We established in the previous article that there is an evolutionary advantage to play, so it is in our biology to play. However, somewhere down the line, early humans began to develop play that went past the informal skill-based play of other animals. They started engaging in far more complex play facilitated through enhanced communication of shared imagination. Over time, we would begin seeing formalized play. If the rules and context were shared from generation to generation, it could evolve into a cultural game. Like a meme, the game would introduce and reinforce the culture and system of behavior from one individual to another through imitation, teaching, or other nongenetic means.
Play is a voluntary activity or occupation executed within certain fixed limits of time and place, according to rules freely accepted but absolutely binding, having its aim in itself and accompanied by a feeling of tension, joy, and the consciousness that it is "different" from "ordinary life."
Johan Huizinga, 1938.
John Huizinga created a term for the environment where play happens called "The Magic Circle." This place is separate from reality and is governed by its own rules, structure, and expectations of action. All participants are aware of these game-specific expectations and agree to participate, which requires acknowledging two worlds simultaneously: the real world and the world within the Magic Circle. The imagined game, which inherently is not real because it resides within the players' imagination, manifests itself into reality by the participants and can become as real as anything else in life. Although everything within the game is "make-believe," the participants' agreement with the rules makes it real.
On a conceptual level, the Magic Circle is no different than any other sacred space where a temporary world is created inside the real world. Examples of temporary worlds we create include church, government, courtroom, and the sports arena. All these places have separate rules and structures that everyone agrees upon. It's not hard to see how the ability to share and communicate imagination would be fundamental to every facet of how civilization organizes itself. If humans can agree to participate in an imagined, fictional game together, they now have the framework to do anything. Every abstract idea humans have manifested, like money, government, laws, religion, countries, and human rights, probably originates from humans’ ability to play games together.
Roger Callilois, a French intellectual and ludologist, closely followed Huizinga’s work, especially the book Homo Ludens, which stated that play was instrumental in the creation of culture and civilization. In his own book titled Man, Play, and Games, he tried to define play within six core characteristics.
· Fun: the activity is chosen for its light-hearted character
· Separate: it is circumscribed in time and place
· uncertain: the outcome of the activity is unforeseeable
· Non-productive: participation does not accomplish anything useful
· Governed by rules: the activity has rules that are different from everyday life
· Fictitious: it is accompanied by the awareness of a different reality
Callilois' work had its fair share of criticism, some of which I agree. However, he does an excellent job highlighting play characteristics, demonstrating the dramatic leap in intellectual capability needed to participate correctly when crystalized into a game. While many of his characteristics are part of the Magic Circle, he correctly points out that uncertainty is a necessary driver for play. The uncertainty of outcome makes games fun and fair, and it mirrors the uncertainty of real life. Ultimately, games serve as a microcosm or metaphor for life lessons tailored to the specific culture of the people playing the game.
One point that I disagree with Callilois is that games are non-productive. The origin of a game could undoubtedly start with work. As humans work, they may become bored with the monotony of it. We know boredom is a catalyst for imagination and play. So, to entertain themselves, humans try to improve their efficiency by adding competition against someone or an objective. Maybe they make the objective harder so only the best at the craft can compete. Either way, work can be “gamified” so that the workers can still find enjoyment in something that may be repetitive or boring.
If we know that work can be gamified, learning can also be. The best way to encourage practice is to make it fun, often through simulation or games. My students love to play the games I have created that integrate classroom concepts and are fully aware of that crossover. The game's fun reduces the barrier of entry for learning or reviewing classroom concepts.
When did play first turn into games? It is hard to say because we must rely on fossil evidence to make educated guesses. The earliest known evidence is stone carvings found in the Middle East that resemble pieces used in a game similar to Mancala that goes as far back as 10,000 years ago. Bone fragments that were carved into dice are at least from 5,000 BC. Dice were important for play and served as a tool for divination or a way to channel supernatural powers like predicting the future. There are a lot of parallels between the sacred world of a shaman and the magic circle that encompasses a game. Like a Venn diagram, it is not hard to imagine that those two worlds often overlapped in the ancient world.
University Professor Cameron Browne, principal investigator for the Digital Ludeme Project, aims to use AI with archaeology to reconstruct ancient games and place games in a hierarchical family tree that could give insight into their origination and evolution. There have been instances where it is clear-cut how one game influences another, like a family tree. However, there have been plenty of instances where two games, which seem to have a lot in common, were spontaneously invented in two different places and don't have a shared history. Hopefully, this technology will help elucidate connections between games from different parts of the world or show that similar game concepts were imagined by more than one group of people. We can see the transmission of games and culture from one generation to another. We may also discover that certain games are inherent to the human condition since versions of the game were invented worldwide, separate from each other.
Games are a part of every culture and may be one of the most essential forms of human interaction. Early Egypt played a game called Senet, a board game that would come to symbolize the movement of human souls in the afterlife to Ra, the Sun God. The Babylonian Royal Game of Ur was a racing board game with astronomical significance in telling one's fortune. During the early Muslim Empire, chess strategy was taken to the next level, which created many of the world’s best players of the era. A pre-chess game likely came from Ancient India to Persia via the Silk Road. "Go” may be the most famous game invented in China, spreading throughout the Korean peninsula and other parts of Asia. Many Chinese games also involve using tiles, the ancestor of modern dominos. Besides dice and board games, Mesoamerican peoples played various forms of the Mesoamerican ball game, which held religious and political significance. Many indigenous tribes of North America played stickball-style games, with one evolving into lacrosse. In medieval Europe, a book called "Libro de Los Juegos," or a book of games, was a vital record, which included chess variations using astrology and divination, and was one of the most popular books of its era.
