For our final assignment in Historical Contextual Studies, we are to research important pieces of game history to a specific theme, working in groups of 2 or 3. My group was given the history of war games, and all this research will culminate in a visual timeline and presentation about this chunk of game history. I'll be looking at board games to videogames, and the impact they had on the industry and culture.
War games in their earliest forms were things of privilege for the rich, to devise strategies and demonstrate wealth and power. They began as commanding an entire army, but when these games were being transferred to the digital age and gained popularity, the notion of these became individualised. Or, more specifically, games were played from the perspective of just one character rather than a whole army, and the idea of the player in the shoes of a soldier taking on entire armies single-handedly was empowering and exciting. This also gave birth to first-person shooters, and before long, your nameless soldier or cheesy action-hero protagonist evolved into a story-driven masterpiece with a wide cast of developed characters and intricate backstories. But that will come later!
So to start things off, here are some noteworthy and major board games through history.
The earliest recorded war games date back to Ancient Egypt in the form of rudimentary toy soldiers, which have become a staple for war games ever since, as well as for toys the world over. These military figures were discovered in Egyptian tombs, and it is curious to think of what triggered humans to use objects to represent themselves and others, and what kind of toy soldiers could have existed before then, but what is known is that this is the earliest documentation from an ancient and advanced society, so they could be the first self-representational figures to be used as a defined game, which the Egyptians had a particular penchant for.
There is another game that is today known as Go, and it originated in China over two and a half thousand years ago. For its simple rules, it's a devilishly graceful game full of such rich strategy. A chess master, Emanuel Lasker, remarked that due to how elegant and organic the game plays, and the logic it's built on, that any intelligent form of life would have a game near-identical to Go. There could be extraterrestrial life playing it right now!
The game is played with two people, and the goal is to take over more territory than the opponent on a 19x19 grid (or 9x9 or 13x13 for beginners), to take over a larger total area than the opponent. Pieces (stones) are captured by all adjacent points (each intersection on the grid), and that is the only way a stone can be moved once it has been placed on the surface. The game only ends when one player decides that they have had enough and wishes to not make another move. There's no real ending conditions set in stone for the game.
It has an interesting rule of etiquette that ought to be applied to all other games, a very honourable and respectful rule of thumb: do not play a move that you are aware your opponent wouldn't know. In other words, don't play cheap moves because your opponent is new to the game or not as intelligent, and you should play on their level. That is a beautiful rule, honestly.
There is also a predecessor to chess originating from India called Chaturanga, dating back to the 6th Century AD. It was adopted in the 7th Century by Sassand Persia, which is the form that became known as chess in Medieval Europe. However, it is unknown what the exact rules of the game are, but it is noteworthy in the fact that chess became its successor. The rules are merely theorised, and make use of pieces speculated to be a king (raja), a minister (mantri), a chariot (ratha), an elephant (gaja), a horse (ashva), and a foot-soldier (padàti or bhata) or the warrior (sainik).
A predecessor to checkers existed in ancient Rome, but scholars are conflicted as to what the game's rules actually are. The game was called Latrunculi.
That's it for now! More to come soon!
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