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Historian Benjamin Woolley unravels the cultural and social significance of popular games in Britain from the Iron Age to the Information Age.
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2009
Games held a spiritual element from ancient times that by the late Middle Ages gave way to gambling. Victorian backlash against dice and card games sought to reposition games as moral educational tools.
Britain exported the moral instructional board game to America, where it was adapted to celebrate wealth and free enterprise in the best-selling game Monopoly. Cluedo, Scrabble, and Monopoly went on to become enduring British family favourites post-war. In the 1980s game development began turning toward fantasy role-playing and computer games.
Fantasy role-playing games developed predominantly in America while the British begin turning their attention to computer games. From early titles like Elite to popular characters like Lara Croft who broke out into the wider entertainment world, Britain's video games harnessed the power of our imagination. The Internet age propelled us to today, where our morality is tested in the world of Grand Theft Auto, and our digital selves interact with virtual realms like Runescape and World of Warcraft.
