eBook - ePub
It's All a Game
The History of Board Games from Monopoly to Settlers of Catan
- 295 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
About this book
"[A] timely book . . . a wonderfully entertaining trip around the board, through 4,000 years of game history." â
The Wall Street Journal
Board games have been with us even longer than the written word. But what is it about this pastime that continues to captivate us well into the age of smartphones and instant gratification?
In It's All a Game, Tristan Donovan, British journalist and author of Replay: The History of Video Games, opens the box on the incredible and often surprising history and psychology of board games. He traces the evolution of the game across cultures, time periods, and continents, from the paranoid Chicago toy genius behind classics like Operation and Mouse Trap, to the role of Monopoly in helping prisoners of war escape the Nazis, and even the scientific use of board games today to teach artificial intelligence how to reason and how to win. With these compelling stories and characters, Donovan ultimately reveals why board gamesâfrom chess to Monopoly to Risk and moreâhave captured hearts and minds all over the world for generations.
"Splendid . . . A quick and breezy read, it doesn't just tell the fascinating stories of the (often struggling) individuals who created our favorite games. It also manages to convey the entire sweep of board game history, from the earliest forms of checkers to modern-day surprise hits like Settlers of Catan." â Mashable
"Artfully weaves together culture, business, and ways games impact society." â Booklist
"A fascinating and insightful discussion not only of games past, but the socioeconomic and historical factors that contributed to their popularity." â Chicago Review of Books
Board games have been with us even longer than the written word. But what is it about this pastime that continues to captivate us well into the age of smartphones and instant gratification?
In It's All a Game, Tristan Donovan, British journalist and author of Replay: The History of Video Games, opens the box on the incredible and often surprising history and psychology of board games. He traces the evolution of the game across cultures, time periods, and continents, from the paranoid Chicago toy genius behind classics like Operation and Mouse Trap, to the role of Monopoly in helping prisoners of war escape the Nazis, and even the scientific use of board games today to teach artificial intelligence how to reason and how to win. With these compelling stories and characters, Donovan ultimately reveals why board gamesâfrom chess to Monopoly to Risk and moreâhave captured hearts and minds all over the world for generations.
"Splendid . . . A quick and breezy read, it doesn't just tell the fascinating stories of the (often struggling) individuals who created our favorite games. It also manages to convey the entire sweep of board game history, from the earliest forms of checkers to modern-day surprise hits like Settlers of Catan." â Mashable
"Artfully weaves together culture, business, and ways games impact society." â Booklist
"A fascinating and insightful discussion not only of games past, but the socioeconomic and historical factors that contributed to their popularity." â Chicago Review of Books
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Yes, you can access It's All a Game by Tristan Donovan in PDF and/or ePUB format. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
eBook ISBN
9781250082732Subtopic
Social HistoryTable of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright Notice
- Dedication
- Introduction: The Birth of a New Gaming Era
- 1. Tomb Raiders and the Lost Games of the Ancients
- 2. Chess: The âMad Queenâs Gameâ
- 3. Backgammon: The Favored Game of International Pace-Setters and Ancient Emperors
- 4. The Game of Life: A Journey to the Uniquely American Day of Reckoning
- 5. The Forgotten Message of Monopoly
- 6. From Kriegsspiel to Risk: Blood-Soaked and World-Shaping Play
- 7. I Spy
- 8. Clueâs Billion-Dollar Crime Spree
- 9. Scrabble: Words Without Meaning
- 10. Plastic Fantastic: Mouse Trap, Operation, and the Willy Wonka of Toys
- 11. Sex in a Box
- 12. Mind Games: Exploring Brains with Board Games
- 13. Rise of the Machines: Games That Train Synthetic Brains
- 14. Trivial Pursuit: Adults at Play
- 15. Pandemics and Terror: Dissecting Geopolitics on Cardboard
- 16. Made in Germany: Catan and the Creation of Modern Board Games
- References
- Acknowledgments
- Index
- Also by Tristan Donovan
- About the Author
- Newsletter Sign-up
- Contents
- Copyright