Daily question: Is it just a game?
Thu, Nov 20, 08
Here’s Monopoly, one of the most well-known and popular board-games of the last few decades:
And here are a few more distant board-games as listed at Bibliodyssey:
Il novo et piacevol gioco del giardin d’amore (The new and enjoyable game of the garden of love) — Published by Giovanni Antonio de Paoli in the 1590s, the board features two rows of game squares, the outer one displaying the virtues and the one closer to the central garden with game numbers on pairs of dice.
The Swan of Elegance (A New Game Designed for the Instruction and Amuseument of Youth) — John Harris published this linen-backed, hand-coloured etching in 1814. Each of the game board’s compartment shows a child engaged in a moral or an immoral deed. A twelve page rulebook had four lines of verse explaining each scene. The medaliions in each corner represent Apollo, Minerva, Wisdom and Genius.
German print – game-board — Untitled anti-British World War II propaganda shipping race board game published by F Westenberger in about 1940.
Got any examples showing we haven’t hopelessly lost the art of board-game design?
