With the global pandemic still going on and the world is working on getting back to a new level of “normal.” During the past year interest in board games have increased due to cities and countries being in “lockdown” situations since people are looking for more things to do inside. A few weekends ago our family was in Leavenworth, WA (a Bavarian village in the Cascades) for our annual weekend away to volunteer with the Special Olympics Winter Games. Even though the games were virtual this year we still went because we didn’t want to break our tradition of heading up to the mountains.
Believe it or not in town is a FLGS called Krampus Kave that my wife and I would always go and support by picking up at least a few booster packs of Magic: the Gathering or a game or other items that catches our eye. Because our Governor has shut down nearly all small businesses that are deemed “non-essential” at various times throughout the pandemic I was worried that Krampus Kave would be one of those hit had and go out of business. To much joy they were still in business and I had the opportunity to talk to the owners about how business was going. The response I got was one that made me extremely happy.
They stated that business has never been better. Sales did slow down a bit during the closures but when they were able to stay open sales have been great. They also stated that people are wanting games to play while being stuck at home during the pandemic.
What I learned from them, helped solidify what I discuss in the first blog entry about the board game industry picking up steam. Needless to say, we walked out with a copy of Dune: Imperium which currently is hard to find except on the secondary markets (at a much higher price).
What did they play in the ancient world?
My wife and I set a goal of playing at least one game a day everyday for 2021. I am proud to say that we have succeeded thus far. Some games that we have played have been two player only games. One of them I researched the background of it and it has been played “possibly” since 1400 BCE. So that got me wondering, what types of games did people play centuries ago? More specific, what two player games were there. The names, dates, and country of origin that I will share with you come from the Oldest.org article “8 Oldest Board Games in the world.” Seven of the eight games listed from the article are still played today in modern times. The last game in the article is a multi-player game that is no longer played so I will not talk about it.
• Senet, c. 3500 BCE, Ancient Egypt
Not much is known about the actual game play from the ancient time. Modern rules have been created from various texts that talk about the game.
• Checkers (Draughts), c. 3000 BCE, Ancient Mesopotamia (Iraq)
Checkers has been traced back to Ur. It is a game that young and old can play together. Who does not remember learning to play checkers as a child?
• Backgammon, c. 3000 BCE, Ancient Persia (Iran)
My dad taught me how to play backgammon. From my experience it is not as popular with the younger generations of today but it is one I will teach my daughter to play when she is older. One thing I did not know was that “the oldest game with rules almost identical to modern Backgammon was called “tabula” from the Byzantine Empire in Greece dating back to around 480 AD.” (Oldest.org)
• Royal Game of Ur, c. 2600- 2400 BCE, Ancient Mesopotamia (Iraq)
A game board that consists of twenty squares. The rules were reconstructed from a cuneiform tablet and can be played online from the British Museum (Oldest.org ; see article for link to the game)
• Go, c. 2000 BCE, Ancient China
Go, a stone placing game in which you are trying to capture your opponents rocks. A popular game in the physical and digital world.
• Nine Men’s Morris, possibly c. 1400 BCE, Unknown (possibly Ancient Egypt)
This is a game that (I think) I was first introduced to via an old computer game called Conquests of the Longbow: The Legend of Robin Hood (by Sierra On-line). I loved playing it so much that I picked up a nice wooden board with marble pieces copy of the game. This is the game I mention at the start of this section of the blog. At first, my wife did not like it because I kept winning. Once she figured out some smart strategies with the game she was begging me to play more.
• Chess, c. 600 AD, India (possibly China)
Wow, I bet you didn’t know that the game of chess would be the newest game on the list. Original pieces were different, game rules evolved over time and the modern rules came from Europe in the 15th Century (Oldest.org).
Classics never die.
Out of the seven games listed, we own four of them (eventual we may get another on this list). With me being nearly a decade older than my wife and having over half of these games, I guess she has something else to use against me being older (and wiser) than her.
Thinking to more modern “classics”(not just two player); games such as Scrabble, Sorry, Connect Four, and Trivial Pursuit come to mind as games that have been around now for multiple generations that still have a strong presence even today.
I am just wondering what games from today will be around a thousand years from now that people will look back and say “now that is an ancient classic.”
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