Card Games – Multiplayer Games

A game is a structured, repeated form of playful play, usually undertaken as a social activity, sometimes for fun or entertainment, and at other times intended to teach or indicate some subject matter. Games are very different from work, which are often performed for monetary reward, and from literature, which are almost always an expression of philosophical or artistic elements. Work is designed to provide the necessary tools for successful life; games are undertaken in order to teach you how to win the game, or experience the game. In a complex society, games proliferate as both a recreational activity and a major source of entertainment; it would seem that games, especially organized games, are the most common pastime, with television playing a close second.

One classic example of a multiplayer game is poker, with its set up as an economic game of trading “potting” chips from players, each holding a hand of seven playing cards. As the chips are accumulated by the players, they are turned over to the dealer who then deals them out into the cups, from which players have to choose the cards they want to “call” and “lock” before being able to use their chips. In most games, the objective is the same: the player who has the best combination of playing cards at the end wins. Although poker has evolved over the years to become a very sophisticated form of game play, the earliest evidence we have of multiplayer games back to the ancient Egyptians is found in the Tomb Chess Set, a wooden board covered in wax that contained ten wooden playing cards, one for each of the five colors used in color therapy (red, orange, yellow, green and blue).

Multiplayer games also use other types of randomly selected sets of playing cards, called chips. Chess is the most common, but poker, fruit machines, bingo, dominoes, air-hockey, baccarat, hopscotch, keno and other games that use chips are also popular. Most games use tiles, although some games use plastic chips. Dominoes, however, are the only chips in a multiplayer card game, where each player receives four cards face down and three cards in the center. This is another way in which they differ from traditional card games.