"Chutes" and ladders? What is this nonsense?

Question

I just read somewhere on the internet somebody talking about "chutes" and ladders. Since when? It's good old Snakes and Ladders, surely?

As Dougal McGuire once said, "You're going to snake town!"

Why and where is the game referred to as Chutes and Ladders??

Answer 1

The term chutes and ladders is normally how an american person would say it.

In good old england its snakes and ladders.

Blame the language barrier.

Answer 2

they use chutes for a more kids version of it.

also father ted that show was frickin' A.

Answer 3

just take out chuts and put in snakes

Answer 4

.no it is chutes and ladders because little kids thought there were live snakes i the box.

Answer 5

It has been sold in the US as Chutes and Ladders by Milton Bradley since 1943.

It was published in England as Snakes and Ladders in 1892

Before it was Snakes and Ladders, it was a game in India, originating around 200 BC.

Answer 6

It's always been chutes and ladders for me and everyone else i know. It's like a slide. It's a little kid game, so maybe someone was scared of snakes.

Answer 7

I remembered it was "Snakes and Ladders" too, so I dunno. I'm in America so how did I play with an English version of the game? I dunno, I just figured it was like the Candy Land board remakes. Board games change a lot over the years. Kinda the way it works.

Answer 8

bloody americans have to change the name of everything that wasn't theirs in the first place

Answer 9

Its the American Way. Ignore the history and meaning of the game, just change snakes for slides and you can slap a Trade Mark on it.  

Why is going down a slide a bad thing?  It makes no sense to me.  I don't believe American children find pictures of snakes scary for one moment. The change was either about money or for some strange religious reason.  A lot of games have run into trouble with the "hate mungers" of the "bible belt", it is quite possible that snake imagery wasn't acceptable to them.

Answer 10

I've heard it as both.  I guess chutes is less scary for timid kids.

Answer 11

Chutes is what americans call playground slides. So thats the games they play.

Actually more logically than Snakes and Ladders if you think about it. But I prefer the traditional English version.