Brain games

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Brain Games ( English brain games ) are characterized by the preferential use of intellectual skills while playing.

The "Christopher Columbus Egg Puzzle" as an intellectual game challenge (from: Sam Loyd, Cyclopedia of Puzzles, 1914)

character

The game idea , which determines the mind games , is already expressed in the name of the game genre : It is about the strain on the intellect , the ability to think and about rationally demanding problem solutions that can be mastered with different mental powers. They differ from games in which luck or chance play a dominant role. The cognitively oriented style of play marks the rather contemplative, serious, concentrated character of this category of games. These are mostly indoor games that can be played as individual games, but also as partner or group games , in meditative form or as a competition . Thinking games are offered by the game industry today not only in material, but also in large numbers in digital form as video and computer games .

Mind games have a great variety. They can affect memory or the ability to combine , the ability to abstract , analytical or programmatic, logical or networked thinking. Mind games can refer to characters, pictures, numbers, letters or words and represent them as riddles, puzzles or brain teasers. They present themselves as board games , card games , placement games , memory games and in many other forms. You can deal with mathematical, linguistic, technical, sporting, physical, biological, life-science or strategic issues in various specialist areas .

Historical

Mind games have existed in all cultures around the world for ages. The same game or its modifications often take on different names. For example, the game " Patience ", originally from France, can be found in Poland or the Netherlands under the name "Pasjans", in the USA under the names "Solitaire" and "Klondike", in China as "Mah-Jongg- Solitaire ”again. It spread around the world very quickly on the Internet and as a computer game after Microsoft delivered it as a standard feature in its operating system, for example in the "Solitaire" (lonely) variant. Many of the old mind games have been forgotten today and often have to be rediscovered. Already in 1283 Alfonso X. of Castile collected in his famous “ Libro de los juegos ” (“Book of Games”) the previously known brain and strategy games, including over a hundred chess tasks. As early as 1535, the French poet François Rabelais had the giant Gargantua play games such as “career counseling”, “checkers”, “chess” or “mill” that were demanding in his novel cycle of the same name.

Target projections

Simple thinking and guessing games can be organized in good company for mere pleasure and pastime. They bring calm, contemplation and concentration to a turbulent children's birthday party or are suitable to keep the not so active children busy in other ways. Due to their attractiveness, wide range and variety, the mind games have found their place in meditative-oriented game groups and in family game evenings, as the extensive range of commercial games in literature and the Internet suggests.

On the other hand, as so-called didactic games, they have become firmly anchored in play in school lessons, especially in the younger generation. They can be used methodically from pre-school and elementary school age, as "learning games", for example to promote logical thinking, memory or attention.

The preoccupation with brain games can ultimately lead to an even higher level of demands, not only to use the intellectual abilities to cope with given tasks and to find solutions to problems inherent in the game, but also to be creative by not only rediscovering old games, but also be redesigned, modified in their set of rules or even “invented” from scratch. Mind games can lead to fundamental thinking about games. Even elementary school children are able to do this with expert guidance.

Play areas

Memory games

Memory or memory games demand memory. The popular parlor game Memory , which can be played from the age of four, is based on the idea of ​​finding the same pairs from face-down picture cards. It can be increased in its demands up to tournament sport. This form of the so-called pair games , which came onto the market in 1959 , had historically numerous predecessors, for example the memory game known in Japan as Kai-Awase ( 貝 合 わ せ , German "Meat shells") since the 12th century , which played with matching shell shapes or that “Pelmanism” originating from 19th century England. It is crucial for the success of the game to be able to remember where the individual pictures or symbols are hidden. Due to their good short-term memory, children also have a good chance of being able to keep up with adults in this game.

Guessing games

Guessing games , which are often called quiz games , primarily place demands on knowledge and / or ability to combine. You can realize yourself in individual competitions, but also in group communities and reach all sections of the population from simple children's games to entertainment programs with adults on radio and television . Since the factual knowledge is usually insufficient, public guessing games are almost always played according to the multiple choice method, in which the possible correct answers are already given and only correctly selected. H. Must be “guessed”. In the UK and other countries such as Germany, the guessing game enjoys as a so Pubquiz (German "pub quiz"), even together close to the circle, interested in "Quiz leagues" and meet in restaurants, increasing popularity.

