A Brief Evolution of Play

Survival

Requirements: A Predator
Players: 2 and up

Survival was a very popular game when mankind was first appearing around 250,000 years ago. The game is a simple one with two teams: the predator, who wants to eat the other team and use their bodies for fuel, and the prey, who want to evade the predator long enough to spread their genes. Good players are known for having long winning streaks, sometimes lasting a lifetime, while bad players were often refused the chance to play again, most likely because the game was intended to be competitive.  While this game has lost its popularity throughout most of the world, non-human animals are still known to play with some regularity.

Work

Requirements: Tools
Players: One and up

While the origins of Work are still unknown, it is known to have been popularized around 9,000 years ago with the expansion pack “Agriculture.“  It is likely this game gained popularity as adults and children discovered the ability to use tools and, after playing both the predator and prey teams of Survival for quite some time, wanted a new challenge.  Work is a game still played on a daily basis by billions of humans, and while no longer considered a child-appropriate game in much modern culture, there have been times and places in history where work was played in the majority by children.

Fighting

Requirements: Multiple Players
Players: Two and up

Placing Fighting as a more modern game than Survival is somewhat controversial, as Fighting is known to have occurred as early as man is known to have survived.  Fighting as recreation, however, became more common as Survival began to be phased out and tangible resources required to play Work grew short.  Certain Work expansion packs, such as Agriculture, Religion, and Education needed tangible wealth to purchase and play (such as Land, Temples, or Papyrus).  In lieu of these expansion packs, bored societies chose to play a far cheaper game—Fighting.  War, the sequel to fighting, is possibly the most popular game of humankind history and is still played by millions around the world today.  Don’t discount the original’s popularity, however: some variations of Fighting are still widely popular (Judo, for example, is the world’s most popular organized sport).

Hoop and Stick

Requirements: A Hoop and a Stick
Players: One and up

Stick and Hoop emerged approximately 2,500 years ago, dating sometime in the antiquity.  The game, praised for its sandbox mode, is a simple physics engine which, when coupled with physical skill, enables the user to choose from many gameplay options which include: rolling, not rolling, doing some tricks, and keep away.  While this game remained fairly popular through the early 20th century, it is now rarely played.  Die hard fans of the game are still known to play, sometimes professionally.  The Swiss and Wielder Hoop and Stick Tournament (est. 1962) is still thrown annually for the best players to attend.

Baseball

Requirements: A Stick and a Ball
Players: Varying, rarely fewer than nine

Baseball is a popular form of “Bat and Ball” which became known in the mid 1700’s.  This game, which is well known for its mass appeal and slow gameplay, became a popular way for large groups of children to spend time together.  While other games like Work and Hoop and Stick were technically limitless to their player potential, bat and ball games were specifically designed for having large teams.  Cricket is another example of a bat-and-ball game type becoming quite popular during this time period.  The mass appeal of these games was eventually overshadowed by the lack of action in the gameplay, however, and baseball has in modern times begun to lose its audience.

Basketball

Requirements: A Ball and a Hoop
Players: Two to ten

Basketball is one of the worlds more popular modern games.  Taking ideas set forth by previous games (Soccer, for example) but changing the nature of a goal, Basketball was created in the late 1800’s and originally played with peach baskets.  While the earliest games were played year-round, the loss of their popularity to everyday people by the 1890’s was noticeable.  To provide an indoor game to keep sedentary children active during the winter, basketball was created.  Basketball has since become widely popular, especially in low-income areas, because of how cheap it is to play.  In modern western societies, even purchasing or finding a predator to play Survival with can be more expensive than buying a basketball.

Pinball

Requirements: A Pinball Table or Engineering Knowledge, Gears, Levers, and Marbles
Players: Generally One to Five
Pinball began to take shape from other, less widespread marble games in the 1800’s, but became widely popular only around the same time as electric gambling machines.  While modern pinball games require electricity, the basis of the game requires no electricity and runs entirely on an analog system.  Due to an association with gambling, pinball has been banned many times in history and because of the evolution of interactive electronic entertainment, pinball is rarely played today.

Television

Requirements: A Television
Players: One to play, hundreds to provide gameplay material
Evolving the somewhat used entertainment power of Books, Television has been commercially available since the 1930’s and is today’s most popular non-interactive for of play.  Seeing a similar trend of sedentary lifestyle, the television appeals to slow months by providing sedentary play (the opposite approach of basketball).  The appeal of this would be quite widespread as children find it is easier to see others act than actually perform an action.  Watching others play all of the previously mentioned games, and others, would become one of the most sought-after experience for men.

Video Games

Requirements: A Television and Game Console OR a computer, A Game, Accessories
Players: Generally between one and sixteen, sometimes in the thousands

One of the most expensive games with the smallest fiscal return to be played in human history, Video Games are the combination of Pinball and other arcade games and Television.  While Television allows one to watch others engaging in activity, Video Games allow one to pretend to engage in an activity without physical engagement.  Video Games generally mimic one of the other major games of human history and allow players to feel truly engaged in a nearly real environment in which to play Basketball, Baseball, even Television or Fighting.  During the late 1900’s, these games were considered “nerdy” or “geeky” and thus remained largely in the minority during their formative years.  Today, however, these are one of the fastest growing means of entertainment in the modern world.

Survival: Alien Edition

Requirements: Alien
Players: 6.4 Billion or All Remaining Humans

Given modern times, it is understood that Survival (slogan: the world’s original game) is considering numerous revival techniques for the near future.  While test groups gave positive feedback to the idea of Survival: Nuclear Edition during the 20th century, modern audiences are more likely to see the early stages of a Biological Edition, possibly joint-released with War’s creators.  While not much is known about the major release Survival: Alien Edition, it is expected to be released in December 2012.