Games Britannia: "Joystick Generation"

Joystick Generation is one of the three-part series presented by ‘historian Benjamin Woolley’ about popular games in Britain which ware from the Iron Age to the Information Age, in which he unravels how an apparently trivial pursuit is a rich and entertaining source of cultural and social history.

In this episode of the three part series, Woolley explores the journey games have taken from board games to video game, reflecting the rapidly changing history of modern Britain.

In the 1980s, the power of our imagination was harnessed in early video games, putting the players at the heart of a space adventure they could influence. The British boom years of the 90s introduced characters like ‘Lara Croft’ to a world beyond video games as players started to move into the internet age.

Woolley's investigation leads to the present day, where he finds our morality tested in the world of ‘Grand Theft Auto’ and our identity becoming transported to the digital domain with virtual games such as ‘Runescape’ and ‘World of Warcraft’.

I watched the episode here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00phmrs

Games Britannia: "Monopolies & Mergers"

Monopolies and Mergers is one of the Three-part series presented by ‘historian Benjamin Woolley’ about popular games in Britain which ware from the Iron Age to the Information Age, in which he unravels how an apparently trivial pursuit is a rich and entertaining source of cultural and social history.

In this episode out of the three, Woolley traces the impact that board games have had on Britain over the last 200 years. It was the British who developed the idea of the board game as an instrument of moral instruction and slowly made its way to America.

This crusading element in board games is perhaps best exemplified by the best-selling game in history, Monopoly which celebrated wealth and avarice in the wake of the Great Depression.

Now in the information age, board games have evolved to include fantasy role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons. The British continue to produce niche political games like War on Terror which plays on satire, but mainstream British games designers have moved on to video games.

I watched the episode here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pf0rr

Ancient games: Senet

Senet was a game which was played by the ancient Egyptians. people are not sure how the game is meant to be played exactly but they can be deduced by experts who studied this board and worked out how the game could have been played back in the Egyptian times.

A Senet board consisted of three rows which all had ten squares set in a rectangle. In one corner the square which assumed is the last square has a single stroke. The square which is next to the final one in the row has two strokes, the one next to that has three strokes. Senet is assumed to be a two player game with both players starting with five pieces. how many squares which the players move are determined by the dice which are thrown, the dice which are used in Senet are different compered to most board games which use dice.

A square can only be occupied by one piece at a time. If a player can't move a pieces in their go the turn is passed down to the other player. If a players piece lands on a opposing players piece, the opposing piece has to be moved back to the square that the attacking piece came from. The House of Happiness which is a square on the board cannot be passed over. Every piece must land on it before continuing to the next squares. The House of water which is an other square on the board is to be avoided, when a players piece lands on this square, the piece has to be returned to the House of Rebirth. Pieces can only move on the final three squares by throwing the number which are on the square.The first player to get all their pieces off the board wins the game.

J. A Storer. (). Senet. [Available online]: http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/~storer/JimPuzzles/ZPAGES/zzzSenet.html. 

[Accessed 6th March 2015]

Senet. (). The Rules of Senet. [Available online]:

 http://www.mastersgames.com/rules/senet-rules.htm.

[Accessed 6th March 2015]

Ancient games: Royle game or Ur

The Royal game of Ur is played on an unusually shaped board. It is a very different shape compared to other board designs, the board has a four by three squares which is joined by two squares which acts like a bridge which connects to a two by three squares. 

No one knows the right way how the game is meant to be played but there have been three suggestions by games historians as to which path the counters should take around the board. All three say that players enter the board by using the outer row on the fourth square from the left going left. One player enters on the top row and the other player enters on the lower row. When a players counter reaches one of the corners, it moves to the middle row and travels along to reach the other side of the board.

British Museum. (). Royal Game of Ur. [Available online]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Game_of_Ur. 

[Accessed 6th March 2015]

British Museum. (). The Rules of the Royal Game of Ur. [Available online]: http://www.mastersgames.com/rules/royal-ur-rules.htm.

[Accessed 6th March 2015]

British museum trip

A field trip to the British museum was arranged by one of my lectures to help with our study on critical game design. we was shown around and saw some really interesting ancient artifacts.
we saw some of the ancient board games we have been looking and playing in our lectures and seeing the actually board of them which was made years and years ago really was interesting to me.

