All About Sports & Games

Games are recreations generally including any activity engaged in for diversion or amusement and often involve competition, contest or rivalry. They pass the time, entertain, and hopefully, improve our physical or mental health and strength. Some games also teach, educate, and exercise the mind. Games are generally, but not always, played according to prescribed rules, formulas and patterns, and usually involve equipment such as pen and paper, cards, computers, dice or other counters, or specially marked boards. Differentiated from sports, games are usually more passive in nature, often involving intellectual skill more than physical capability.

Many games and sports started as a form of preparation for war. Chess, which originated in India or China in about the 6th or 7th century, re-creates the battlefield. The ancient Greeks made little distinction between sport and war, with violence and bloodshed often being part of the early Olympic Games. In modern times team games in the USA have gained wide acceptance in educational institutions, with scholarships granted for a increasing variety of sports activities.

Some games are similar to organised sports and, like sports, they provide pleasure, relaxation, excitement, and challenge. There are many, many different games. Some have the same rules all over the world, such as chess. Others vary from place to place; for example, there are many variations on the card game of poker.

Monopoly is the best selling board game in the world. Over 200 million games have been sold in 80 counties and 26 languages. The longest game lasted for 70 staight days. In 1999, a sack of money joined the racecar, dog, cannon, shoe, top hat, iron, thimble, battleship, wheelbarrow, and horse and rider as game tokens.

Some games, such as billiards and table tennis, are played on larger surfaces than board games, typically tables with legs. These table games also require different kinds of equipment from board games. In billiards, players use a cue stick to knock balls into one another and into pockets. Table tennis players use paddles ('bays') to hit a light ball back and forth over a net strung across the table.

Not all games require special equipment - you can make your own playing pieces for some games in a few minutes from string, toothpicks, sticks, or stones. Some games make you think, others call for physical skills, and some require both. You can play some games by yourself, sonme need two to play, while others are fun only when played in a group.

Games may be classified by type, such as board games, including chess and checkers; card and dice games; guessing games, including charades; word and letter games, for example, bingo; and the games unique to children.

Recently, computer and video games have become popular for children and adults. In most electronic games, players use a keyboard, joystick, or some other type of game controller. Video games are played on specially designed arcade machines, handheld devices, or systems that are hooked to television screens. Computer games are played on home computers. With electronic games, the computer itself can serve as the opponent, allowing people to play traditional games such as chess or bridge against the computer.

In the 1990s the Internet opened up the possibility of playing games with people in all parts of the world. The Internet and WWW allow people to download game programs (e.g. in Java or Shockwave) from sites such as EncycloZine. Internet clubs have sprung up for many kinds of games, and many of the newest computer games now come with user interfaces for online play.

Sports

Sports are recreational or competitive activities involving some amount of physical strength or skill. Throughout history, man has played games primarily as a means to meet socially with others, to display skills and physical prowess, and to entertain or offer excitement. At one time, sports were commonly considered to include only the outdoor recreational pastimes, such as fishing, shooting, and hunting, as opposed to games, which were regarded as organized athletic contests played by teams or individuals according to prescribed rules. The distinction between sports and games has blurred, and the two terms are now often used interchangeably.

Most games involve some form of running, throwing, and jumping, all of which developed from basic hunting skills. Many early cultures (e.g., the Aztec Indians and the ancient Greeks) incorporated religious and political elements into their games, but there was always a desire for recreational play that eventually inspired the codification of early games and the invention of new ones.

The Olympic Games are an international sports festival that began in ancient Greece. There are records of the champions at Olympia from 776 BC to AD 217. The original Greek games were staged every fourth year for several hundred years, until they were abolished in AD 393 by the Roman emperor Theodosius I, probably because of their pagan associations.

The revival of the Olympic Games took place in April 1896, with 13 nations sending nearly 300 representatives to take part in 42 events and 10 different sports. Since then they have been staged every fourth year, except during World War I and World War II (1916, 1940, 1944). The revival of the Olympic Games led to the formation of many international bodies controlling their own amateur sports and to the creation of National Olympic Committees in countries throughout the world.

In modern times the simplest physical-skill games are such contests as races, archery, and darts. Most modern games, however, are combinations of physical skill and strategy - most apparent in the many varieties of ball games. American football, for example, is possibly the most strategic of games involving physical skill, with its various complex plays and its control by coaches from the sidelines.

 source: http://eluzions.com/Games/About/