Captivated by the story of a kidnapped king and eager to help find him, little ones move their gingerbread pawns along a rainbow path and through a land of candy characters, all subjects of King Kandy's realm. Thus begins the magical journey of Milton Bradley's classic Candy Land board game. This is one of the many ways games set goals and defines the steps to achieve those goals. Certain hidden values also lie within a game, which one must follow to reach a defined figure of success. For a player, the key to reaching a main objective is having an understanding the meaning of success. The Adams article declares that although success is clearly defined in games, it is not always easily attainable. It takes not only time, but also somewhat of an understanding of social values. Many connections within the article were made between games and the social values of the era in which they became popular. Mirroring America's culture, games from different eras define success in different terms. While early games like Mansion of Happiness promoted religious values, The Game of Business reflects America's growing materialism. With its illustrated castles and candy wonders, Candy Land is another material based game. Therefore, Candy Land's, success relies on attaining the highest possible social status or, in other words, reaching the top of the board to King Kandy's castle.
The rules of the game were intended to be simple, so little kids have a well understanding of the game. Instead of numbers, directions or other confusing rules and regulations, Candy Land's creator simplified game play by having kids move their little Gingerbread Man characters with color-- coded cards. Each space comes in one of six colors--red, purple, yellow, blue, orange, or green- and the deck of cards has small squares of the same colors. If a player draws a purple card, they move the Gingerbread Man to the next purple square and so on to the top of the board and the oh-so-tasty candy castle.