“In a happier time, we dared to call our species by the name of homo sapiens“wrote the eminent Dutch cultural historian Johan Huizinga.
He was referring to the term introduced by Carl von Linné in 1758 to differentiate humans from other animal species: the sapiens He was the one who knows, the wise man.
“As time went by we realized that, after all, we are not as reasonable as the 18th century, with its cult of reason and its naive optimism,” he thought.
Later, the designation of homo faberthe man who does, one that Huizinga did not think was the most appropriate.
proposed homo ludensman who plays, because in his opinion, “without certain development of a playful attitude, no culture is possible”.
Although “play is older than culture,” he stated in his 1938 book, no matter how much we narrow the concept of “culture,” it presupposes a human society, he stressed, “and animals did not wait for humans to teach them to play”.
But, among the homo sapiens, “the game was an integral part of civilization in its early phases. Civilization arises with the game and as a game to never be separated from it again.”
Marcus du Sautoy, self-proclaimed game enthusiast, agrees with the idea that “it is the ability to play, not to think, that has been crucial in our development,” as he writes in “Around the World in Eighty Games” (“Around the world in 80 games”, a book that is being translated into Spanish).
It is a unique tour inspired by Jules Verne’s novel “of the many crazy, fantastic and addictive games our species has created”.
He refers to “games of the mind” because, although he declares that he is fascinated by soccer, he left out those that are classified as sports, with one exception: “I couldn’t resist the urge to include the Mesoamerican ball game pitz.”
In his adventure, Du Satoy reveals how to win at various games, and how they have always been deeply intertwined with mathematics.
For him, “Games are passports to other worlds”and his journey is not only through geographical places, but also through time.
From the Royal Game of Ur – “it is extraordinary to be able to play a game of the same game that entertained the Babylonians 5,000 years ago” – to the browser video game Wordle, which became a viral phenomenon in December 2021, and in 2023 It was played 4.8 billion times.
But let’s start from the beginning…
The rules of the game
A question that several thinkers have asked is why we play.
Some, he says, have postulated that by understanding that the Universe was governed by rules, we began to create games as safe spaces to explore them.
Others have suggested that it is actually a tool for exploring our inner worlds.
“I think perhaps the most important element is that social element, because humans are a highly social species,” Du Sautoy says.
“Our conscience demands that we try to explore the mind of the other because I have an internal world, and I suppose you do too. But if we are feeling pain, is your pain similar to my pain, your ecstasy, the same?
“Therefore, we needed tools to try to explore our inner worldsand games are a very interesting and safe place to do it.
“And if you think about it, a game almost needs a theory of mind. You have to understand that the person sitting in front of you has a different mind than you and will make different decisions. You have to think: ‘if I do this, what will they do? ‘. That’s a very sophisticated level of thought process.
“So perhaps games are so important to our species because of our consciousness.”
But there is another important question: what is a game.
“Defining what a game is has been a very deep philosophical question, which (Ludwig) Wittgenstein was very interested in,” commented Du Sautoy in conversation with BBC Mundo.
The prominent Austrian philosopher (1889-1951), who specialized in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the mind, and language, “believed that it was impossible to define what a game is.”
“’Game’ was his prime example of a word that could only be understood through the act of using it: that is a game, that is not,” Du Sautoy explains in his book.
However, he told BBC Mundo, “something we can agree on is that the game has a set of rules and, in a way, every time you play, you explore the consequences of those rules and try to optimize the way to achieve a goal.”
He added that “one of the beautiful things about games, and it’s something that some anthropologists and philosophers have tried to include in the definition of a great game, is that it must be separated from real lifehaving their own times and their own sense of place.
“That separation is important: although they can help you understand things in real life, in some way you get out of it and spend some time in that imaginary world of the game.
“It’s similar to musicwith its own kind of autonomous world that you escape to or immerse yourself in, now the mathematicswhich although they help us understand the physical world around us, are a world apart and can create universes that have nothing to do with physical reality, but are still exciting to explore for their own inner beauty.”
In their case, that makes them irresistible.
“Games, for me, are a way of playing mathematics”.
Mathematics is ideal for calculating the implications of rules, so it is a very natural ally.
And they are present in countless ways in games, even if it is not always obvious.
In games like snakes and ladders, in which no strategy is used to win, mathematics is important in game design.
