Portal:Games

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A game is a structured type of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or games) or art (such as jigsaw puzzles, or games involving an artistic layout such as mahjong, solitaire, or some video games).

Games have a wide range of occasions, reflecting both the generality of its concept and the variety of its play. Games are sometimes played purely for enjoyment, sometimes for achievement or reward as well. They can be played alone, in teams, or online; by amateurs or by professionals. The players may have an audience of non-players, such as when people are entertained by watching a chess championship. On the other hand, players in a game may constitute their own audience as they take their turn to play. Often, part of the entertainment for children playing a game is deciding who is part of their audience and who participates as a player. A toy and a game are not the same. Toys generally allow for unrestricted play, whereas games present rules for the player to follow.

Key components of games are goals, rules, challenge, and interaction. Games generally involve mental or physical stimulation, and often both. Many games help develop practical skills, serve as a form of exercise, or otherwise perform an educational, simulational, or psychological role. (Full article...)

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Liubo (Chinese: 六博; Old Chinese *kruk pˤak “six sticks”) was an ancient Chinese board game for two players. The rules have largely been lost, but it is believed that each player had six game pieces that were moved around the points of a square game board that had a distinctive, symmetrical pattern. Moves were determined by the throw of six sticks, which performed the same function as dice in other race games.

The game was invented no later than the middle of the 1st millennium BCE, and was popular during the Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE). However, after the Han dynasty it rapidly declined in popularity, possibly due to the rise in popularity of the game of weiqi (go), and it became totally forgotten. (Full article...)

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...that Tom Hanks was in a 1982 TV movie called Mazes and Monsters about a group of college students and their interest in the eponymous role-playing game?
...that the golden age of arcade video games began with the release of Space Invaders in 1978?
...that the most famous boardwalk in the United States is probably the one in Atlantic City, New Jersey, thanks to its association with the Monopoly board game?
...that Pepsi offered a Harrier fighter jet in their Pepsi Billion Dollar Sweepstakes game and the Pepsi Stuff game?
...that 1956 was the first time when a computer was able to play a chess-like game, Los Alamos chess (pictured)?

General images

The following are images from various game-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1The Card Players by Lucas van Leyden (1520) depicting a multiplayer card game (from Game)
Image 2 Men Playing Board Games, from The Sougandhika Parinaya Manuscript (from Board game)
Image 3Parcheesi is an American adaptation of a Pachisi, originating in India. (from Game)
Image 4The modern German board game Catan is printed in 30 languages and sold 15 million by 2009. (from Board game)
Image 5Ancient Egyptian senet game board inscribed for Amenhotep III with separate sliding drawer, from 1390 to 1353 BC, made of glazed faience, dimensions: 5.5 × 7.7 × 21 cm, in the Brooklyn Museum (New York City). (from Game)
Image 6Mamluk playing card (king of cups), c. 15th century (from Card game)
Image 7The board game Monopoly is licensed in 103 countries and printed in 37 languages. (from Board game)
Image 8The number of board games published by year (1944–2017), as listed on BoardGameGeek. Expansion sets for existing games are marked in orange. (from Board game)
Image 9A selection of pieces from different games. From top: Chess pawns, marbles, Monopoly tokens, dominoes, Monopoly hotels, jacks and checkers pieces. (from Game)
Image 10The Card Players, 17th-century painting by Theodoor Rombouts (from Card game)
Image 11A ball-in-a-maze puzzle requires fine motor skills. (from Game of skill)
Image 12Backgammon is a game of skill. Strategy can give players advantages, but there is also an element of chance. (from Game of skill)
Image 13A group playing a tabletop RPG. The GM is at left using a cardboard screen to hide dice rolls from the players. (from Role-playing game)
Image 14Historically, card games such as whist and contract bridge were opportunities for quiet socializing, as shown in this 1930s magic lantern slide photo taken in Seattle, Washington. (from Card game)
Image 15Two Qataris playing the traditional board game of damah (from Board game)
Image 16Young girls playing a board game in the Iisalmi library in Finland, 2016 (from Board game)
Image 17Tug of war is an easily organized, impromptu game that requires little equipment. (from Game)
Image 18Typical MUD interface for God Wars II (from Role-playing game)
Image 19Chinese mother-of-pearl gambling tokens used in scoring and bidding of card games (from Card game)
Image 20An adventurer finds a teleportation portal while exploring a dungeon in the role-playing video game Falcon's Eye. (from Role-playing game)
Image 21Students in Laos using dice to improve numeracy skills. They roll three dice, then use basic math operations to combine those into a new number which they cover on the board. The goal is to cover four squares in the row. (from Game)
Image 22Painting in tomb of Egyptian queen Nefertari (1295–1255 BC) playing senet (from Board game)
Image 23Playing Cards, by Theodoor Rombouts, 17th century (from Game)
Image 24A fantasy LARP group (from Role-playing game)
Image 25Mehen game with game stones, from Abydos, Egypt, 3000 BC, Neues Museum (from Board game)
Image 26Preferans, a trick-taking card game version popular in Croatia (from Card game)
Image 27Association football is a popular sport worldwide.
Image 28This timeline was made with information from the Wikipedia articles on Board Game, Hasbro, Board Game Cafe, Tabletop Simulator, and Monopoly. All information on this timeline was from those Wikipedia pages as they were on November 24th, 2024 (from Board game)