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Advanced Lingo For Games
by Gary Rosenzweig

Chapter 2 Section 1

Games predate written history. It seems that we have always been interested in building little virtual realities where we can compete.

The Evolution of Board Games

The first board games were racing games, much like today's backgammon. One of the oldest game boards in existence is for a game called Senet, which was popular in Egypt more than 2,000 years ago.

Figure 2.1

Senet was played by the ancient Egyptians.

The game involved two players, each of whom had several pieces. The players threw sticks, because dice had not yet been invented, and moved their pieces along the board. The goal was to get your pieces to the end, which represented heaven.

This same game was adopted by other cultures for more than a thousand years. Each culture changed the playing pieces, and what the game's goal represented, but for the most part the game was the same.

Senet's goal was actually to get your pieces to the last few spaces, which represented heaven. Many games used this as their goal. Today's game of hopscotch actually has the same goal, even though most people that play it don't know that the last space represents heaven.

In addition to racing games, another early type of game was a variety of Nine Mens Morris. This game involved a board with connected points. Each player had nine pieces and could move one piece per move along one connection to another point. If a player got three pieces in a row, they were allowed to remove one of their opponent's pieces.

This type of game evolved into games like checkers and chess. The goal was to remove your opponent's pieces, while at the same time protecting yours.

Games like this simulated an all-to-common theme in human history: war. Other cultures developed games like it, such as "Go" in Japan.

The ultimate war game, chess, evolved out of these early simple games. It started in 6th century India, but did not adapt modern features, like the powerful queen, until the 15th century.

Chess spread throughout the world quickly, and is seen today by many as the ultimate game: easy to learn, but hard to master. In the 20th century, the best chess players in the world are seen as celebrities, and chess tournaments make headlines.

The world of board games changed to what it is today in the late 19th century and early 20th. Companies like Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers started inventing, mass-producing, and marketing games. New standards like Scrabble and Monopoly were born out of old ideas. In addition, older games were codified by people like Sir Edmund Hoyle, making their rules set in stone.

In America during the 20th century, a closet shelf full of board games became a standard. Games rose and fell in popularity as efforts by game companies to market them succeeded and failed.

War and Role Playing Games

Board games are a casual experience for the most part. A typical game is easy to learn and can be played in an hour or two. However, some gamers desired a more engaging experience.

War games have existed in some form or another throughout history. However, the first modern war games were played in the 19th century. Military experts used large tables covered with sand and elaborate figures to plan out and test strategies.

The main purpose of the first war games was to plan out real battles. However, they soon came to be used as training tools as well. Military students would reenact battles and make up scenarios. It was, and still is, a valuable tool.

Simplified versions of war games began to be used for recreation. The author H.G. Wells is often cited as the inventor of the first recreational war game. Boards with grids replaced the large tables. Instead of doing complex calculations, simple dice rolls and rules were used to decide the outcome of moves.

In the 1960s and 70s, war games were mass-produced in boxes with booklets that described the rules and large paper grids to play on. Several new games were produced annually, and magazines were even published on the subject.

From the world of war games came the world of role playing games. The inventors of Dungeons & Dragons were simply out to make an interesting war game scenario that involved soldiers from the middle ages going in to an old castle and dungeon. Before they completed the scenario, they ended up with a whole new game complete with a telephone-book sized set of rules. When they published a simplified version of these rules, they created a gaming phenomenon.

Dungeons & Dragons spawned many competitors and also many other types of role playing games. Just about every type of adventure could be found in a box at your local hobby store: science fiction, espionage, old west, and even game systems to handle any type of world.

The role playing games broke down the idea of what a game was and how long of an experience it was. It created a cottage industry of game companies, and players that were willing to try new things. This set the stage for the computer age of games.