by Bruce Whitehill

Following is an edited extract of a research paper, “Toward a Classification of Non-Electronic Table Games” by Bruce Whitehill, published in the book, Proceedings of Board Game Studies Colloquium XI (see http://ludicum.org/bgs08). The paper was a follow-up to a talk given at the BGS colloquium in Lisbon, Portugal, in April 2008.

Brief History of Games Classification

The first extensive study of games in the United States was undertaken by ethnographer Stewart Culin in the late 19th century¹; his primary works were written between 1895 and 1907. The first important theory of a classification of games was developed by games researcher H.J.R. Murray in his 1952 book, The History of Board Games Other Than Chess, in which he proposed a classification of games that included race games, war games, hunt games, alignment or configuration games, and mancala games. Nearly another half century went by before games historian, author and inventor² David Parlett, in his 1999 book The Oxford History of Board Games, compared the system of classification of board games used by Murray with the similar system used by R.C. Bell³ and one advanced by himself.

In the 19^th century, manufactured games in America were still primarily for children, and the industry itself was still developing, albeit very rapidly. Beginning in the late 20^th century, games started to evolve considerably, from a strategic play standpoint and also in terms of increased advertising and marketing. Since World War II, Americans have had more time to play; and in the past  30 years, more and more types of games have been introduced. This growth and diversity makes it more urgent—and more difficult—to develop a system of classification that works for all non-electronic games.

What Is a Game?

Before you can classify something, you need to define it. “Game” can have many meanings. For the purposes of this classification, we define games as those pastimes that are played according to a specific set of rules, have a prescribed end in which one or more players is declared the winner, and which are played inside the home or similar structure or in a fixed area in sand or on stone outdoors. There’s more to it than that, especially in terms of distinguishing games from sports, but this will suffice for purposes of this report.

Initial Classification

First we need to classify games into Indoor Games (Table Games) and Outdoor Games (Play Activities). Once indoors—if we stay with a linear classification—we need to differentiate between games played with no implements (save for, perhaps, those needed for record-keeping) and those games that use some materials. The latter division, Games with implements, can be broken down into three sub-categories: pencil-&-paper games, games using common household objects, and classic or proprietary games that have a specific set of materials, be they unique or standard game pieces. These are the games referred to by R.C. Bell and others as “Table Games”.

Classic games (those in the public domain) and proprietary games (those owned by a particular company) constitute a large category today, and here is where devising a system of game classification becomes complex. There are three primary systems that are possibilities for classification: the historical model, put forth primarily by Murray; the “company model”, used by today’s game companies; and the players’ system of classification, used informally by many game players today.

In an age of computers and databases, and “Find” and “Sort” possibilities for our data, it may be possible to combine the three classifications, allowing the hierarchy to change depending on the end user. In that database, we can include many attributes important in analyzing and describing a game, but which are not necessary as part of an overall classification. These include: Theme; Strategy vs. Chance (Luck), two separate factors that should total 100%; Simplicity vs. Complexity, which cannot be assigned a percent value but can be shown as a range; physical characteristics such as box size, type of gameboard, and implements; and other pieces of information useful in sorting games in a database, including, but not limited to, illustrator, history, source, condition, and so forth.

Historical Interests

Many century-old games as well as games of antiquity are still played today, such as backgammon, chess, checkers, Chinese checkers, Halma, The Game of Goose, mill, mah jongg, Reversi, Snakes & Ladders, mancala games and Parcheesi; games of antiquity such as Senet (Senat), The Royal Game of Ur, The Game of Twenty, and Fifty-eight Holes include games that originated 5000 years ago. Historians try to decipher where and how a game originated, how it might have been played, whether the game traveled to other parts of the world, and, if so, how and where, and in what ways it may have changed over time and distance.

Commercial Manufacturing

Since the mid to late 1800s, game companies in the United States and Europe put their games into categories to make them easier to market. The categories are based primarily on the audience to whom the game is targeted—children, family, or adults—or to the theme or style of game.

The three main categories used by many mass-market game companies are:
Children’s Games, including educational games;
Family Games: games suitable for the entire family, including adults who play together with younger children;
Adult Games: games which have either a relatively complex method of play or adult themes).

