Agricola and college

Can students learn life lessons from a board game?



We played the new game Agricola (2008, Lookout Games) the other night. It took us about two and a half hours to set-up, learn the rules, and play. In the game, players take turns selecting actions that will benefit their farm. Each player has a farm board with spaces for fields and rooms. The goal is to have the most points at the end of the game by having the greatest diversity of goods and by utilizing your farm space most effectively.
The game was fun, and I would like to play again, but I could not help thinking about this game relates to the college experience. In the game there are numerous ways to gain points. For example, if, at the game end, you have 4 cattle, you would receive 3 points, but if you have 0 cattle, then you would lose 1 point. Since there are numerous categories in which players can earn and lose points (cattle, sheep, grain, vegetables, enclosed pastures) the difficulty of the game lies in balancing as many categories as possible.
In the same way, the college experience is a balance of a number of important factors. Students are asked to learn social skills, develop positive eating habits, study for class, and do their own laundry, without forgetting to have a little fun now and then. Students need to balance these behaviors among other things, and are not likely to have a successful or enjoyable college experience if any one behavior is not utilized or learned. Like in Agricola, a student could become an expert in one area and still lose the game if other areas are not explored.
While it is unlikely that the other students who were playing Agricola with me considered the parallels of the game to college life, I believe it is possible that the game can teach diversification, management skills, and balance. If nothing else, students, as they play the game, are given an avenue through which to explore options and make decisions that affect an outcome. At the same time they are able to participate with one another to develop more effective strategies, which in addition to enabling students to share their diverse thought processes, also provides them with a social activity that can help to develop a shared identity and sense of community.
By the way, when we played the other night I lost by one point. I have yet to suppose that success in the board game directly correlates to success in making "A's," although if it does, then I should be studying the Agricola rulebook instead of my Literature notes.