WEBVTT - Is Monopoly Socialist? 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:07.690 You're listening to Part-Time Genius, a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. 0:00:12.610 --> 0:00:15.650 Guess what, Will? What's that, Mango? Did you know that 0:00:15.690 --> 0:00:18.840 the game Candyland comes from a polio ward? 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:20.900 I have to say, I cannot think of two things 0:00:20.960 --> 0:00:23.640 more different than Candyland and polio, Mango. 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:27.600 I know, it sounds entirely insane. But in 1948, a 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:31.890 teacher named Eleanor Abbott invented Candyland during a polio epidemic. 0:00:32.270 --> 0:00:35.479 Apparently Abbott got sick and was confined to this hospital 0:00:35.530 --> 0:00:39.120 where children were being treated in iron lungs, which, you know, 0:00:39.240 --> 0:00:42.080 just sounds horrible. Iron lungs, for those of you who 0:00:42.120 --> 0:00:45.180 don't know, were these early types of respirator where the 0:00:45.220 --> 0:00:48.949 kids were basically immobilized and mostly they're just lying on 0:00:48.990 --> 0:00:51.990 their backs, unable to see anything except the white ceiling 0:00:52.030 --> 0:00:55.730 above them. And to counter all of this, Abbott creates 0:00:55.790 --> 0:00:59.450 this bright, cheerful game where the only goal, the only 0:00:59.510 --> 0:01:02.210 goal is to move around the landscape of treats. And 0:01:02.660 --> 0:01:05.140 her original version of the board even showed a boy 0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:08.720 in a leg brace starting to walk. Wow, that's that's 0:01:08.740 --> 0:01:09.240 pretty cool. 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:11.280 And, you know, I almost feel bad admitting this now, 0:01:11.300 --> 0:01:13.580 but I always thought Candyland was kind of boring. 0:01:13.620 --> 0:01:17.180 Is that controversial to say? I don't know. I mean, 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:21.160 let's be clear, it is super dull. The game basically 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:25.170 requires no effort and has no strategy, but it was 0:01:25.310 --> 0:01:28.410 made as mindless entertainment. It was really this way for 0:01:28.470 --> 0:01:32.229 kids to imagine again and pass time. But, you know, 0:01:32.410 --> 0:01:35.649 reading about Candyland made me wonder about all these colorful 0:01:35.730 --> 0:01:39.350 cardboard boxes in family rooms across the country and the 0:01:39.390 --> 0:01:43.310 incredible stories hiding inside them, many of which don't involve 0:01:43.350 --> 0:01:44.110 deadly diseases. 0:01:44.810 --> 0:02:08.560 So let's dive in. Hey there, podcast listeners. Welcome back 0:02:08.580 --> 0:02:11.220 to Part-Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson, and as always, I'm 0:02:11.260 --> 0:02:14.340 here with my good friend, Mangesh Hatikader. And there behind 0:02:14.380 --> 0:02:18.100 the booth, that's our amazing producer, Dylan Fagan, who seems 0:02:18.139 --> 0:02:21.239 to be wearing a tweed jacket with elbow patches. 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:22.359 Haven't seen those in a minute. 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:24.919 He's got a pipe. I hope the smoke alarm doesn't 0:02:24.940 --> 0:02:27.240 go off. And he's waving something at us. Mago, can 0:02:27.260 --> 0:02:28.620 you actually tell what that is? 0:02:29.740 --> 0:02:32.739 Yeah, I think it's a candlestick, which is maybe a 0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:36.639 reference to Clue. Oh, my God. It's Professor Fagan in 0:02:36.660 --> 0:02:43.730 the booth with a candlestick. That's amazing. So I was 0:02:43.770 --> 0:02:46.550 a big fan of Clue, but Will, I'm wondering if 0:02:46.610 --> 0:02:48.609 you had to pick, what would you say is your 0:02:48.650 --> 0:02:49.790 favorite board game of all time? 0:02:50.330 --> 0:02:53.310 You know, if we're having to stick to board games 0:02:53.350 --> 0:02:55.989 versus just like a party game in a box, I 0:02:56.090 --> 0:02:58.470 probably would put Clue way up there. I mean, it 0:02:58.530 --> 0:03:01.230 is so much fun playing with the family. My daughter 0:03:01.270 --> 0:03:04.410 gets so into it and so anxious about one of 0:03:04.470 --> 0:03:07.030 us guessing before her, and it just gets real heated, 0:03:07.070 --> 0:03:09.570 but in the right kind of way. But if I 0:03:09.620 --> 0:03:13.100 had to just say my favorite, like, game in a box, 0:03:13.150 --> 0:03:17.649 I'd probably go with something like Taboo. I just love 0:03:17.669 --> 0:03:20.510 the element of a timer being there and it being 0:03:20.550 --> 0:03:23.399 a word-based game and having to play with a team 0:03:23.419 --> 0:03:26.220 and just getting so into it and all the screaming 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:28.160 that starts to happen when it gets really heated. 