I have always enjoyed playing games, but didn’t necessarily think much about them in a historical or anthropological way until the past few years, when I began to realize that the history of play and games is tied to our lives in so many ways. Some say that we played even before we became fully human, and that the act of playing helped our brains grow and social mores develop. Even animals play and have fairly complex signals and rules to their play. But more importantly games and play are just fun. Some of my best memories are of playing games with my friends, laughing and joking around together, relaxed and at ease in their company.

Hopefully my blog will be a mix of the history, rules, philosophy, and social camaraderie of games. I’ll try and talk about the older games, the ones that started it all, and maybe you’ll discover an old game or two that you’d all but forgotten. I’ll also try and include games from around the world and show how games have traveled and changed both through time and place.