Games Britannia

The BBC4 show called Games Britannia shows the board game and how it evolved though out the ages of the board game we know and play today.

Early games that had no board and thus the game was carved into stone of church benches and the games played whilst the long waits, which is much different to the modem games of today which are whilst sometimes long not always the same lines as being a more portable thing.

The show talked about a list of games and a main game that court my eye was alea evangelii which was a game where you would escort the king to one of the corners of the board, whist not as portable as the games in church chairs, it was a game was a game that showed a large amount of thinking with a large amount of pieces ,choice and movement though out the game which meant to keep the king alive whilst being overwhelmed, the games almost seem like a form of story telling or even a way of teaching young knights strategist and commands which would be used in wars.

Hazard, A game of devils and dice (as I will subtitle it); is a game that shows no more then gambling in it's strongest sense as you build up the total and the overall winning or losing of the game, the game was imported from east and is guessed to came from Crusaders. The church also condemned the games of dice as it was too trivial and god's powers as they called it was being put towards money, thus being seen as a bad intention act towards god and the church.

So from Hazard, and dice to cards; Namely Faro, which is best described as a danger betting game from London, the rules in which you would bet on a card, and the dealer would then have a card you loss money and a card you win from, left and right, if you place a card which is in the lose pile, you lose your money, however if in the win you build up the money that is earned on the pile and winning was just as dangerous as losing in this game as it would build to dealings, loans and dept that would cause people to lose homes and more, even the case of gambling taking peoples lives.

The show also talked about Royal game of Goose, and how it was to give penalties as a early race game, which was copied by many others to ride the success of the game mechanics and how it was strongly designed.

The games Snakes and ladders was inspired by more complex version called, "Gyan Chapoor"
which was a game about ascending beyond being nothing to becoming enlightened and having classes to the spots of the game and rooms or boxes, but the game was not of a competitive nature and thus the elements in snakes and ladders are the simplest form of this game.

The first part of the show was very interesting and the whole start to a three part show put a good light to watch the rest, if not at least read up more and try to pin point what in modem gaming comes from this or the elements shown in this game.