winner is solely determined by who gets to the end first based on what numbers you throw on a dice.

It is pretty much a kids version of playing the slots in a casino. I don’t see any thrill in winning a game where you have no control on the outcome. Winning just means you got lucky, and says nothing at all about how good you are.

Yet for some inexplicable reason, of all the games I play with Cole, he loves Snakes and Ladders the most….

Share