Within each category, games are separated into Board Games and Card Games (“Table Games”) and/or into one of the three categories below—categories that have changed over time and will likely continue to change:
Party Games – “parlor” games, often word games or games that require physical actions or stunts, for groups usually of five or more;
Trivia Games – “question & answer” games (in essence, a subcategory of “Party Games”) requiring individuals or teams of players to answer trivial knowledge and pop culture questions;
Skill & Action Games – dexterity games that require players to throw, roll, balance, build, or otherwise manipulate materials or objects (Some Skill & Action games are all action, requiring no skill, such as in some top-spinning games.)
An exploration of game company catalogs also reveals that companies categorize games according to price and theme; Milton Bradley catalogs from the early 1900s, for example, had a section of low-priced “5 Cents” games; in different years, catalogs had pages devoted to games representing a popular theme of the time, such as cartoon and comic character games or mystery games.

Players’ Games

Game players are primarily interested in the game mechanism (how it plays), or the level of interaction with other players. Whereas historians focus on the oldest games, players pay attention to the newest of games. Many players are also interested in the theme and length of play, and some are swayed by the graphics. Serious players, more attuned to the game market, also often want to know the manufacturer, the game’s author, and level of strategy.

The Seven Categories of Table Games

To begin, it is necessary to have an overall classification of indoor games, or “table games” as we refer to them here. The seven main categories are:
Board Games

Card Games, including those played with standard playing cards,
or variations, and, more aptly, those played on cards designed specifically for a particular game, such as Pit, Rook, Flinch, Touring, Mille Bornes, Uno, Bali, Mystery Rummy, Continuo, Guillotine, Ogallala, Bohnanza, 6 nimmt, Reibach & Co.
 
 
 
 
 
Dice Games, such as Yahtzee, Pig Dice

Hi Dice, 1954, Bettye-B

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Word Games, such as Boggle, Jotto (pencil & paper game), Spill & Spell, Scrabble (also a tile-laying game)

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Dexterity Games, or Skill & Action games, such as Operation, Battling Tops, Mousetrap, Blockhead, Carrom, Jenga, Villa Paletti
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Tile-Laying Games, such as Carcassonne, dominoes, Nile, Pathfinder, Ta Yü

Tile-laying game - Venice Connection, Alex Randolph

Memory Games, such as Concentration

One cannot expect a classification of games to be without considerable overlapping and many exceptions. Board games, for instance, may have cards or use dice, and a dice game or card game may employ a small gameboard, but the distinctions are made according to the primary implements or mode of play. A game in which cards are laid out on a table and then played upon, for example, would be considered a board game rather than a card game.

Introduction: Board Games

• Card games are played by millions of people around the world, most of the games using a standard deck of playing cards rather than decks manufactured especially for specific games. This is comparable to the large number of games played on a standard chess or checkers board. But the number of gameboards designed to accommodate the myriad number of board games played around the world makes Board Games the predominant category of games. One of the main purposes of this paper is to present a system that would serve as a classification of board games, designed to pull together and update the proposals of Culin, Murray, Bell, and Parlett⁴.
• The category of Board Games can be subdivided into games with fixed boards and those with variable boards—that is, game boards which are laid out in sections at the start of a game and therefore will most likely be different each time the game is played; the most popular example: The Settlers of Catan and the many variants in that series, and tile-laying games such as Carcassonne.
  Here are the seven categories that encompass fixed-board and variable-board board games.
• Games of Alignment: the object is for the player to line up his pieces in a straight line or particular order; examples are Pente and four-in-a-row games such as Hasbro’s Connect Four and its many derivatives.
• Race Games: the object is to move one or more playing pieces across or around a gameboard in order to be the first player to arrive at a prescribed destination; the game might have one piece per player or a number of pieces (often four) that must reach the end position. There are three types of Race games:
  Path game: Players begin at “Point A” and race along what may be a circuitous path to “Point B”, though there may be detours and shortcuts along the way; examples are the Game of Goose (in which landing on some spaces moves you ahead, and on others moves you back) and, similarly, Snakes & Ladders (Chutes and Ladders), which have one playing piece per player; also the Game of India (Pachisi / Parcheesi), Sorry!, Ludo, and Mensch ärgere Dich nicht, in which each player has four pieces.
  Track game: Players begin at “Point A” and race along a usually oval track near the perimeter of the gameboard back to “Point A”; one circuit of the track is the norm, but more may be required; players normally are controlling one playing piece. Examples are most horse race or car race games.
  Goal game: the object is to be the first player to get all his pieces from a starting “home” area to a target zone, usually an opponent’s home area. Examples are Halma and Chinese Checkers.
• Games of Capture: the object is to capture an opponent’s pieces or to capture the most (or best) territory; examples are mancala games, in which the playing pieces are neutral; chess, in which all playing pieces have a clearly defined power and movement; and Reversi or Othello and combinatorial games in which territory is captured either through expansion or by a player changing an opponent’s pieces into his own. Games of capture can be symmetrical (players have identical pieces) or asymmetrical, in which each player has either a different number of pieces or pieces that have different strengths from the opposing player’s pieces; piece strength may vary according to the type of space on which the piece stands. Games of capture can be classified into five sub-categories:

