On Oct 28, 2:12 am, "Josef Pieper" <JosefPie...@bluebottle.com> wrote:
> Apparently, two years ago there was a major exhibition sponsored by the Asia
> Society in American museums called "Asian Games: The Art of Contest." I
> have been fortunate enough to get a copy of the exhibition book. I found a
> quote there that I would like you to comment on:
>
> "We hope that this exhibition, in addition to persuading
> visitors of the historical importance of games, will also stimulate an
> interest in playing board games. As computer gamers sit in solitary
> oblivion frantically pressing buttons to manipulate images on screens, it is
> worth considering how such games could have succeeded, to a large extent, in
> eclipsing real board games. The answer may be that they have appropriated
> much of the best of traditional board games. But it is also worth pointing
> out that the appeal of most electronic games is ephemeral. Ask a teenager
> if he still plays the same game he played two years ago, and the answer will
> inevitably be no. We can predict with confidence that twenty years from
> now, of the electronic games currently in fashion, it is only those versions
> of classic board games-chess, weiqi/go and perhaps backgammon-that will
> still enjoy widespread popularity.
>
> Does the future of chess, weiqi and backgammon, then, lie solely
> in electronic media? We hope not. However convenient it may be to play
> chess or weiqi on the internet, nothing can replace the face-to-face social
> interaction of real games playing-and indeed the attraction of such games as
> spectacle. It is no coincidence that there is a trend now among jaded
> electronic games players to return to board games. This renewed interest
> undoubtedly reflects the need to compete with a real (as opposed to
> real-time) person. But there may be another reason for this development.
> The physical satisfaction of holding a well-crafted gaming piece or die, or
> of hearing the sonorous click of the pieces as they are placed on the board,
> does not exist in an electronic universe. No culture better understood the
> aesthetics of games than the Japanese, whose go, sugoroku, and shogi boards
> were not only objects of exquisite beauty, but were also designed to enhance
> the sound of piece struck against board. If, in addition to stimulating
> more research on Asian games, this exhibition prompts some of its visitors
> to take up chess, xiangqi, or weiqi-or even better, to work out the rules of
> liubo-then we will be entirely satisfied."
>
> Colin Mackenzie and Irving Finkel, "Preface", Asian Games: The Art of
> Contest (Asia Society), p. 17
>
> --
> Posted via a free Usenet account fromhttp://www.teranews.com
REPLY: very well put, maybe some hope, good essay.
THANKS: tag22
|
|