GAMES

Games, activities or contests governed by sets of rules. People engage in games for recreation and to develop mental or physical skills.

Games come in many varieties. They may have any number of players and can be played competitively or cooperatively. They also may involve a wide range of equipment. Some games, such as chess, test players’ analytic skills. Other games, such as darts and electronic games, require hand-eye coordination. Some games are also considered sports, especially when they involve physical skill.

CATEGORIES OF GAMES

Games may be classified in several ways. These include the number of players required (as in solitaire games), the purpose of playing (as in gambling games), the object of the game (as in race games, to finish first), the people who play them (as in children’s games), or the place they are played (as in lawn games). Many games fall into more than one of these categories, so the most common way of classifying games is by the equipment that is required to play them.

Board games probably make up the largest category of games. They are usually played on a flat surface made of cardboard, wood, or other material. Players place the board on a table or on the floor, then sit around it to play. In most board games, pieces are placed on the board and moved around on it. Dice, cards, and other equipment can be used.

In strategy board games, pieces are placed or moved in order to capture other pieces (as in chess or checkers) or to achieve such goals as gaining territory, linking pieces to one another, or aligning pieces together. Other major groups of board games include race games (such as backgammon), word games (Scrabble), games of deduction (Clue), trivia games (Trivial Pursuit), party games (Pictionary), family games (Life), financial games (Monopoly), sports games (Strat-O-Matic Baseball), action games (Operation), and games of conflict (Risk).

Many games fall into more than one category. The board game Life, for example, has elements of race games, and Trivial Pursuit is often played at parties. Other types of board games include topical games, which can be based on currently popular movies, television programs, or books; and simulation games, which range from historical war games to civilization-building games.

Role-playing games, which can be played without boards or with playing fields drawn by hand on paper, are often considered a distinct game category. In these games, each player assumes the role of a character with particular strengths and weaknesses. Another player known as the gamemaster leads the character-players through adventures. The most famous role-playing game is Dungeons & Dragons (now called Advanced Dungeons & Dragons), which was invented in the 1970s.
Some games, such as billiards and table tennis, are played on larger surfaces than board games, typically tables with legs. These table games also require different kinds of equipment from board games. In billiards, players use a cue stick to knock balls into one another. Table tennis players use paddles to hit a light ball back and forth over a net strung across the table.

Card games require a deck of cards, and sometimes paper and pencil (or occasionally other equipment, such as a cribbage board) for keeping score. Many popular games, including poker, bridge, and rummy, call for a standard deck of 52 playing cards. Some card games, such as canasta, use more than one deck or a larger deck. And other games use a deck from which certain cards have been removed, or decks with cards designed specifically for the game.
The major kinds of card games include trick-taking games, in which players try to take (or avoid taking) specific cards; melding games, in which players try to form winning combinations with their cards; betting games, in which players wager on the outcome; and solitaire games, which are played alone. A new category, collectible card games, became an overnight sensation in 1993 with the publication of Magic: The Gathering. In Magic and similar games, players buy a starter set of cards that they use to compete against other players. They can supplement the starter kit with additional purchases of random assortments of cards.
Tile games can be similar to card games, but they use pieces made of harder materials, such as wood, plastic, or bone. Popular tile games include Mah Jongg and dominoes. Dice games involve throwing a set of dice in an attempt to achieve certain combinations or totals. Paper and pencil games use only paper and pencil. Two such games, tic-tac-toe and dots-and-boxes, are among the first games that many children learn. Target games, in which players aim at a target, are tests of hand-eye coordination. Examples of target games are marbles, horseshoe pitching, and bowling.
Electronic games (video games and computer games) grew in popularity in the late 20th century, as the power of computers increased. In most electronic games, players use a keyboard, joystick, or some other type of game controller. Video games are played on specially designed arcade machines, handheld devices, or systems that are hooked to television screens. Computer games are played on home computers. With electronic games, the computer itself can serve as the opponent, allowing people to play traditional games such as chess or bridge against the computer.