Portal:Games

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Ancient 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).

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 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 is 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...)

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A blackjack example, consisting of an ace and a 10-valued card

Blackjack (formerly black jack or vingt-un) is a casino banking game. It is the most widely played casino banking game in the world. It uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as "twenty-one". This family of card games also includes the European games vingt-et-un and pontoon, and the Russian game Ochko [ru]. The game is a comparing card game where players compete against the dealer, rather than each other. (Full article...)

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...that in 1967, Mac Hack became the first computer chess program to defeat a person in tournament play?
...that a reviewer called the narrator in the game Defenders of Ardania (pictured) "booze-obsessed", with a voice that sounds like "a Dalek doing an impression of Sean Connery"?
...that snooker player Stephen Maguire won his first ranking tournament at the 2004 European Open in Malta?
...that the Crawford-Gilpin House is alleged to have once changed owners due to being lost as a wager in a poker game?
...that The Big Bang Theory episode "The Santa Simulation" features a Christmas-themed Dungeons & Dragons game?

General images

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

Image 1Young girls playing a board game in the Iisalmi library in Finland, 2016 (from Board game)
Image 2Mamluk playing card (king of cups), c.15th century (from Card game)
Image 3Patolli game being watched by Macuilxochitl as depicted on page 048 of the Codex Magliabechiano (from Board game)
Image 4Typical MUD interface for God Wars II (from Role-playing game)
Image 5The Mansion of Happiness (1843) (from Board game)
Image 6The Card Players by Lucas van Leyden (1520) depicting a multiplayer card game (from Game)
Image 7Preferans, a trick-taking card game version popular in Croatia (from Card game)
Image 8Association football is a popular sport worldwide.
Image 9Han dynasty glazed pottery tomb figurines playing liubo, with six sticks laid out to the side of the game board (from Board game)
Image 10The board game Monopoly is licensed in 103 countries and printed in 37 languages. (from Board game)
Image 11Tug of war is an easily organized, impromptu game that requires little equipment. (from Game)
Image 12A fantasy LARP group (from Role-playing game)
Image 13Chinese mother-of-pearl gambling tokens used in scoring and bidding of card games. (from Card game)
Image 14The modern German board game Catan is printed in 30 languages and sold 15 million by 2009. (from Board game)
Image 15The Card Players, 17th-century painting by Theodoor Rombouts (from Card game)
Image 16Playing Cards, by Theodoor Rombouts, 17th century (from Game)
Image 17A ball-in-a-maze puzzle requires fine motor skills. (from Game of skill)
Image 18Senet, one of the oldest known board games (from Board game)
Image 19Students 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 20Royal game of Ur, southern Iraq, about 2600–2400 BCE (from Board game)
Image 21Hounds and jackals (Egypt, 13th Dynasty) (from Board game)
Image 22The 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 23A 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 24Ancient 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 25Parcheesi is an American adaptation of a Pachisi, originating in India. (from Game)
Image 26 Men Playing Board Games, from The Sougandhika Parinaya Manuscript (from Board game)
Image 27An adventurer finds a teleportation portal while exploring a dungeon in the role-playing video game Falcon's Eye. (from Role-playing game)
Image 28Historically, 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 29Two Qataris playing the traditional board game of damah (from Board game)
Image 30Backgammon is a game of skill. Strategy can give players advantages, but there is also an element of chance. (from Game of skill)
Image 31A selection of pieces from different games. From top: Chess pawns, marbles, Monopoly tokens, dominoes, Monopoly hotels, jacks and checkers pieces. (from Game)