Monopolies and Mergers
The second episode of Games Britannia focuses on the changes that games and the industry underwent in the 200 year period from the 18th century.
In the beginning of this era games were centered around virtue.
These games evolved and became more socially engaging, challenging and were used for leisure.
In 1810 for the first time it became mandatory for children to go to school and games were used to teach. "Mansion of Bliss" was a simple race game of chance and the message of the game was to deter the youth of the time from dangerous paths of vice and instead promote progressive improvement.
Around 1840 the United States of America first produced "the mansion of happiness" and was "the progenitor of American board games" [1]. America quickly became the world leader over taking Britain. However these American games were used to express the American Dream. Games became more economic and money based.
The Checkered Game of Life used opportunity and choice allowing players to choose a strategy to gain wealth. This simple mechanic was intuitive and made the players feel clever, similar to a modern understanding of game mechanics. It also was sold to soldiers and could be describe as the first travel game as it followed the soldiers wherever they were stationed.
Whilst this progress was happening in America England had stalled somewhat. Games were used by liberal reformers to suggest social and political agendas. This meant that people at home were exposed to new ideas that would then become the topic of discussion where before there would have been none.
This is true of the suffragette movement for women's rights (Pank and Squith) and of land tax or property ownership
And they worked.
One of these games that attempted to create a more equal society however turned into something completely different. Elizabeth Magie Phillips was a quaker who created the precursor to Monopoly, known as the Landlord's Game. It was an endless race game that allowed players to own squares unfortunately instead of showing the inequality of property ownership it had the opposite effect of what she had intended. People really enjoyed the fantasy of owning lot's of property.
In 1933 the Parker Brothers got the license and evolved the game into it's current visual form, renaming squares to reflect actual places. It's also suggested that the balance of the economics mechanics were tested by MIT to create the perfect balance. The game was hugely successful and it was so popular that in the war it was used to conceal maps for captured soldiers to use in order to escape. Amazingly these maps have been confirmed as genuinely saving lives during the war.
Cluedo was also created in England around this time, the programme suggests it's a strange board game as the board itself only serves to slow people down, the game really could just take the form of a card game. The mystery and investigation mechanics mirrored what was fashionable at that time. It did successfully translate into the USA which was rare. There were few changes needed most notably and amusing is the changing of the Reverend character as it didn't go down well that a Reverend could possibly be the murderer.
Scrabble was also an interesting game that mixes the skill of vocabulary and spelling and mixes it with the strategy of placement as different tiles had different values.
Television became more popular and people began to play less board games. Game shows and quiz shows were created and enabled people to simply watch others taking part in a game and maybe suggesting answers from their living room without the hassle of setting up a game themselves.
Trivia pursuit then borrowed from game shows and players could take on the role of being the game-show hosts, reading questions for players to answer.
At the time this programme was made 'Let's Play' videos that have now become popular on Youtube didn't really exist. Nowadays it would be hard to find someone who doesn't know what a 'Let's play' video is and a part of their huge success is for a lot of the same reasons someone would have watched a game-show when television first became popular.
During the 1970's the effect of television had taken it's toll. It meant that more and more free time wasn't spent played board games. The many companies that existed found themselves unable to survive in these though times and had no choice but to merge creating large global companies based in America.
Video games in the 1980's also played it's part is the tough market for board games but certain games remain popular such as Dungeons and Dragons and war gaming that simulated battles.
The episode finishes with small independent game makers who create very British satirical games which share similarities like the earlier games from 200 years before with social and political agendas.
As an update to this I'd say non digital games are experiencing a resurgence due to crowd funding platforms such as Kickstarter. Small companies can directly pitch and sell their product without the need to go through a large publisher who would require large profits in order for it to be worthwhile. Just the other month a game called Exploding Kittens went viral and raised $8 million dollars. Whilst this isn't a typical success story it does suggest the audience ready to back a good game does exist.
[1] Philip E. (2003). The Game Makers: The Story of Parker Brothers, from Tiddledy Winks to Trivial Pursuit. Harvard Business School Press.
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