Hey, Vsauce. Michael here. Why do humans play games? Whether it's a video game or a board game or a physical game, like soccer - or football.
I don't have to put the ball in the net to survive, and, even if I did, why would I invite a goalie and another team? Games are weird. This lead Bernard Suits to say in the 70's that a game is a voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles. So, why do we play sports and games https://irongaming.net/online-gambling-regulation/? How should we feel about intellectualism vs. athleticism? But, most importantly, why do Americans call this game soccer while the English, and the rest of the world, call it football? It turns out that the word "soccer" doesn't come from the United States of America. Instead, the blame for the word goes to the British themselves, specifically Oxford, where, since 1875, it has been popular to add the suffix "-er" to the end of words. For example, calling Radcliffe Camera the "Radder," or these "fivers" and "tenners." We have been playing games with balls and our feet ever since ancient times, all over the world. In fact, as recently as 200 years ago, many of these games called themselves "football." A lack of standardization meant that it was difficult to all come together and agree on what you could and couldn't do with the ball or your feet. But, luckily, in 1863 the Football Association was founded in London, England. Association football is what we most commonly mean nowadays when talking about football, or soccer. But what's the connection if the Oxford "-er" was added to Association football, shouldn't we be calling the game "Association-er?" Well, let's take a closer look at the word "association." You see what's hiding in there? There she is. "Soccer." But we're getting ahead of ourselves because soccer, football, is just one type of game. Ultimately, what is a game? Well, one of my favorite ways of defining "game" comes from computer game designer Chris Crawford. Let's begin with a book. This is a great book, it's really fun, it's entertaining, but it's not a game. TV shows and movies are also not games because, fundamentally, they aren't interactive. But as soon as something is both fun and interactive, well, now we've got ourselves a play-thing. There are two types of play-things, according to Crawford. If you can play with the object and it's fun but there's no goal or objective associated with it, it's a toy. If, however, there is an objective, something you're supposed to accomplish, well, now you're talking about a challenge. But there are two different types of challenges. If the challenge involves no other people or other agents, it's just you, for instance, playing alone with a Rubik's Cube, you've got yourself a puzzle. If, however, there are other people involved, well, now we've got ourselves a conflict. In a conflict, like a foot race, you aren't allowed to interfere with the other participants. This is what Crawford calls a "competition." If, however, you are allowed to interact with and interfere with the other players and they can do the same to you, well, in that case, we are talking about a full-fledged game. So, a game is interactive, goal-oriented, and involves other agents, for instance, other people who can interfere with and influence each other. Which means, technically speaking, that life is a game. I mean, real life. My life, your life, easily fit many definitions of "game." And, in life, there are games that we tend to call "sports." Now, competency at sports can divide humanity into two groups. Jocks, who are good at sports, and nerds who aren't. Jocks are literally named after the Jock Strap, which keeps your genitals supported while being athletic. But jocks are cool, right? They're fit, attractive, they get invited to all the cool parties where, in high school, they can do dangerous, cool things like get drunk. And who are you if you don't get drunk? Well, what's the word "drunk" backwards? You are a "Knurd." But that's not the origin of the word "nerd." There's much debate about where the word comes from, but what we do know is that it emerged as a slang term for "lame" or "square" in Detroit in the early 1950's.
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