Portal:Games

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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 backgammon set

Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back nearly 5,000 years to the regions of Mesopotamia and Persia. The earliest record of backgammon itself dates to 17th-century England, being descended from the 16th-century game of Irish.

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