Guessing games like “ I see something you don't see ”, in which colors, shapes and objects are guessed, are already possible in preschool age. Elementary school children play the “ tea kettle ”, in which terms with different meanings have to be found in a question and answer game, such as “lock” as a door lock and royal lock, “pony” as a fringe of hair and a small horse. Language skills and vocabulary are required. Age-old games such as “career guessing” or “person guessing” (Who am I), but also puzzle games with questions like “What has four feet and still can't walk?” (A chair) or “What is harder, a One kilogram of lead or one kilogram of feathers? ”They can be presented as text puzzles, number puzzles, picture puzzles, sound puzzles and in many other forms.

Puzzle games usually require technical or spatial thinking skills and practical intelligence to solve a corresponding problem, such as Tangram from China , a placement game presumably from the Tang dynasty , which was also known as "Kopfzerbrecher" or "Kopfzerbrecher" when it was introduced in Europe around 1813 "Nutcracker" spread.

Strategy games

The strategy games are about the rational, mind-guided planning of decisions and actions. Random elements such as in games of chance are eliminated whenever possible. The effects of the game should be calculated as far as possible.

The mill game is one of the oldest strategy games, older than the game of chess. The oldest known mill board from 1400 BC. BC was discovered in Egypt on a roof slab of the temple of Kurna. In ancient Rome , too , mill was a very popular game that the Romans knew in two versions, the " Mola " (large mill) and the " Mola rotunda " (circular mill). At the Roman Forum in Rome there is a game board on the steps of the Basilica Iulia . In the Middle Ages, a game plan that is still recognizable today was carved into the rock on the Teufelsstein castle ruins in Franconia . And in the Libro de los juegos , the game collection of Alfonso X of Castile from the 13th century, there is a colored illustration of the game of the mill.

Medieval mill board on the
Teufelsstein rock castle
Illustration of the mill game in the Libro de los juegos (13th century)

A strategic goal of the mill players is to create a "center mill" by carefully placing the stones or to maneuver the opponent into a hopeless situation by means of a "double mill", from which the proverbial term "dilemma" comes.

Game of Chess, painting by Charles Webb, 19th century

When chess , which, originally coming prevailed from India since the 13th century in Europe, it comes to the game opponents checkmate to put d. H. to encircle his main character, the king, in the midst of his army by skillful moves in such a way that he is unable to move. In the meantime, the technology has even developed powerful so-called chess computers , which succeeded for the first time in 1996 in beating a reigning world chess champion ( Garri Kasparow ).

Checkers player in competition 2008
Louis-Léopold Boilly: The Checkers Game (oil painting from 1803)

The checkers game , which was probably created in the 10th century and played on the chessboard, is also a strategic board game in which the aim is to develop strategies in advance, to deprive the opponent of all possible moves of his pieces, i.e. H. either to hit them or to block them. Checkers established itself as one of the first game programs for computers in 1952 and even advanced to a professional sport in Russia .

Go players at the Chinese imperial court (Ming period, 16th century)
Playing field of a game of go

In the game of Go, which originally came from the Empire of China , two generals try to divide up abandoned areas on a playing field with lenticular stones. It is about making your own territory as large as possible, taking prisoners with your opponent and always keeping an eye on both the individual moves and the overall events.

Conflict simulation games

Conflict simulation games represent real or fictional, historical or futuristic military constellations on the game board. It is about a tactical and strategic confrontation with armed conditions and their optimal solution. Military simulations, which are technically known as "military simulation games" , colloquially as "sandpit games" , which are often used to plan maneuvers for the general staff and also to train soldiers, repeatedly arouse displeasure and resistance to opponents of all war-like games . It is often overlooked that z. B. the historical chess game belongs to this genre.

