Board Games in 100 Moves

Board Games in 100 Moves by Ian Livingstone and James Wallis

This book is a history of board games filled with beautiful photographs of the games. The history of board games goes back millenia. Archaeologists have have found cuneiform instructions for an ancient game in Ur. There are boards for ancient Egyptian games (but no rules). Games that are still being played mostly originated after the time of Christ. Chess went through a few variations in India and Persia before going ot Europe and settling on the modern version today. Go is an old game from China. The 1800s were when board games really started to take off. Some were simple "luck" games. (There was a popular goose game that served as the basis for others.) There are many stories of games that seemed destined for the dustbin only to take off. (Scrabble and Twister are two examples.) Monopoly was based on a previous anti-capitalist game. (Her patent was bought out before publishing Monopoly.)

There are many cases of innovating concepts spawning derivatives. There was an "educational" game boom. Moving forward games (like goose game) were popular. Dungeons and Dragons and Magic: The Gathering both launched a whole slew of similar games. A number of "war" games became popular. In post-war Germany, however, cooperative games were more popular. Party games have also come in many varieties.  Today, many new games are created via kickstarters. Some games are purely based on luck and can be played in a few minutes, while others take multiple hours-long sessions to complete. Despite the popular of electronic entertainment, board games continue to be increasing in popularity.

The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win

Poker is a complex game. Unlike other casino games, there is an important element of skill. However, unlike chess, there is a degree of luck involved. It is similar to life in general. We can exercise skill, but success is still dependent on some luck. 

The Biggest Bluff is the author's attempt to learn and compete in poker at the highest level. She seeks out an expert to coach her. There is the basic skill, but more important is understanding the psychology. You must play offense and defense. The more you learn, the more you realize you don't know. The more advanced players know they have much more they need to continue to learn. You don't want to be unconsciously incompetent.

Seven Games: A Human History

Seven games traces 7 common games: checkers, chess, backgammon, go, poker, scrabble and bridge. For each, the history is covered. Most of the games have been around for a long time, with no real "inventor". Instead, they had involved throughout history. For each, the author explores the history and the world of the competitive masters. Some games involve more luck (such as poker), while others (like Chess) rely just on the work of players.

The books spends a lot of time covering the computers. People attempt to program computers to "solve" the game and beat humans. Computers have provided new insight into game strategies. Initially, computers struggled to beat humans. However, now they can do a better job. The computers have also "solved" games to determine the outcome based on each player performing ideally. (Checkers would be a draw. the player that goes first would win Connect Four.) 

Initial attempts to program game playing computers relied on entering various preferred moves and strategies. Today, the focus has been on automatic learning. A computer is programmed to play against itself and "learn" the best strategies in the process.

Games provide a great means of testing computer work as well as developing new technology. They may have started with some practical application (such as chess for warfare), but evolved to focus on the game themselves. The concrete ruleset makes them an easier target for computer technology.

Player of Games

Player of Games follows the story of a game player from a "culture" who goes off to an empire. He is "tricked" by a drone into cheating at a game. The drone uses that as blackmail to entice him to help him as he goes to the empire. The culture wants him to go to the empire where a game is of prime importance. The emperor and high ranking officials are chosen based on how they play the game. He goes there as an alien and does well at the game. Others in the society try to convince him that he should leave rather than continue playing. However, he continues and eventually sees the downfall of the empire.
The story is an interesting concept. It is also intriguing what they other sees as "good" and "bad". The "good" culture is one in which people live for long times and there is minimal crime and punishment. They also are free to exercise whatever sexual desire they have, including freely going back and forth from gender to gender. The "bad" culture is the one where the game is important. They have many rules which the elite enjoy flaunting. They have three genders and a distinct gender hierarchy. The elite also privately enjoy forced violence and sexual activity. Alas, his utopia would probably crash and burn just as the "dystopia" did.