HISTORY OF BOARD GAMES
As the name suggests, a board game is played on a flat surface or board, comprising of a structure or map, guiding the players to play towards a set objective. While the board formed the base, additional tools and aids in the form of variously shaped pieces, dice, timers etc. helped to enhance the quality of the game. There are primarily four types of board games – luck, strategy, knowledge and racing.
Board games that involve luck are typically controlled by dice. The winner is usually the person who rolls the correct lucky number, which leads him to victory.
Strategy involves skill, logic and intellect. The aim of the strategy board games is to prevent opposing pieces to move forward, capitalize on large portions of the board, and ensure that several of your pieces form a fortress to block or eliminate the opponent.
Knowledge games are those that need the person to be knowledgeable about certain topics, for example in quizmasters you need to have a good general knowledge of history, geography, science etc. and in scrabble, you need to have a good vocabulary.
The aim of the racing games is to race along with the others, find the best and quickest path and attempt to finish first.
Historians believe that boards games have been prevalent for more than 4000 years. Board games were very popular in ancient Greece and Rome from where they traveled to different parts of Europe and finally to the United States. In Asia, board games were believed to have started only in 400BC. It is also believed that some of the board games played at that time had a religious connotation.
However, it was only during the 20th century that board games assumed popularity, as the rising middle class, who had more time to devote to leisure indulged in them more than ever before.
With the advent of the Internet and computer gaming, the popularity of board games has deepened further. Software combined with artificial intelligence has given people the chance to play board games on the computer, both solo and against diverse players from across the world, who too have joined online gaming with the same objective.
