Games Britannia - Monopolies and Mergers (Part 2 of 3)

 Following on from the previous episode, Benjamin Woolley shows us the influences board games have had over the last two hundred years on British society and how they have developed into games that have become a moral teaching for many people over the ages.

Elizabeth Magie in 1904 invented and patented a board game titled The Landlord's Game. This game was supposedly designed to show people how 'land grabbing' and renting worked back then. It was also used to teach children to understand fairness, and hopefully allow them to take these new learnings into the adult world. This game was first published in 1913 in Great Britain with the title Brer Fox an' Brer Rabbit, later a massive influence on the most popular game in history - Monopoly. The similarities between the two games can be spotted easily - the versatility of both games allowed any of the places to be renamed, making it possible to change the names for a specific location where the game would be sold. (This is the reason for monopoly being so big all these years.)

After this point family board games were being created to sail families through the great depression - Cluedo and Scrabble quickly became popular family games during this time, then started to form the biggest games companies at the time (even big now, producing the same games!).

Since that time not a lot has changed in the world of board games, they are simply not as popular with the masses as they used to be. There are new 'innovative' board games being created today that are used to teach people about the changes in the world, War on Terror for example. This game was created to further alert people about how countries have acquired other's land and the cheapness of terrorism. This game is mainly just satire, however it does raise some interesting points that pose discussions to the players - teaching them whilst they play! Unfortunately it is very hard for the designers of this game to find a shop that will stock it, due to its satirical nature.

Board games are important to teach generations how to 'cope' with life, and to provide distractions from everyday work. With the introduction of digital games it is important that we do not forget the simple board game, and ensure that we pass on the knowledge that we have learned form board games onto others - hopefully inspiring a new board game that will revolutionise the way that people think of board games.