Game Britannia Episodes 2 & 3

 

Games Britannia

 

Episode 2 - Monopolies and Mergers

 

 

From the start of this episode, Benjamin Woolley leads on to explain about how board games have affected and influenced the British society over the past 200 years by teaching a wide audience of people valuable morrals.

 

 

The first game looked at was Monopoly. This game was created with various playing boards globally, depicting different landmarks and areas based on the version of the board while keeping the same game rules and mechanics. There were many releases, the one we all know was based on London landmarks, with American board versions using landmarks from New York etc.

 

What I didn't realise about Monopoly was that it influenced by another game called 'The Landord's Game' also named 'Brer Fox & Brer Rabbit'. This game was very similar, however it taught players the value of fair play while pointing out the differences in classes of people with how land taxes were extremely unfair compared to taxes based on income. So it pulled in and laid bare the social inequalities of that time while keeping the game fun and teaching players the benefits of equality and fairness.

 

Woolley then goes on to explain that during the great depression, board game companies decided to help families through this time by creating games such as Cluedo and Scrabble, these games are popular games that most households have even today due to how families can come together to play.

 

Towards the end of the episode, Woolley shows how the popularity and production of board games has declined due to the rapid advancements in technology. However, board games today are still using the original idea of teaching players about the happenings around the world but with changes or improvements that water the information down, making it into a more family friendly fun game.

 

 

 

Episode 3 - Joystick Generation

 

 

With this final episode of Games Britannia, Woolley shows how classic board games moved on to the first fantasy RPG, and also how board games turned a new leaf into modern day computer games.

 

The first fantasy RPG game that was created which derived from classic board games was 'Dungeons & Dragons' (this RPG is also massivly popular even today). This game was created as a distraction from real life during the great depression to a fantasy game where people would role play a made up character from a fictional world. Players could make whatever choices they wanted in the game (even to extreme measures that would oppose the normal characteristics of the player) and creating narrative which further emerses the players into the fictional fantasy of the game.

 

It was from the idea of Dungeons & Dragons that the first computer games were born. Due to the success from the unique play style, simulation games were created for computers which gave players similar choices to those in D&D, such as Rolercoaster Tycoon, Theme Hospital and The Sims - again creating and taking players from their imperfect worlds to their fantasy perfect worlds.

 

From these examples we can see the link between board games to computer games and for this reason we see why the those particular board games should not be forgotten.

 

Finally, Wooley goes on to show that players create deep emotional connections to the characters within modern day computer games. We see examples from Grand Theft Auto, to see how players can relate to a character such as the main character in the game, and be lead to do things like steal cars and kill innocent people. We only have to look back at the history of games to see why players can make these choices - a complete opposite to choices made in real life. Players can see the consequences of their actions in an unreal environment without the penalties that they would recieve in real life.



Caillois Terminology

 

Caillois's Terminology

 

 

In this lecture we looked at the different terminology that Caillois uses for describing types of games or gameplay, (all information was obtained from the notes provided by the tutor in the lecture).

 

The following are the words and their descriptions:

• Paidea - Refers to 'Play' as pleasure.
• Ludus - More restrictions due to rules with clear outcomes (example 'winning').

(Examples of a Paidea type game would be SimCity or The Sims. There are also games that allow players to switch between these two modes).

 

The following four terms, Caillois adapted from Huizinga:

• Agon - meaning Competition.
• Alea - meaning Chance or Randomness.
• Ilinx - meaning Movement.
• Mimicry - meaning Situational, Make-Believe or Role-Play.

 

My Examples:

 

Now from these words and definitions, I will try to come up with some games as examples for each of the four categories under the two modes.

 

Examples of Paidea Games:

 

Agon - Theme Hospital (and many other simulation type games).

Alea - Tetris (untimed version just playing for high scores).

Ilinx - Skipping (and other sports that could be made into games - hopscotch etc.).

