As long as humans have been on Earth, we’ve played games. They are a great way to blow off steam, give our brains a workout, socialise with friends, and channel our natural competitive spirit.
Over centuries and millennia, some of these games get lost to time, falling out of favour and eventually becoming forgotten. Others get passed down from generation to generation, helping to preserve the ways we had fun in the past for millions more people to enjoy.
But games like chess, poker, and checkers don’t just survive through word of mouth; technology also does a lot to preserve these popular pastimes and create new ways for people to enjoy them.
While this may seem somewhat obvious, it isn’t as simple as porting a physical game into the digital realm and letting people play; there are many hidden technologies working behind the scenes to make this possible and to help create new gaming communities that will allow the games of the past to live long into the future.
An Education Platform
Most of us have probably spent a Friday night with friends or been on a long journey when someone has pulled out a deck of cards and begun teaching everyone the rules of crazy 8s or go fish. In decades gone by, this was, more or less, the only way many people learnt about the rules of card games.
Today, however, the internet plays a big role in educating new players on how popular games work. For example, leading online card room PokerStars has an extensive library of guides on how to play the most common variants of the game, covering basics like poker rules and more advanced strategies to help players improve their skills.
Similarly, Chess.com has structured lessons to teach basic chess skills and tools for reviewing games to help players of all abilities.
Ensuring Fairness
Even in games of skill, fairness requires some elements to be random. For example, in card games, players play a significant role in the outcome by deciding how to play their hands, bluffing, and whether to fold, call, or raise. However, the deck of cards still needs to be shuffled properly to prevent players from detecting patterns or someone from rigging the order.
In offline games, this is easily achieved by thoroughly shuffling the cards. However, in a digital game, technology is required to deliver this same fairness.
That’s where a random number generator comes in. Computers are incapable of generating completely random outcomes on their own since they require a structured program to generate the output.
Instead, online game developers use a device known as a random number generator to provide true randomness to card shuffles, dice rolls, and other similar in-game events. They take inputs from sources like atmospheric static, the movement of lava lamps, and photon guns to run their games.
Most players would never know that their games are run by these tools as the random number generators sit quietly in the background, just getting the job done.
Creating a Community
All of these classic games have survived for so long because they have been loved by generation after generation of players. Technology helps to preserve this popularity by creating communities of players who may have, otherwise, never met.
They do this by creating online spaces for players to share their love of their favorite games and to compete against each other.
Platforms like podcasts, Twitch and YouTube have also made it possible for talented players and passionate entertainers to show off their skills and engage millions of people around the world.
Online mesage boards, social media platforms, and even the games themselves allow for communication between players. For example, online card rooms and chess platforms usually allow competing players to chat with each other during a match, whilst Facebook groups, subreddits, and online message boards allow for community-wide chatting.
Rockies Ripple is the founder and lead writer behind the independent blog tvplutos.com