Welcome to my blog, my name is Richard Woo and I’m a gaming developer and Mathematician. This is my first blog and I wish to share with you some of my own work and discuss everything there is to be told about games. Where these discussions will lead, I’m not yet too sure, there is much to discuss when it comes to gameplay from rudimentary things such as gaming rules through to the more complex nature of games and that this the probability of winning.
My Blog and I
I first became fascinated with games when my parents bought me the Disney Story Board game back in 1980. I was 6 at the time and was shared between my sister and I. The Disney StoryBoard Games, now super rare to find, were huge dynamic games that was ahead of its time. It presented to an average six-year-old a world of spells, action and entertainment, just as the movies had. The game played across an enormous board that developed its own story with the guidance of Merlin.
As I grew older the games handed to me became somewhat more developed and I still would recall the importance of how the Disney Story Board worked so well that when I got to the age of 10, I decided to make my own game and submit it to a TV contest that was asking children to invent their own game.
Don’t worry, this isn’t some Disney story where I win and become super famous, in fact, I didn’t win and was pretty angry about it.
What I had learnt from an early age was that games are embedded into the human psyche. There seemed a natural urge to compete with others and the fun of it would aim to lessen the conflict, though if you’ve played Monopoly, it always turns a fun atmosphere sour in a matter of minutes.
A Brief History of Games
The history of games can be traced way, way back to ancient Eastern times. The Asian territories were playing games that are recorded to go back as far as 600AD. These games were played with cards and stone, playing for reward and often took on an element of gambling as a form of trade and barter.
When you think of games, different generations will have different interpretations of the first thing that comes to mind. Now, games are immediately associated with console play. The generation brought up in the 80s would most likely refer to board games as they grew up long before the computer boom.
Generations before this are more likely to recount games under the sporting bracket and going back further games would be recognised by a generation as card and table games.
From this alone, we know that the dynamics are very vast and different through different player’s eyes.
Types of Games
There is an extraordinary number of games out there and it is hardly unlikely that I would be able to cover them all in this blog, unless I live to a ripe old age of 200-something. There have been games of the past that have existed and died, games that have been developed and altered. There are game in existence now that provide players with the same style of play, yet the approaches to finish them are entirely different each time. The games out there in the world reach Hundreds of Thousands in number. From a simple card game of snap through to the latest game of COD that is now played online in multiplayer scenarios.
Through my blog, we will analyse and discuss as many of these games as possible with a review to perhaps making the definitive blog on gaming history, for every game made.
Through my posts, we will discuss card games such as poker, blackjack, baccarat, snap, rummy, solitaire, blitz, bridge and many others.
There is be an analysis of table games such as chess, roulette, draughts, foosball, pool, snooker and again, many others.
There will be discussions on console games covering COD, FIFA and Fortnite and then we shall stray into the board games with classics like Trivial Pursuit, Cluedo, Battle Ships, Monopoly and many others.
My Gaming Development
In parts of my blog is will also share with you my own gaming designs from the one inspired by the Disney Story Board game through to the apps I create for mobile gaming and online sites. I will share programming tips, RNG Games and explain mathematical equations for making a board game that works fairly, but don’t worry, it will be discussed as simply as it can be put when it comes to formulas.
Hope you enjoy and let the games commence.