Portal:Games

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

The Games Portal

A game is a structured type of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or games) or art (such as jigsaw puzzles or games involving an artistic layout such as mahjong, solitaire, or some video games).

Games have a wide range of occasions, reflecting both the generality of its concept and the variety of its play. Games are sometimes played purely for enjoyment, sometimes for achievement or reward as well. They can be played alone, in teams, or online; by amateurs or by professionals. The players may have an audience of non-players, such as when people are entertained by watching a chess championship. On the other hand, players in a game may constitute their own audience as they take their turn to play. Often, part of the entertainment for children playing a game is deciding who is part of their audience and who participates as a player. A toy and a game are not the same. Toys generally allow for unrestricted play, whereas games present rules for the player to follow.

Key components of games are goals, rules, challenge, and interaction. Games generally involve mental or physical stimulation, and often both. Many games help develop practical skills, serve as a form of exercise, or otherwise perform an educational, simulational, or psychological role. (Full article...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Selected article - show another

Cover of The Mansion of Happiness
published by Parker Brothers in 1894

The Mansion of Happiness: An Instructive Moral and Entertaining Amusement is a children's board game inspired by Christian morality. Players race about a 67-space spiral track depicting virtues and vices with their goal being the Mansion of Happiness at track's end. Instructions upon virtue spaces advance players toward the goal while those upon vice spaces force them to retreat.

The Mansion of Happiness was designed by George Fox, a children's author and game designer in England. The first edition, printed in gold ink "containing real gold" using one copperplate engraving and black ink using a second copper plate engraving, produced a few hundred copies. Water coloring was used to complete the game board, making a brilliant, colorful, and expensive product fit for the nobility. Later in 1800, a second edition was printed, probably for rich but common folk. Only one copper plate was used to print black ink and no water coloring was used. The game must have become quite popular in England as a third edition was printed using two copper plates, one for black, and the second for green lines to indicate blank spaces. Water colors were added to make a beautiful product. Laurie and Whittle published all three editions in 1800. On all three editions George Fox was listed as the inventor and the game honored the Duchess of York. In the first edition, gold not only added color and price but homage to royalty. In all three editions, the paper was glued to linen so it could fold up and be inserted into a heavy attractively labeled cardboard case. The game influenced later games, such as The Checkered Game of Life. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

Did you know? - show different entries

...that Barbarossa is an award-winning German-style board game by Klaus Teuber from 1988 in which the players have to sculpt plasticine to earn points?
...that in the video game The Splatters (pictured) players detonate bombs by flinging anthropomorphized globs of goo at them?
...that Israeli chess Grandmaster Ronen Har-Zvi first met his wife playing online chess at the Internet Chess Club?
...that Skyfox was one of the first games to popularize the cockpit view for flight action games?
...that professional poker player Ilari Sahamies lost over US$3 million playing online poker while drunk, including more than $700,000 in a single day?

General images

The following are images from various game-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Backgammon is a game of skill. Strategy can give players advantages, but there is also an element of chance. (from Game of skill)
Image 2The modern German board game Catan is printed in 30 languages and sold 15 million by 2009. (from Board game)
Image 3The Mansion of Happiness (1843) (from Board game)
Image 4An adventurer finds a teleportation portal while exploring a dungeon in the role-playing video game Falcon's Eye. (from Role-playing game)
Image 5The number of board games published by year (1944–2017), as listed on BoardGameGeek. Expansion sets for existing games are marked in orange. (from Board game)
Image 6Royal game of Ur, southern Iraq, about 2600–2400 BCE (from Board game)
Image 7A fantasy LARP group (from Role-playing game)
Image 8A ball-in-a-maze puzzle requires fine motor skills. (from Game of skill)
Image 9Hounds and jackals (Egypt, 13th Dynasty) (from Board game)
Image 10Association football is a popular sport worldwide.
Image 11Han dynasty glazed pottery tomb figurines playing liubo, with six sticks laid out to the side of the game board (from Board game)
Image 12Historically, card games such as whist and contract bridge were opportunities for quiet socializing, as shown in this 1930s magic lantern slide photo taken in Seattle, Washington. (from Card game)
Image 13Chinese mother-of-pearl gambling tokens used in scoring and bidding of card games (from Card game)
Image 14Young girls playing a board game in the Iisalmi library in Finland, 2016 (from Board game)
Image 15Typical MUD interface for God Wars II (from Role-playing game)
Image 16Mamluk playing card (king of cups), c. 15th century (from Card game)
Image 17The board game Monopoly is licensed in 103 countries and printed in 37 languages. (from Board game)
Image 18Parcheesi is an American adaptation of a Pachisi, originating in India. (from Game)
Image 19A group playing a tabletop RPG. The GM is at left using a cardboard screen to hide dice rolls from the players. (from Role-playing game)
Image 20Tug of war is an easily organized, impromptu game that requires little equipment. (from Game)
Image 21Two Qataris playing the traditional board game of damah (from Board game)
Image 22A selection of pieces from different games. From top: Chess pawns, marbles, Monopoly tokens, dominoes, Monopoly hotels, jacks and checkers pieces. (from Game)
Image 23 Men Playing Board Games, from The Sougandhika Parinaya Manuscript (from Board game)
Image 24Students using dice to improve numeracy skills. They roll three dice, then use basic math operations to combine those into a new number which they cover on the board. The goal is to cover four squares in the row. (from Game)
Image 25Playing Cards, by Theodoor Rombouts, 17th century (from Game)
Image 26Patolli game being watched by Macuilxochitl as depicted on page 048 of the Codex Magliabechiano (from Board game)
Image 27The Card Players, 17th-century painting by Theodoor Rombouts (from Card game)
Image 28Ancient Egyptian senet game board inscribed for Amenhotep III with separate sliding drawer, from 1390 to 1353 BC, made of glazed faience, dimensions: 5.5 × 7.7 × 21 cm, in the Brooklyn Museum (New York City). (from Game)
Image 29Preferans, a trick-taking card game version popular in Croatia (from Card game)
Image 30Senet, one of the oldest known board games (from Board game)
Image 31This timeline was made with information from the Wikipedia articles on Board Game, Hasbro, Board Game Cafe, Tabletop Simulator, and Monopoly. All information on this timeline was from those Wikipedia pages as they were on November 24th, 2024 (from Board game)
Image 32The Card Players by Lucas van Leyden (1520) depicting a multiplayer card game (from Game)