1.    Placement Only: pieces are placed on a gameboard during turns but are not moved to other spaces; example: Reversi, Othello.
Movement Only: pieces are pre-positioned on a gameboard as per the game’s criterion and are moved during turns; examples: checkers/draughts, chess.
Place & Move: pieces are placed as chosen by the players, then moved; example: Stratego, Mill or Nine Men’s Morris.
Mancala Games: abstract games with a defined system of cyclical movement during which neutral pieces are captured and brought to the player’s home cells; example: Wari.
War & Simulation: themed games that represent real or fictional battles; armies need to capture or kill (remove from play) opposing troops; examples: Risk and Axis & Allies.

Except for War & Simulation games, most Games of Capture are for two players.

• Building Games: the object is to build, develop or acquire ownership in objects or geographic areas; examples: Acquire, Carcassonne, and Catan games (though Catan allows and even encourages trading and negotiation).
• Trading & Negotiation Games: these are games in which players are required to interact in order to negotiate goals or barter for materials they need; examples are Diplomacy (which is also a War & Simulation game), Clue/Cluedo, and Catan games.
• Games of Survival: the object is, simply, for players to avoid losing their game pieces as parts of the gameboard disappear, or losing the power or money that keeps them in the game; examples include Survive (USA) / Atlantis (UK), in which pieces of a volcanic island in the middle of the gameboard are removed, forcing islanders to vie for boats to get to the mainland, and Isolation (Lakeside, 1978) and its German predecessor Isola (Ravensburger, 1974) and the more recent Arctic (by Niek Neuwahl; Piatnik, 1992), all of which require a figure to be able to continue moving on the gameboard as parts of the board are removed from play. Another classic example is Monopoly, a Building Game and a Trading & Negotiation game in which the game is over when only one player has survived financially.
• Other: Historians and researchers are loath to have a “miscellaneous” category because the implication is that their system has flaws or needs a “catchall” for exclusions or exceptions. But in a system of classification of games, not only is there likely to be a great deal of overlap of categories and sub-categories, but also the development of ideas and technology in the future will introduce games that do not conform to the current system. The system is not broken because of this, but it must contain a category that allows for growth.

At some point, a number of games that have found their way into the “Other” category will be seen to be similar enough to one another that a new, specific category can be formed and added to the system. In this way, this proposed system of classification of board games will serve to include not only ancient games but also games not yet invented.

¹ Stewart Culin credits the work of Frank Hamilton Cushing, an ethnologist who pointed out the correlations between European games and those of the American Indians; he did extensive research on—and, in fact, lived with—the Zunis of New Mexico.

² Hare and Tortoise, 1973, Intellect Games, UK; German edition: Hase und Igel (Hare and Hedgehog), 1979, Ravensburger; winner of the first “Spiel des Jahres” (Game of the Year) award.

³ H.J.R. Murray, The History of Board Games Other Than Chess, 1952; R.C. Bell, Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations, 1962.

⁴ Stewart Culin, Games of the North American Indians, Vols. 1&2, 1907; David Parlett, The Oxford History of Board Games, 1999.