Only a game?

[Richard Pask]

J. B Pick's Dictionary of Games (1952) is not a book I would especially recommend, particularly as the brief section on draughts is extremely disappointing. However, the author's introduction seems to me to be excellent and I quote it in part here:


But - why play games at all? Games in the remote past had religious significance; for some they remain a cult if not a religion. Later they were looked upon as a form of military training; for many they are still a battle. This is not a book on religion or the origin of games, but it wouldn't have been worth writing if games had no real meaning here and now. It is interesting that the secret of both enjoyment and success in games is concentration. A man is happy not when he says 'I am am happy', but when he forgets himself altogether and concentrates entire attention on work or play. Then time ceases to exist. A man wins a game not when he says 'I must win', but when he concentrates ruthlessly on the point to be won, the ball to hit or the pieces to be moved on the board. The happy-go-lucky player enjoys his game and as long as he remains lucky remains happy, but he would enjoy it more should he forget his mask of happy-go-lucky. The essence of a game is individual or team competition. It is not unsporting to try to win, it is irrelevant not to, an insult to an individual opponent to fail in concentration and sabotage to a team of which you are a member. The phrase 'he takes his games too seriously' is silly, for every good player takes his games seriously; the better player you are the more enjoyment you give and gain. No, the player who is angry when he loses doesn't concentrate enough - that is, he doesn't take his game seriously enough - and that is why he loses. To the true games-player the game itself, the changing pattern, the playing of each shot, is all-important, not 'I winning' or 'I losing'. Afterwards, perhaps, when he emerges from the game he may feel disappointed that he has lost and may remember with rage or amusement incidents which were brief irrelevancies at the time. But that's afterwards, and to the worker who loves his work and the player who loves his game afterwards is unimportant. Concentration, plus sheer spontaneous exuberance, makes the best kind of games player.

Games after all are not only games, they are games, just as an elephant is not only an elephant, it is an elephant. Games are also rituals, patterns and symbols of life itself, and as such have a meaning beyond 'my enjoyment', 'your enjoyment', teaching a great deal more than the psychology of opponents and all the methods of play. As symbols they can at once be rejoiced in and treated with respect as the mysterious providers of that intense peace which is both action and contemplation.


Well!