Landquisition game (board game 1957)
Tabletop playing field (Warhammer) with fantasy armies

The term conflict simulation game and its abbreviation Cosim , more clearly the term “ war games ”, mostly have to struggle with a bad image, especially in Germany, when they are recognizably associated with the word “ war ” and the idea of ​​its “bloody” reality or the closer and more realistic the game is to the present. If this obvious (or not recognized) reference is missing, such as in the game of chess or in historical knight games, the willingness to reject rapidly fades or disappears completely. The serious media are therefore now more objective, differentiated and reflected on the assessment of this genre of games, also taking note of the differences between reality and fiction in gaming and the results of transfer research .

literature

  • Bernd Badegruber: Games for problem solving. 5th edition. Veritas, Linz 2006, ISBN 3-7058-0540-1 .
  • Martin Gardner : Brain games from other planets. , Verlag Hugendubel, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-88034-295-4 .
  • Alexandra Lenhard, Wolfgang Lenhard, Karl J. Klauer: Puzzle games with Elfe and Mathis. Hogrefe, Göttingen 2012, ISBN 978-3-8017-2395-8 .
  • Ivan Morris: 99 nine-way clever thinking games , German by Thomas M. Höpfner, 6th edition, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH & Co. KG., Munich 1983, ISBN 3-423-10094-X .
  • Ines Moser-Will, Ingrid Grube: Mind games - fitness exercises for bright minds. Goldmann, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-442-17275-7 .
  • Eugen Oker (arr.): Puzzle games of the world. , Hugendubel, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-88034-087-0 .
  • Regionalia Verlag (Ed.): Allerley Knobeley: Medieval thinking and guessing games. 2nd Edition. Regionalia Verlag, Rheinbach 2013, ISBN 978-3-939722-67-0 .
  • Siegbert A. Warwitz , Anita Rudolf: Solving problems through play - thinking games. In: Dies .: The sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas. 4th edition. Schneider Verlag, Baltmannsweiler 2016, ISBN 978-3-8340-1291-3 , pp. 69-75.

Web links

Wiktionary: Brain game  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Single receipts

  1. Keyword puzzle games
  2. Eugen Oker (arr.): Puzzle games of the world. Hugendubel, Munich 1994.
  3. ^ Regionalia Verlag (ed.): Allerley Knobeley: Medieval thinking and guessing games. 2nd Edition. Regionalia Verlag, Rheinbach 2013.
  4. The Book of Games . Alfons X. "the Wise", translated and commented by Ulrich Schädler and Ricardo Calvo. Lit, Vienna 2009.
  5. Wolf Steinsieck: Gargantua. Pantagruel. Reclam, Stuttgart 2013.
  6. Alexandra Lenhard, Wolfgang Lenhard, Karl J. Klauer: Puzzle games with Elfe and Mathis. Hogrefe, Göttingen 2012.
  7. Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: Solving problems by playing - thinking games. In: Dies .: The sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas. 4th edition. Schneider Verlag, Baltmannsweiler 2016, pp. 69–75.
  8. Ines Moser-Will, Ingrid Grube: Mind games - fitness exercises for bright minds. Goldmann, Munich 2011.
  9. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: The development of a game from a game idea. In: Dies .: The sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas. 4th edition. Schneider Verlag, Baltmannsweiler 2016, pp. 161–167.
  10. ^ Erwin Glonnegger: The game book: board and placement games from all over the world; Origin, rules and history . Drei-Magier-Verlag, Uehlfeld 1999.
  11. Guessing games as a hit in Bremen bars
  12. Joost Elffers: Tangram. The old Chinese game of forms - Het oude Chinese vormenspel . DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 1978.
  13. Schürmann, Hans, Nüscheler, Manfred: This is how you win mill . Otto Maier Verlag, Ravensburg 1980, p. 4.
  14. Robert Wolf: Conflict simulation and role-playing games. DuMont paperbacks, Cologne 1988.
  15. Toy guns are less bad than their reputation .