The board game is not a modern invention, but belongs to the history of mankind. Even in ancient times, people spent their time playing board games for entertainment. The Royal Game of Ur dates back to approx. 2600 BC. In the 1920s, the corresponding game boards were discovered during excavations in present-day Iraq. Among the oldest board games are also Backgammon, the Chinese game Go, as well as Pachisi or Chaupar from India. Depending on the country of origin, stones, bones, and later carved wooden figures were used as game elements. What is the fascination with board games? What drives people to spend hours with dice and game pieces? What is the motivation behind it?
Friedrich Schiller had already recognized that play is far more than a mere pastime: "Man only plays when he is in the full sense of the word a man, and he is only entirely man where he plays," is a quote from him.
Classification of board games
The German Games Archive in Nuremberg houses around 30,000 board games. The focus of the collection is on board and table games from the German-speaking region after 1945. Over 600 new products are presented every year at the largest international games fair in Essen. With this number, it is not surprising that there are many different systems and approaches to classifying games. Board games can be categorized by year of release, place of origin, number of players, requirements for the players (games of chance – Ludo; luck & tactics – Settlers of Catan; memory games – Memory), etc. The German Games Archive has developed its own game classification, which includes seven main classes:
- Dice and games of chance– Ludo, Yahtzee
- Tile-laying games – Dominoes, Scrabble, Rummikub, Bingo
- Strategy games – Chess, Halma, Memory, Solitaire
- Role-playing games – The Game of Life, Monopoly, Risk
- Quiz and conversation games – Trivial PursuitSkill and action games
- – Mikado, AvalancheOther games
- – with varia and game magazinesPlayer types
Play is not only a fundamental cultural phenomenon, but a basic natural human need. What must a game offer so that one feels the desire to pick it up and play it again and again? What are a player's motivations? These questions occupy game scientists, psychologists, game publishers, and marketing experts. Players are not a monolithic group. Their preferences and motivations vary in important points.
Based on an extensive survey of over 300,000 players worldwide, Nick Yee, founder of the gaming analytics consulting firm Quantic Foundry, has developed an empirical framework for game motivations and identified 6 player types:
– This player type mainly seeks thrills and excitement in a game. The elimination of the opponent as a goal spurs them on.
ActionSocial
– Cooperation and competition are the central motivational factors. Here it can be about creating something together or overtaking the partner.Mastery
– This type loves the challenge and strategic, forward-looking thinking. Chess is exactly the right game.Achievement
– The driving engine is completion. Only when all trophies have been collected and all missions fulfilled is this type satisfied.Creativity
– This type feels motivated when they can help shape things and go on a journey of discovery.Immersion
– Here, stories and fantasy play the main role. The player feels particularly motivated when they can immerse themselves in other characters and worlds.How board games influence the cognitive and personal development of children
That board games influence the mental development of children cannot be disputed and is the subject of many studies by contemporary educators and psychologists. Board games accompany us throughout our lives and can have a positive effect on the development and acquisition of skills. To assess how a particular board game is tailored to the specific stage of a child's development, one must ask the following questions:
What main skills are required for the game? (Skills)
- What abilities are developed during the game? (Development of abilities)
- And last but not least: Is the game fun? (Attractiveness)
- Interest in a game will quickly be lost if the tasks are too easy or, conversely, if the child feels overwhelmed by the structure and sequence of the processes, leading to frustration.
Even small children aged 2 to 3 are quite capable of following elementary rules and playing simple table games together with a partner. However, the interest of preschool children in a game is strongly characterized by the presence of a "role-play" component (e.g., a mouse game piece that wants to visit its friend, etc.). For this reason, games for small children often contain figures or pictures of animals, people, and objects. The possibility of winning the game is secondary. Children tend to give free rein to their creativity and express the desire to change rules and insert substitute elements into the game. As a parent, one should react to moments of frustration with understanding, as a child must first learn to deal with their emotions. A few comforting words can be far more helpful than lectures.
The most important factor, however, is fun. Without enthusiasm, a game cannot be played, and only through enthusiasm does learning become effective. Gerald HĂĽther, neuroscientist and author of numerous specialist and non-fiction books, repeatedly emphasizes the important role of play in learning and the fact that learning must be emotionally charged.
Playing board games promotes a very wide range of skills:
Cognitive skills
– This includes, for example, logical and abstract thinking, strategic thinking (ability to foresee the effects of one's own activities as well as those of other actors), spatial orientation, structuring of objects, but also academic skills such as language acquisition (differentiated vocabulary, use of correct syntactic constructions and grammatical forms), the ability to understand and name symbols and signs, or a better understanding of quantities and numbers.Concentration skills and memory
– Memory is a classic example of this.Communicative and social skills
– These include, for example, the ability to empathize with other players, to find solutions to conflicts,
to make and keep agreements, to defend one's own position. Particularly noteworthy here is the importance of role-play for the development of human imagination.
Emotional skills
– The ability to process anger and disappointment and to control one's own actions and emotions is highly demanded and promoted in board games. Because it is absolutely necessary if one wants to bring the game to the end and reach the goal.Motor skills
– Last but not least, the promotion of motor skills should be mentioned. Grabbing and moving game pieces, putting parts together trains gross and fine motor skills, reaction speed, sense of balance, as well as intention control.Children can therefore benefit immensely from board games and build up and expand a huge number of skills, as well as positive behavioral traits, and stimulate their imagination. They experience motivation when they succeed in solving tricky tasks and are proud of having learned something new and entertaining.
So if your board games are still gathering dust in the attic, then this might be a good time to bring them out again and dive into the world of games. If you don't have an attic or are still looking for a suitable board game, you can read through the numerous game reviews by bloggers or orient yourself on comparison portals like
ladenzeile.at, which filter games by category and age and, of course, compare prices.https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesellschaftsspiel
Sources:
http://psyjournals.ru/files/44289/psyedu_2011_n2_eng_Salmina_Tihanova.pdf
https://quanticfoundry.com/gamer-motivation-model/
Posted on: 01/15/2019
Read also:Â Board games for children aged 8 and up
Photo by Sabine, meinhaushalt.at
