Games Britannia Eps 2 + 3

This is a double entry on the last two episodes of the documentary known as Games Britannia. It is a three part series that talks about the history of games (if you read the post of it I did of episode one - "Dicing with Destiny") to the point of where games have come too.


Games Britannia Ep 2 - Monopolies and Mergers


The first game that was mentioned was a game called The Mansion of Bliss. It was a game where players had to reach a place of 'happiness', they game was pretty simple and straightforward, players move the character by rolling the dice and once they've landed on the square you then read a small paragraph based on where they landed. It was then used as a base for the game known as The Mansion of Happiness which was created in America, but this was used to encourage morale as those were the sort of games the american public enjoyed playing the most. Interestingly enough, a game called The Checkered  Game of Life is the polar opposite. Virtue wis no longer it's own reward, you play to gain influence, wealth and etc.


Another game that was pretty interesting was call PANK a Squith. It's a game where the player takes control of a woman who you have to get into a place where it was considered man only - The Houses of Parliment. The path to this involves a few obstacles - prison, ridicule and opportunity. Each player picks the path they decide to go about it, it also sets up a form of conflict between players (staged conflict, to be precise).


Brer Fox AN Brer Rabbit was surrounded by a bit on controversy as it had a politician on the front cover, Lloyd George, as a fox that was waiting to pounce on land ownership - reference to an uproar that happened in 1909. Eventually, the game was long lost, but not truly forgotten, as the game helped create that would eventually conquer the world - Monopoly!


Oddly enough, even though Monopoly is based off the streets of London, the game was originally created in America as The Landlord's Game, which was created by American activist Elizabeth Philips. The game had similar mechanics of the game we know today, but it wasn't very popular. However designers tweaked the game (location it's set in mainly) and then that helped paved the way to the game that's well known to us today. Monopoly has had a massive following in various: like Simpsons Monopoly, Ipswich Monopoly (check the local Waterstones - proof!), Monopoly with 'credit cards', you name any iteration or re-skin and it's pretty much been done. It even has national championships yearly worldwide.


Cluedo (originally murder) was created to help bring normality back to the public once the war was over. The main plot of the game is that at a "typical" English get together, someone has been murdered and you have to solve the murder, you need find out who it was who committed the crime, where it took place and the choice of weapon used. My personal opinion is that the game has made Murder Mysteries become popular as you could easily transact the rules of Cludeo into a mystery murder with real people.


Games Britannia Ep 3 - Joystick Generation


This part of the post is from the third and final episode of the documentary, which was talking about the evolution of board games to video games. The ZX Spectrum helped with the industry in Britain that started with the release of Manic Miner, the ZX was a rival to BBC's Microcomputer (early console wars).


Black + White was a game released in the year 1990 which allows you to play 'God' to the game's inhabitants, hence why it was given the nickname "The God Game". You move the pieces at will and decide what fate you decide to place on them (be it killing them, torturing them, etc...)


The mention of the Tomb Raider series. was said to have helped the popularity of the industry as the main character, Lara Croft was the character that could live beyond the game and capture the audience's hearts. Since it's debut in 1996, the character seems to relate to players. They mentioned Heavenly Sword, which was one of the early titles that was released on Sony's Playstation 3 had a female protagonist - Nariko. The game managed to have a character that players cared for as Lara, my reason for that is because if there is one person worth keeping yourself alive for (be it family, or other relation), the game also used a strong actors who also did the stunts.


Wipeout was said to find the balance that Heavenly Sword lacked, the right mix between fantasy, story + character. Proved to be a big hit when first released and was said to have helped other racers to become important. 


To conclude this post, I thought that both of these episodes were very interesting. I quite enjoyed learning about the history of where Monopoly came from and how ir became successful. But probably more so enjoyed the third episode more, because for me personally, that was where my love of games started.