0:03:28.380 --> 0:03:30.650 I don't know. Those would probably be my two favorites. 0:03:30.660 --> 0:03:35.030 How about you? Yeah. Yeah, for parties, I like Scattergories, 0:03:35.090 --> 0:03:37.790 I think. I think Scattergories is always really, really fun. 0:03:38.130 --> 0:03:42.090 Ruby brought home this game called Outfoxed a few years ago, 0:03:42.110 --> 0:03:46.950 and it's for younger kids. But there is a fox 0:03:47.010 --> 0:03:49.210 who has stolen a pie, and you're trying to figure 0:03:49.230 --> 0:03:51.560 out which fox it is, and it's super, super cute 0:03:51.620 --> 0:03:54.880 and really, really fun. Oh, that's fun. That's a game 0:03:54.940 --> 0:03:57.700 I've been giving to people recently. So many good games 0:03:57.800 --> 0:03:58.140 out there. 0:03:58.200 --> 0:03:59.800 Well, you know, one of the things that surprised me 0:03:59.840 --> 0:04:03.220 when I started researching for this topic is just how 0:04:03.260 --> 0:04:05.770 many different types of board games there are out there. 0:04:06.250 --> 0:04:09.790 In fact, in 1999, a renowned British games historian named 0:04:09.950 --> 0:04:13.330 David Parlett, he published a book called The Oxford History 0:04:13.390 --> 0:04:16.600 of Board Games. And he divided board games into four 0:04:16.700 --> 0:04:17.460 different groups. 0:04:18.020 --> 0:04:18.719 You've got your. 0:04:18.640 --> 0:04:20.980 Race games, where the goal is to cross a finish 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:24.520 line or get your pieces home first. You've got your 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:27.670 space games where you need to achieve a certain pattern 0:04:27.700 --> 0:04:31.250 or configuration. You've got your chase games where you hunt 0:04:31.290 --> 0:04:34.409 down and thwart your opponent's pieces. And then you've got 0:04:34.450 --> 0:04:38.620 your displace games where you win by capturing your opponent's pieces. 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:40.200 So I don't know if you've got all those straight now, 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:41.740 but those are the four categories. 0:04:43.100 --> 0:04:45.440 I love that games historian is a real job, but 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:48.080 I also love that the height of games historian is 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:50.480 that you make your categories rhyme like that. Right, right. 0:04:50.660 --> 0:04:54.430 Isn't it amazing? It's really amazing. Yeah. But I am curious, 0:04:54.650 --> 0:04:56.849 where does something like Monopoly fit into the system? 0:04:57.490 --> 0:05:01.230 Mango, do not underestimate British games historian David Parlett. So 0:05:01.310 --> 0:05:04.100 to address questions just like that one you asked, he 0:05:04.300 --> 0:05:09.580 actually added in an informal fifth classification. These are theme games. 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:11.700 So I guess they didn't rhyme with the others, but 0:05:12.140 --> 0:05:16.000 it includes, quote, the plethora of modern board games chiefly 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:20.250 categorized by thematic subject matter, such as property trading or 0:05:20.370 --> 0:05:21.390 crime detection. 0:05:22.310 --> 0:05:24.409 Well, I mean, I do love that someone is taking 0:05:24.470 --> 0:05:27.890 such an academic approach to understanding board games. It's really 0:05:27.910 --> 0:05:28.589 kind of amazing. 0:05:28.930 --> 0:05:31.469 It's honestly one of my favorite things is when people 0:05:31.529 --> 0:05:34.789 have such specific specialties. Like, I really do love that 0:05:34.930 --> 0:05:37.330 to be like the guy to go to on stuff 0:05:37.370 --> 0:05:40.540 like this. But Anyway, Parlett explains that board games are 0:05:40.620 --> 0:05:44.430 a cultural activity. Not unlike music or dance, they've been 0:05:44.490 --> 0:05:47.849 part of human civilization for as long as human civilization 0:05:47.890 --> 0:05:50.910 has been around. And as a result, they deserve to 0:05:50.950 --> 0:05:51.450 be studied. 