Portal:Games

The Games Portal

A game is an activity defined by a challenge and a set of rules, typically done for enjoyment, competition, or development. Games may be played informally or in professional competitive settings before audiences. Popular formats include board games, card games, video games, and sports, distinguished from unstructured play by having rules. Scholars have long debated the essence of games, with no single definition achieving universal acceptance.

Games are a universal feature of human culture. The Royal Game of Ur and Senet are among the oldest known games, dating back to at least 2600 BCE. Throughout history, games have served as tools for entertainment, teaching, ritual, and socialization. In the modern era, the global video game industry has grown to surpass both film and music in annual revenue, reflecting how central games have become to contemporary life.

Philosophically, games have attracted attention as a test case for the nature of rules and meaning. Psychologists link play to cognitive development in children and to the intense, satisfying concentration called flow in adults. Game theory uses the structure of games to model decision making in fields such as economics and evolutionary biology. (Full article...)

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OGRE is a science fiction board wargame designed by the American game designer Steve Jackson and published by Metagaming Concepts in 1977 as the first microgame in its MicroGame line. When Jackson left Metagaming to form his own company, he took the rights to OGRE with him, and all subsequent editions have been produced by Steve Jackson Games (SJG). (Full article...)

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...that the internet casino GoldenPalace.com won a bid to name a type of New World monkey: the GoldenPalace.com Monkey?
...that the F-Zero series of video games is renowned for its sheer visceral impression of speed?
...that Eduardo Iturrizaga became Venezuela's first and only chess grandmaster, at the age of 19?
...that the Pacific Pinball Museum (pictured) has 800 pinball machines in storage in a secret location?
...that in the computer game Crush, Crumble and Chomp! the player controls a disaster movie monster and destroys cities?

General images

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

Image 1Mamluk playing card (king of cups), c. 15th century (from Card game)
Image 2 Men Playing Board Games, from The Sougandhika Parinaya Manuscript (from Board game)
Image 3An adventurer finds a teleportation portal while exploring a dungeon in the role-playing video game Falcon's Eye. (from Role-playing game)
Image 4A person performing a standard riffle shuffle (from Card game)
Image 5A backgammon board from Lebanon. (from Game)
Image 6Chinese mother-of-pearl gambling tokens used in scoring and bidding of card games (from Card game)
Image 7Timeline of board game history, based on the Wikipedia articles Board Game, Hasbro, Board Game Cafe, Tabletop Simulator, and Monopoly as of 24 November 2024 (from Board game)
Image 8Visitors at a desktop flight simulator (from Game)
Image 9Parcheesi is an American adaptation of a Pachisi, originating in India. (from Game)
Image 10Historically, 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 11Preferans, a trick-taking card game version popular in Croatia (from Card game)
Image 12Painting in tomb of Egyptian queen Nefertari (1295 – 1255 BC) playing senet (from Board game)
Image 13Happy Families cards (from Card game)
Image 14A Friend in Need, from the Dogs Playing Poker series by C. M. Coolidge (from Card game)
Image 15A selection of pieces from different games. From top: Chess pawns, marbles, Monopoly tokens, dominoes, Monopoly hotels, jacks and checkers pieces. (from Game)
Image 16MUD interface for Furcadia (from Role-playing game)
Image 17The modern German board game Catan is printed in 30 languages and sold 15 million by 2009. (from Board game)
Image 18Young girls playing Alias in a library at Iisalmi, Finland, 2016 (from Board game)
Image 19Royal Game of Ur (from Game)
Image 20The board game Monopoly is licensed in 103 countries and printed in 37 languages. (from Board game)
Image 21A fantasy LARP group (from Role-playing game)
Image 22Students in Laos 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 23Association football is a popular sport worldwide.
Image 24In gin rummy, players assemble groups of the same rank, or runs within a suit (from Card game)
Image 25Sabacc at Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. (from Card game)
Image 26The Card Players, 17th-century painting by Theodoor Rombouts (from Card game)
Image 27Two Qataris playing the traditional board game of damah (from Board game)
Image 28People playing Magic: The Gathering (from Card game)
Image 29A person holding Austrian-style tarot cards (from Card game)
Image 30Hanafuda cards developed their unique design due to laws passed banning playing cards (from Card game)
Image 31Backgammon is a game of skill. Strategy can give players advantages, but there is also an element of chance. (from Game of skill)
Image 32The 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 33Tug of war is an easily organized, impromptu game that requires little equipment. (from Game)
Image 34François Rabelais’s giant Gargantua is depicted as a great player of card games (from Card game)
Image 35People playing durak, a beating and shedding game (from Card game)
Image 36A man dealing cards to the other players before a game (from Card game)
Image 37Uno is a popular commercial shedding game (from Card game)
Image 38Trionfi sheet (from Card game)
Image 39Charles Nelson Reilly holds a hand of cards (from Card game)
Image 40The stage for the 2017 League of Legends World Championship Finals in Beijing (from Game)
Image 41Playing Cards, by Theodoor Rombouts, 17th century
Image 42Ancient Egyptian senet game board inscribed for Amenhotep III with separate sliding drawer. Created between 1390 and 1353 BC; made of glazed faience, dimensions: 5.5 × 7.7 × 21 cm. Held in the Brooklyn Museum, (New York City). (from Game)
Image 43A ball-in-a-maze puzzle requires fine motor skills. (from Game of skill)
Image 44Bridge is a popular plain-trick game (from Card game)
Image 45Boys playing soccer in Tirana, Albania (from Game)
Image 46Digital Klondike solitaire (from Card game)
Image 47A game of Go in progress (from Game)
Image 48A 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 49Mehen game with game stones, from Abydos, Egypt, 3000 BC, Neues Museum (from Board game)