We had a lively meeting on Wednesday 22 Feb, run and hosted with skill by one of our members, with hybrid technology in 2 different rooms.
She gave us an introduction to the history of board games and illustrated the stages with a fine display from her own collection.
We heard about the elements of skill, chance and gambling which may be present separately or in combination.
Morality was often the start point.
Others focused on specific board games.
‘Monopoly’ originally aimed to expose the way mortgage brokers exploited clients, then developed into into a game of making money.
‘Carcassonne’ s a tile-placement game in which the players draw and place a tile with a piece of southern French landscape on it and thus create the ‘board’.
‘Snakes & Ladders’, originating from India, showed the virtues to aspire to and the vices to avoid.
‘Sorry’ exposes viciousness in otherwise kindly people and that experience put off one of our number for life.
‘Cluedo’ characters and murder weapons have changed repeatedly over the years.
There’s now scope to explore other games such as tile games, card games…..and maybe playing some games together.