From a purely biological and reproductive standpoint, one's performance in a game could separate one's social status and increase the likelihood of passing on one's genetics. Play behavior trains hard-to-master skills and is performative to potential mates that the subject is healthy and vigorous. Play can also demonstrate one’s abilities in competition and cooperativeness, which influences status within the group. In one study from 2021, playfulness traits accurately predicted the number of long- and short-term mates for males and the number of short-term mates for women, which makes playfulness a sexually selective trait. Games and sports are genuine signals of good genes because they are informative, accurate, and transparent.
Games embody the world views of their culture and transmit them to the next generations. Mancala, one of the oldest known games from Africa, has versions played worldwide. Mancala comes from the Arabic word for movement. Depending on the way society was organized changed the nomenclature for the early Mancala-style games. “Sowing” was the name given by agricultural societies. It is easy to see how gameplay resembles how seeds are planted in uniform rows. “Count and Capture” was the name from nomadic cultures, which could resemble how livestock must be accounted for every time they are moved. In Malaysia's case, It could be argued that Mancala symbolized the maritime trade of goods exchanged from one port to another. Mancala spread worldwide through trade, warfare, religion, and immigration.
According to child psychologist Piaget, games serve as microcosms of the wider world and reflect the interpersonal relationships governed by established social rules. Piaget was heavily influenced by the work of Maria Montessori. He believed games could be connected to children’s lived experiences and would serve their need for understanding relationships in the world. Children would be encouraged to play Mancala-style games because they contribute to the development of:
· Concentration
· Observation
· Judgment
· Strategy
· Mathematical abilities
· Logic
· Brain-eye-hand coordination
· Spatial thinking (orientation, translation, rotation)
· Abstract thinking
· Problem-Solving
· Threat identification and prevention (Look before you leap)
· Fine motor movement practice
Games often had religious or mythical significance where the players reenacted the stories. The religion would legitimatize the game, and the game would teach the people about the religion. The Ancient Babylonians played a version of human polo meant to recreate parts of the Epic of Gilgamesh. The Mayans played their version of the Mesoamerican Ballgame as a nod to their creation story, Popol Vuh. At the same time, the Aztecs saw the game as a metaphor for the battle between the Sun God Huitzilopochtli and the Night Goddesses Coyolxauhqui and Coatlicue. Both Kho Kho and Kabaddi are connected to the epic Mahabharata from India because their game mechanics resemble tactics used by generals during the Kurukshetra War. When the Choctaw played Stickball, they imbued the ball with a spiritual essence that could only be handled through the sticks representing the Earth. The Greek Olympics were meant to be a sports festival to honor Zeus. Religion, games, and culture could not be more intersected.
Plenty of games started as practice for necessary skills for life. Archery is an excellent example of bow and arrow practice taken to the next step by including parameters for direct competition. Equestrian sports had their genesis in horse-riding skills necessary for work. Many games competed in the Olympics were based on the skills believed to make an effective soldier, such as speed and jumping. Almost every culture has some type of strength sport that they engage in. Sometimes, strength sports involve moving an object, like lifting a heavy stone, or it could be a direct competition of strength like wrestling. Obviously, the skills that the culture valued as necessary would be practiced repeatedly. Eventually, that practice would be “gamified” and turned into a game and sport. In this way, the game reflected the beliefs and ideals of the society that played it.
In the case of the Mesoamerican Ball Game, the games could serve as a proxy for government and sometimes even war. More ballcourts were situated away from the capital because there was less government presence on the outskirts of the territory. The farther away from the capital, the less powerful the rule of law from the government was, so other means of governance arose to settle a conflict, such as territorial or property disputes. In more extreme scenarios, war could be avoided when both parties agreed that the game's outcome could replace the war's outcome. Bloodshed would be avoided, and lives saved through the power of communication and shared imagination. In short, playing games saved lives.
Games actively promote leadership qualities by giving opportunities to practice strategic thinking in a low-risk scenario. It was common for nobility to practice a game culture within specific areas and courts of the palace. Since nobility had more leisure time, they could use it to play games that, in turn, could help them be more effective leaders. Sometimes, the game has inherent spiritual or ethical lessons to foster fair and just leadership.
The following blog will look at how games evolve into sports. Once we move into sport, we also come across the word sportsmanship, which details how games and sports should be played. “If sport is life, sportsmanship is the guide to living a good life.”
Bibliography
Game & Gamification. Gamification and games-based approach to cultural heritage. (2021, January 8). https://cinegamification.com/introduction/game-gamification/
Moraes, Y. L., Valentova, J. V., & Varella, M. A. C. (2022, May 9). The evolution of playfulness, play, and play-like phenomena in relation to sexual selection. Frontiers. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.925842/full
Rayne, E. (2023, November 8). Gaming 3,000 years ago wasn’t too different from your PS4, new research proves. SYFY Official Site. https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/gaming-3000-years-ago
Roger Caillois. (2023, November 8). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Caillois
The Magic Circle. Gamification and games-based approach to cultural heritage. (2021b, January 8). https://cinegamification.com/introduction/the-magic-circle/
Wikimedia Foundation. (2023, December 6). Game. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game
Wikimedia Foundation. (2023, November 24). History of games. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_games
Wikimedia Foundation. (2023, December 12). Homo ludens. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_Ludens
ZHANG, Jian, LIU, Yingdan, YIN, Zijun, ABBAS, Safdar and QIN , Shengdong. The Role of Mancala Games in Human Evolution, Cultural Development, and Education: An Anthropological Inquiry. Quality in Sport. Online. May 27, 2023. Vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 23-36. [Accessed November 16, 2023].