I didn't take any pictures my self but here are some of the things which we saw when visiting the museum.

British Museum. (). Royal Game of Ur. [Available online]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Game_of_Ur. 
[Accessed 6th March 2015]

British Museum. (). ancient chess. [Available online]: http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g186338-d187555-i89949351-British_Museum-London_England.html.
[Accessed 6th March 2015]

Tweaking Ancient Games

The ancient game I will be tweaking is called: Hnefetafl 

First iteration: I made it where the attacking team are allowed to move two of their pieces in a single turn. To balance this out I also made sure that the attacking team couldn't capture the defending team’s pieces apart from the king. When these new rules were tested I found that the game lasted longer than the usual five to ten minutes. If after playing the game for a few minutes the defending team fails to get a piece behind the attacking team to allow a capture to happen, the game slowly comes to a halt, and both sides are unable to move around the board.

Second iteration: I change the rules slightly. I decided that the king could get captured the same way as other pieces could, one on each side and not one on all four sides. The second rule that I added was that the king could assist other pieces on capturing the attacking team pieces. By doing this the attacking team would have to be quicker when it came to capturing the king as it will become easier for the king to escape from difficult situations. When it came to play-testing these new rules the games became quicker. They lasted around four to six minutes each. Both the attacking and defending sides had an even chance of winning with these rules where the attacking team was winning more than usual compared to the original rules.   

Third iteration: I decided to add a facture where the attacking team had to capture the opponent’s king within 15 turns. If this attempt was failed it would result in victory for the defending team. To make this achievable, the defending team was not allowed to capture the opponent’s pieces or move one of their own pieces back to where it originally was. To make capturing easier, the attacking team can capture the king in the same way that other pieces could be captured on the board. When these rules were play-tested I found that the games lasted around five to eight minutes, even longer when the player takes time to think about his next move. Out of five games the attacking team only claimed victory one time, where the defending player started to move one spare at a time not making a gap for the attacking team.

Fourth and final iteration I decided to change how the defending team was able to win the game. The original rules say that the king must reach one of the four sides of the board to achieve victory but I decided to change it to being one of the four corners of the board. I felt as though this would be bit more of a challenge for the defending team. To balance this rule out, the attacking team was not able to place one of their pieces on one of the four corners, as this would stop the opponent’s team completely from reaching one of the corners. When play-testing with these rules I found that the games lasted a lot longer than usual and were lasting around seven to ten minutes. This is because the defending team had difficulty in reaching one of the corners with their pieces. Three games were played with these rules and all three games ended with the same result. These rules favoured the attacking team more as I was finding that the attacking team was blocking the defending team and therefore stopping their king from reaching one of the corners.

Ancient games: Hnefetafl

Hnefetafl is a board game which has two sides. The attackers team is arranged in groups of 6 at each side of the board, making a total of 24 pieces and the defenders team is arranged around the king which is placed in the center of the board. The aim of the attackers team is to capture the king.
The aim of the defenders team is to get their king to one of the four corner of the board. The Game starts with the attacking team making the first move.

Each pieces on the board all move the same way. A piece can move; forwards, backwards, left and right but can not move diagonally. every piece can move one or more squares, until it is stopped by the another piece, The central square is the starting square for the king, no other piece can move on this square but they can move over it.

To take one of the other players pieces you have to capture them, by doing this you have to place one of your own pieces either side of the other players piece. any side in the game can take more then one piece in a turn if your own pieces are positioned in the right places to do so, no more then three pieces can be taken in a turn. once the king has moved away from the center square then that square can be used for either side to act like a piece of their own and capture the other teams pieces. if at anytime the king is captured by the attacking team then it is game over and the attacking team wins the game.

Hnefatafl. (). Hnefatafl. [Available online]: 
http://www.fetlar.org/assets/files/hnefatafl-rules-02-09-2012.pdf.

[Accessed 6th March 2015]

Hnefatafl board. (). Hnefatafl board. [Available online]: http://www.jamesadamshistoricenterprises.com/treasuretrove/images/hnefatafl_boards3.gif. 

[Accessed 26^th February 2015]