Mimicry - Dungeons and Dragons (live acting version where people act out the story).

 

Examples of Ludus Games:

 

Agon - Monopoly

Alea - Poker

Ilinx - American Football

Mimicry - Final Fantasy (console games)

 

 

Conclusion:

 

From the above, I can say that my examples of Ludus games were much easier to find. However based on the definitions provided for the above terms I believe that there are many games that overlap on both the term types and modes, so it is therefore hard to extract pure examples for any one game type. For example, The Sims and SimCity have restrictions and boundaries within the game's mechanics so therefore you could argue that it is not necessarily a Paidea game but rather a Ludus game. Also games tend to have all four terms (Agon, Alea, Ilinx and Mimicry) rolled into one such as Monopoly.

 

So my conclusion and opinion on the above words used by Caillois is that although it may be useful to summarise descriptions into a single word, they are not however clear cut distinctions. 

Games Britania - Dicing with Destiny

Games Britania - "Dicing with Destiny"

 



 

In this lecture we watched episode 1 of Games Britania presented by Benjamin Woolley. This was for us to understand when and how games stared centuries ago.

 

In this game, Woolley explores some of the oldest games known (in their original forms) and explains how these games may have been played at the time.

 

 

The Stanway Game:

 

The first game to be looked into was the Stanway Game which was excavated in Stanway in 1996 from graves of British people (when Britain was under Roman rule), however once uncovered from the graves these pieces were believed to be from around 43AD. The graves were referred to as 'the Doctor's Grave' and 'the Warrior's Grave'.

 

From this excavation, a board with metal corner pieces and glass playing pieces found on opposing sides of the board were found from the Doctor's grave (already set up as if a game was being played) however the rules are unknown. This is where Woolley decides to consult Irving Finkel (who states it is probably a strategy game predating the Roman invasion) and Mike Pitts (to get an idea of the original owner of the game).

 

 

Alea Evangelii:

 

Alea Evangelii (Game of Angels) was a game mentioned in a manuscript, (including diagrams), alongside Athelstan who was the C10th King of Britain. This was believed to be the game of his court.

 

Woolley plays this game with David Howlett. This game is part of the Tafl group of games where there are twice as many attacking pieces as there are defending. The defending pieces are based in the center of the board surrounding a king with the object of the game in getting the king to escape via one of the corners (or sides) of the board. A piece can capture another of the opposing side by surrounding him (a piece on either side) and if the king is captured then the attacking king wins.

 

The game board is an 18 by 18 grid with 72 playing pieces in total.

 

 

Nine Men's Morris:

 

This game was found scratched into stone within a medievil cathedral. This is a form of naughts and crosses, however if a player manages to get 3 in a row they then get to remove an opponent piece (rather than an instant win).

 

 

Hazard:

 

A gambling game using dice throws (therefore chance), believed to bought back to Europe by crusaders in the C14th. However this game was looked down upon by the church and was banned for a period of time due to this.

 

 

Faro:  

 

A card game which bought about a peak in gambling in the C18th. Due to this game, a murder trial took place in 1823 involving James Thurtell who was the son of the Mayor of Norwich. He was convicted and hung of murdering another man over a gambling debt, this later led to The Gaming Act in 1845.

 

 

The Royal Game of Goose:

 

This game was bought about showing that not all games are evil, this game was about virtue and used a spinner rather than dice. This was a simple board game of 63 squares played in the Victorian times.

 

 

Gyan Chapoor:

 

Woolley decided to play this game. This was the original form of 'Snakes and Ladders' and was of Hindi origin, believed to be the game of knowlege in which players must reach a state of enlightement in both the game and in life. The board to this game is much larger than normal snakes and ladders and has areas that can be reached rather than just one direction.

 

 

Chess:

 

The original pieces in this game were named after Howard Staunton. He later standarised the pieces and rules for all to play (which ended up being world wide) for the first international chess tournament in 1851.