Analog Entertainments: Books and Board Games
Humans have been playing games for a long time. A really long time. The world’s oldest game is Senet, and its boards buried in the tombs of predynastic Egyptian kings, some of the game boards date back to 3500 BCE. A Persian backgammon board dates to 3000 BCE. Archeologists discovered a Draughts (or checkers) board from the same era in Ur. The Romans played Nine Men’s Morris since 1400 BCE and turned the roofs of many buildings into life-sized boards; GO has been around since 2000 BCE; The Royal Game of Ur from 2600 BCE; and Mehen, another Egyptian game from 2700 BCE. In the sixth century chess made its appearance. Another game, called Timeline, reliably informs me in 6000 BCE we see the first dice and the playing card around 900 CE.
The fact we play games in our myths and legends is a testament to how important they are to human civilization. We are storytellers by nature and our stories deal with what is important to us: life, death, creation, community, and, apparently, games. The Mahabharat, a Sanskrit epic poem, contains one of the earliest written stories involving a game. Written around 540 BCE, the tale mentions a game of Parcheesi in which Yudhishthira loses his kingdom to Shakuni, an evil mage. Royalty features heavily in any legend with a game. Emperor Akbar had life sized grounds built into his palace gardens and used his harem girls as pawns for his games of parcheesi. Well, this happened, you can visit the remains of the game board. If you find yourself in the Belvedere museum in Vienna, there is a painting on the upper floor about a legendary chess game in which a smart young girl bests a banker to win her lover’s fortune back.
Never been a better time to be a gamer …
Games are important to who we are and how we interact with each other. And, have always been so. There has never been a better time to be a gamer than now. Board games are experiencing a world-wide golden age, there are more designers, producers, and publishers than ever before. German-style board games are at the heart of an industry which promotes human connection, learning, and imagination.
Part of the success of board games derives from our deep need for connection. Our world increasingly screen driven. There is a computer at work, a screen in your pocket, a tablet for your books, and a computer for games and social media, and televisions. Sherry Turckle, the author of Ever Alone and Reclaiming Conversation, has been driving conversations surrounding our dependence on screens for socialization and entertainment and what the lack of intimate human connection is doing to us. Board games provide an interesting solution in a world governed by screens to the problem of our decreasing dependence on one another. David Sax, a Canadian Journalist and author of The Revenge of Analog, states board games provide us with an excuse to gather together and they fill a unique social need.
According to Sax games provide us with a space for socialization where the rules are clearly defined and we can all get out of our shells a little to create the shared illusion of the game in the center of the table. Which is why introverted individuals find themselves asking fellow gamers if “they have wood for sheep”, loudly, while navigating the economies of Catan. Games help us to interact more genuinely, according to Bernie De Koven, a games theorist and designer.
The gaming boom started in the mid-nineties when Settlers of Catan hit shops across the world. Originally developed in Germany, Catan is now one of the best-selling board games in the modern era of gaming - I cannot say of all time because of all the history above. Since then, the market has exploded. We have moved on from the exclusive hold Sorry, Mouse Trap, and Hungry Hungry Hippos had over toy shop shelves and our childhood interactions. Well, at least we played those games at my house.
I genuinely love games and playing them makes me curious about our relationship to them and how they influence our relationships with each other, given I shamelessly use board games to lure people into being my friends.
I found three non-fiction books to be extremely informative about board games and our love affair with them. These books do no specifically examine psychology but they speak to our history with games. If you want to read more about the board game industry, you can check out this piece I wrote for Metropole Magazine, the piece I wrote for TedxVienna, and read some of the books below.
The Books …
Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons and Dragons and the People Who Play It by David M. Evalt
Have you ever wanted to know the history of the game played in the show Stranger Things? The answer should be yes because it is insane. Ewalt takes readers through the evolution from war re-enactment games to Gygax’s fantasy driven universe. Then there was the salacious and scandal driven eighties where Dungeons and Dragonsplayers were part of a satanic cult, according to the news media. Interspersed with the history of the pen and paper role playing game are narratives of Ewalt’s personal experiences with the game and the current game he is playing with a long-standing group of friends. Get out your twenty-sided dice and figure out your intelligence modifier because this book will inspire you to play the game.
Birth of the Chess Queen: A History by Marilyn Yalom
People with a passing familiarity with modern chess know the queen is the most powerful piece on the board. For a novice player, the loss of the queen can cripple strategy and severely reduce the chance of victory. However, the game existed for a half a millennium without the queen. Yalom explores the birth, history, and political context of the most powerful piece on the board. Firmly placing the evolution of the piece within the political context of Europe, Yalom tracks the history as the queen evolves from the least powerful to the strategy enabling force she is today. Yalom does this with the same attention to detail she employed with other topics in women’s history. This book not only details the history of one of the world’s oldest board games but is also a fundamental piece of feminist history.
The Revenge of Analog by David Sax
You will see this book reappear throughout everything I write on board games, even though there is only one chapter on games in the book. The book is a love letter to all things analog, from records and notebooks to Polaroids and board games. Sax explores our need for real things and intimate experiences. He travels around the world interviewing the people responsible for keeping our love of physical things alive and in, some cases, manages to talk to the individuals who have kindled a world-wide love affair with new things, like the creators of Lomography. The chapter on board games is in depth and deals with both need for things and intimacy. If you want to read more about the book, check out my review for Metropole Magazine.
Bonus Books …
I love fiction and so, even though this is a piece about non-fiction books I cannot help but recommend some fiction.
The Flanders Panel by Arturo Peréz-Reverte
I bought this book at the same time as The Birth of the Chess Queen. They are perfectly paired. This book is also from the height of the mystery hunting genre having hit the market at the same time as The Rule of Four and The DaVinci Code. However, rather than a treasure Julia uncovers a murder and a centuries old conspiracy. She and her partner, a brilliant game theorist, must work together to unravel the mystery and bring the conspiracy to light before they are lost to it. The fast-paced novel was my first introduction to Peréz-Reverte and I was an instant fan.
Smax by Alan Moore (writer), Zander Cannon, Andrew Currie (artists)
This is part of a series of comic books, or more accurately, it is a spin off.Top 10by Alan Moore is a high crime drama set in the cross section of the worlds of science fiction and fantasy.An inter-dimensional police force is investigating a murder, Officer Smax and Officer Toy Box are partners looking for the murderer of a colleague.In this spin off, they travel to Smax’s home world, aDungeons and Dragons inspired fantasy world where science does not exist.In this world they encounter a cast of colourful characters, outside of the blue giant Smax, which includes Lionel, the death responsible for playing games of chess with the common man. This is a fun romp through a fantastical world written by Alan Moore.