5 November 2018

In Black and White

The countdown has reached the end. D-Day has arrived. This blog starts.

To play or not to play?
To play, off course!
Always.
Since always.
Since almost as far back as I can remember.

To play. Discover new worlds, with landscapes, characters, rules and even languages of their own. Travel across the boards, roll the dice, deal the cards. Handle tokens made of many different materials, in all shapes and sizes; with strong colours or in plain black and white. Decipher riddles, design strategies, challenge the odds. Feel the pressure of time trickling away, measured with a watch, an hourglass or in turns of play. The thrill of trying to be first. The joy of observing an unfolding game, watching it gain life. The long holiday afternoons. The warmth of playing with friends, around the table.

Go

To play. In black and white. Literally, on the boards and on the pieces. As in the great classics, that have come across centuries and civilisations: Chess, Go, Draughts. Games in which everything is in plain sight, since the very beginning. With no hidden surprises whatsoever. But, even so, where it is not possible to foreseen it all, to the very end. Keeping the mystery alive. Which takes two to be solved.

In black and white. Figuratively, as in opposing sides. Me and the other. We and the others. Partners and rivals. Balance and imbalance. Calculations and decisions.

Black with white. Shades of grey. Nuances and uncertainties. All it takes is to add a dice, and everything changes. Hypothesis, probabilities, risk, caution. Every decision, every move, becomes dependent. Trying to make the best of what lady luck has to offer. As in backgammon.

In full colour. Games for three, four, five or even more players. In interaction. With themes and with roles to play. Cooperation or confrontation. Alliances and betrayals. Asymmetries. Simulating reality, fictionalising realities or remaining in the abstract domain. In outer space or on planet Earth.

Compete, negotiate, buy, sell, sow, multiply, build, destroy, cure, infect, fight, conquer, rule, travel, unite, take over, run, climb, descend, speed up, fly, grow, transform, transform yourself and plus everything else that might be imagined. Parallel worlds, in continuous creation.

A pallet of choices. For all and for each one. Even better, suited to each one’s taste. Simple or complex. Immediate or progressive in learning. To spend a mere fifteen minutes or a whole afternoon. To play a couple of times or to come back again and again. To think hard or just to push the pieces around. With luck or without it. To appreciate the aesthetics or the mechanism. The creation or the creator. To play or to collect.

Tresham, Francis. Civilization
Northampton: Hartland Trefoil Ltd., 1980. Gibson Games


In black and white.
Playing in black and white.
Symbolising all board games.
No computers involved, unplugged.
This is a travel blog in the land of games.

Wandering, aimlessly, throughout time and space.

Exploring distant pasts, measured in centuries or even millennia, reaching the deep roots of well-known games. Seeking memories from a less distant past, some decades or even few years ago, visiting "my" games. Trying out the games of today and, who knows, those that are being created for tomorrow.

Wandering through places where games are played, where you can find and buy them, and spaces for their creation and development. Traversing territories that may not be found on the city streets, but where games are present: photography, books, music, movies.

Opinion. Pictures. History. Stories. Rules. Tests. Modifications. Analyses. "My" games. The Classics. The New. The Old. Places. Creations. Creators. Disseminators. Languages. Books. Magazines. Publishers.

Everything will fit in here.
In the land of games.
Wandering.

Come on board for this journey!
Read, comment, suggest.
And, of course, play!


Wandering in the land of games. Unplugged. Fuelled by passion. Moving across time and space. Over boards and tables. In the company of tokens, dices and cards, of all shapes and sizes. Pathways with history and with stories. For sharing.
"My name is Gamer ... Board Gamer".

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