Notes for "Gaming Britannia" Episode Two: Monopolies and Mergers

Mansion of Bliss – 18^th/19^th Century game of chance – read homily (+ or -) outcome, put children off vices and attempts to give them moral guidance

Mansion of Happiness – American Rip of Mansion of Bliss, American games became more economic – based with America’s prosperity.

Chequered Game of Life – Gave choice to players – sold during Civil War to soldiers – First travel game

Pank a squith (Unsure on spelling) – suffragettes vs politicians – Early 20^th Century

Brer Fox an’ Brer Rabbit – Early monopoly – Based around land tax and ownership

Elizabeth Magie Phillips – Designer of Brer – also made The Landlords Game – Players enjoyed monopolising and bankrupting other players – Hombrew version based on Atlanta turned into Monopoly – London based board was created

Brer and Landlords Game was originally based on wealth redistribution, the message was flipped with monopoly

The original appeals of Monopoly was the localisation, negotiation and trade. Originally tested at MIT

Monopoly maps in WWII made with maps built in, compasses, to help PoWs escape camps. Pushes people to inner savagery due to the psychological effects of the game

Cluedo – most successful British board game. Luck/Skill and competitiveness

Reverend Green cut from US vesion – man of cloth couldn’t be suspect. Board games picked up after WWII

Scrabble – first of its kind. Then came TV, along with game shows. The next step was Trivial Pursuit

Kensington – form a hexagon = win

80’s – Video Games

Dungeons and Dragons – First RPG – mixed war games with board games

War on Terror – Radical British Boardgame – “Liberate” the world – Putting morals to question

This episode gave a lot more insight into the development of board games in the 20th century, which really brings to light how a lot of todays' board games came to be. Interestingly, I also think that Brer Fox an' Brer Rabbit, and The Landlord's Game are really good insights into human nature, proving that people prefer to look out for themselves, and will push people down if it means they succeed. Very comparable to communism vs capitalism in my opinion, showing how while the redistribution of wealth is a great goal, due to people wanting to outdo others, they push others down, making money for their own game on it.

Notes for “Games Britannia” Episode One: Dicing with Destiny

You cannot play Monopoly without arguments rising.

1996 – Near Colchester – Grave from 43AB – Board game found – The earliest game found in Britain. Game from Pre-Roman invasion, British made.

You get play but not games in the animal kingdom.

Grave believed to have belonged to a druid; the game board possible ritualistic item?

Games – a form of self-exploration?

9 Mens Morris – Naughts and Crosses

The kind of game that can be found almost anywhere – game at their most basic level.

Hazard – Game brought from the East. Players gamble on dice outcome. Bet more each round until you back out.

Dice are one of the best tools for cheating

Faro – More popular among the rich/elite, give their life a sense of risk.

1923 – Murder over first game. Murderer was executed. The crime was quickly turned into West End musicals and plays. Propaganda was spread across England, warning of the risks.

Goose – Family game – Spinning top instead of dice – Designed to teach basic manners – plenty of penalties, some rewards.

Many people created Gooses-like games, working off the base of virtue and good.

Snakes and Ladders - -Inspired by Gyan Chapoor (Quite interested in playing this game I have to say.) – Indian game – Racing for enlightenment. Less fun, more enlightening.

Ludo and Snakes and Ladders, two games based from Indian games, were simplified for the British public.

Chess – Highest evolved board game. Abstract game of immense depth. India 15^th century. Staunton created first Chess international tournament – This set the rules globally for the game.

Spiritual and mastery became less important, more personal.

Overall from the episode, I found myself quite interested in Gyan Chapoor, as a board game based around the search for spiritual enlightenment seems rather unique to me, especially in this day and age. I didn’t realise that it took such a long time for the rules of chess to be internationally set. Overall, it was a good episode of the show, which made me look at classic board games in a different light, seeing where they originally stemmed from.

Agôn, Alea, Mimicry and Ilinx

Agôn (Competiton): I think a good example of modern paida agôn games are “technical fighters”; Tekken, Street Fighter, Virtua Fighter. They are games based purely around, competitiveness, generally attempting to balance all characters, letting the players skill be the shining point in game. I never used to be a big fan of technical fighters, but in recent years, I’ve picked them up a lot more, primarily Tekken. Bar a few variants, this is a game that focuses on realistic fighting stances and combat, giving a strong feel of genuine competition.

Alea (Chance): It took me a while to think of a truly alea game other than casino simulators, but a google search and one article later¹, I realised that Animal Crossing was actually a perfect example. (While it seems the article does contain a lot of information on how it is, I simply read the opening sentence and a half that covered Animal Crossing.) Animal Crossing is almost a life simulator, where you move to a village containing animal inhabitants living in houses, with basic amenities such as a Town Hall/Post Office, Police Station, General and Clothing stores, which were expanded on in later games.

A big part of the game is finding fish, insects, fossils and pieces of art for the local museum. This comes done purely to chance, as you never know what fish is under the silhouette in the water, when the bug you want will show up, or where in your village it will, fossils are dug up randomly, having to get them “checked” before handing them over. The local store restocked randomly every day, so if there was a certain item you wanted, you’d have to check back day after day. Doing jobs for villages leads to a random reward from them.

The very base of Animal Crossing is the chances. You had to hope you’d get what you wanted, with no input on the outcome as a player other than attempting the activity.

Mimicry (Simulation): The instant I think of simulation in games, my mind goes to Flight Simulator, a game I played possibly too much as a child. (Less flying, more crashing.. ) Flight Sim is literally as the name implies, a simulation of flying various airplanes and helicopters, with a realistic layout of all controls in the respective cockpits, allowing for any member of the public attempt to get to grips with the basis of flying an aviation vehicle. There was no real goal to the game, though there are missions where you would have to successfully fly from one airport to another, again simulating flight as it would be in real life. There’s nothing spectacular or out of the ordinary with this game, making it a pure mimicry game.

Ilinx (Vertigo): One of the only and best examples I can think of for Ilinx games are the SSX series. SSX is a snowboarding game, based around traversing down mountains at high speeds, in later games adding a lot more emphasis on performing tricks, creating an even more dizzying effect for players as they character proceeds to flip, spin, grind and (In my case) falls and faceplants. Reaction times are everything in this game, as the difference between landing a jump or failing can be less than a second, all while focusing on travelling to your goal.

¹http://onlyagame.typepad.com/only_a_game/2005/11/the_rituals_of_.html