“You have to decide how many snakes and ladders you are going to have. Too many snakes and the game will be unwinnable, but too many ladders and it might end too quickly.
“And there is a mathematical way to analyze a game like that and many others, where you roll dice and move around the board, to calculate how long it takes to win the game.”
However, these types of games or games of chance are not the mathematician’s favorites.
The best?
Du Sautoy confesses that he loves pure strategy games, “and I have an incredible advantage because my mathematical skills allow me to win them often.”
“But my children no longer play those games with me: they prefer one in which they have a better chance of winning, and that is important.
“What’s more, I would say that uncertainty is absolutely essential to the game“.
That is one of the 5 characteristics he identified to establish which are the best games.
One of the games that incorporates all these qualities, Du Sautoy points out, is backgammon.
“It’s one of the oldest and one of the first racing games.
“It combines those beautiful qualities of having a bit of uncertainty and randomness due to the dicebut even if you roll the dice wrong, you can still use the strategy to win.
“It has a good narrative, because history can change dramatically- You think you’re winning and suddenly they capture a piece and put you back at the beginning, and your opponent starts winning. “That gets you involved in the drama of the game.”
But there is another newer one that declared as one of the best: The settlers of Catanwhich has sold tens of millions of copies since its debut in 1995.
The objective is to populate an island made up of 19 hexagon-shaped tiles. Players roll dice and compete for territory while building cities and trading resources.
“A good game is also one in which everyone is involved all the time.
“Some games leave you waiting while others make their moves. In Catan, even when someone else is making their move, it can generate things that you have to make a decision about, and so everyone is playing at all times of the game.”
Catan was conceived by Klaus Teuber, a dental technician in Germany, a country du Sautoy calls “the modern Mecca of gaming.”
The city of Nuremberg and its “toy-making tradition,” he says, as well as post-Nazi Germany’s ban on importing war toys, “acted as a catalyst for a completely new stream of play.”
Around the world in 5 games
Finally, we asked Du Sautoy to take us on a trip: around the world in 5 games, bypassing Europe and northern North America.
And he accepted the challenge, enthusiastic.
“India It is one of my favorite places, because many wonderful games came from there.
“There is a connection between a culture that loves its math and loves its games, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence.
“I choose chess because it’s one of the great strategy games we’ve come up with, and it seems to have its origins in India.
“But it was a very different game: it had 4 players, with 4 armies, and you had to capture someone else’s army and make it yours. Therefore, now there are two rooks, two knights and two bishops; It is the fusion of two different armies.
“Then, ¿ How about we go to China? I would probably go for Gowhich is another of the great strategy games.
“But it’s a different style of warfare, because in chess you have a lot of hand-to-hand combat through your pieces, knocking out the knight and knocking it off the board, while Go is played on a 19×19 board, and little by little little you are claiming territory.
“It is a slower war. And I think that’s interesting, because it reflects the different character between India and China.
“If I had to choose a third great strategy game, it would be Mancala of the African continent.
“It looks like it is about 6,000 years old. They are small pits that are filled with stones, seeds or marbles, which you collect and ‘sow’ into other pits, trying to gradually capture more pieces than your opponents.
“It is really a beautiful, simple but complex game, which, I think, represents not so much war, but the ability to make a good barter.
“Now, South America It was an interesting challenge:
“I tried very hard to find games from before the arrival of the conquistadors, as many have their origins in Europe.
“Among them, there is one with a very interesting quality called Adugowhich means jaguar (in the language of the Bororo tribe in the Pantanal region of Brazil).
“It’s a bit like checkers, but what’s striking is the asymmetry in the game, because there is only one black piece and it can move very dramatically around the board, while the white pieces can only move one step.
“The challenge is that the black jaguar is being chased by the white dogs, who have to catch it; the jaguar has to jump on the dogs and basically kill them.
“I found it fascinating because I had not seen the idea of asymmetry.
“We need a 5th game. Shall we go to Australasia, to New Zealand?
“There I also had the challenge of finding a game before the arrival of the Europeans, and I found a Maori game called Mu Torere.
“It is played in an envelope with a design that looks like a star, and it has a very interesting strategy, which the Maori players knew very well, so they could always beat the Europeans who challenged.”
There you have it: around the world in 5 games!
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