Today we watched the first part of a documentary called Games Britannia that dived into the history of board games. It focused on the origins of different ancient games and the effects they have had on different cultures over the years.
The presenter of Games Britannia was Benjamin Woolley who started the documentary by explaining how he had grown up with board games and some of the memorable experiences he has had based around them.
Benjamin investigates how the instinct to play games is both as universal and elemental as language itself. The episode discusses how Ancient and medieval games were not just fun, but a fundamental, and significant part of military tactician (It was used to train upcoming leaders in battle formations and tactics). In the Middle Ages games revolved around spirituality but this spiritual element in games began to be lost as gaming became increasingly associated with gambling. Dice and card games abounded, but a moral backlash in Victorian times transformed games into moral educational tools.This was also the era in which Britain established the world's first commercial games industry, with such classics as the Staunton Chess Set, Ludo and Snakes and Ladders leading the way, all adaptations of original games from other countries.
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