0:05:52.190 --> 0:05:54.350 I actually wanted to know what the world's first board 0:05:54.370 --> 0:05:56.950 game was, and it turns out it's something called Senet. 0:05:57.250 --> 0:06:00.680 The game means passing, and it was a popular board 0:06:00.690 --> 0:06:03.380 game in ancient Egypt, played by everyday people as well 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:07.150 as royalty. And One of the paintings in Queen Nefertiti's 0:06:07.210 --> 0:06:10.410 tomb shows her playing it. And King Tut was actually 0:06:10.430 --> 0:06:13.870 buried with five Senate game boxes. So how did the 0:06:13.910 --> 0:06:16.530 game work? I mean, the thing is, we don't really 0:06:16.570 --> 0:06:19.300 have a definitive account of the rules. What we know 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:22.800 mostly comes from tomb paintings and the few surviving boards. 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:25.920 But basically, the board was a grid of 30 squares 0:06:26.140 --> 0:06:28.880 made of three rows of 10. And you start at 0:06:28.900 --> 0:06:30.979 the top left corner and move your pieces across the 0:06:31.020 --> 0:06:33.450 rows until you get to the bottom right corner. But 0:06:33.830 --> 0:06:37.250 what's interesting about it is that while archaeologists think Senet 0:06:37.470 --> 0:06:40.660 began as this sort of simple pastime, like something you 0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:43.700 played for fun, eventually it took on this greater meaning. 0:06:44.300 --> 0:06:47.419 So there's actually a tomb art that shows the deceased 0:06:47.500 --> 0:06:51.000 playing Senet against their living relatives. And that suggests the 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:53.260 game had the power to connect the living and the dead. 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:56.320 And some people think the game may represent the soul's 0:06:56.380 --> 0:06:59.190 journey through the realm of the dead as they try 0:06:59.200 --> 0:07:00.229 to reach the afterlife. 0:07:01.310 --> 0:07:04.130 So maybe a little bit more profound than, say, Hungry 0:07:04.170 --> 0:07:07.190 Hungry Hippos. But, you know, I also looked into ancient 0:07:07.250 --> 0:07:09.970 board games, and I discovered the story of the Royal 0:07:10.090 --> 0:07:14.190 Game of Ur. Now, it was played in Mesopotamia around 0:07:14.190 --> 0:07:17.630 4,500 years ago, and Westerners learned all about it in 0:07:17.650 --> 0:07:21.490 the 1920s when a British archaeologist named Sir Leonard Woolley 0:07:21.890 --> 0:07:24.230 was exploring the ruins there in Ur that was the 0:07:24.250 --> 0:07:28.490 great Sumerian city-state in modern-day Iraq. And so deep in 0:07:28.510 --> 0:07:32.180 the royal tombs there, Woolley found these beautiful boards made 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:35.970 from shells and semi-precious stones, but there was nothing to 0:07:36.050 --> 0:07:39.120 indicate what the game was exactly or how to play it. 0:07:39.590 --> 0:07:42.020 So for decades, the boards just sat there at the 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:42.679 British Museum. 0:07:43.380 --> 0:07:45.800 And I'm guessing the story doesn't end there. It does not. 0:07:45.820 --> 0:07:47.240 I have more to say about that. 0:07:47.260 --> 0:07:50.480 And so that's when Irving Finkel, who was a British 0:07:50.540 --> 0:07:54.220 Museum curator with the perfect name for a British Museum curator, 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:58.130 Irving Finkel, he enters the scene. Now, he's apparently quite 0:07:58.230 --> 0:08:02.290 a character. He's got his huge white beard and bushy eyebrows, 0:08:02.350 --> 0:08:04.330 all these things that you knew exactly when I said 0:08:04.370 --> 0:08:06.950 his name was Irving Finkel. And he's obsessed with board 0:08:06.990 --> 0:08:11.480 games and cuneiform. And this made him uniquely suited to 0:08:11.540 --> 0:08:14.800 solve this mystery. So one day in the 1980s, he's 0:08:14.880 --> 0:08:17.680 looking at a tablet that had this weird combination of 0:08:17.740 --> 0:08:21.080 Sumerian and Babylonian languages on it, and he's just trying 0:08:21.100 --> 0:08:24.200 to decipher it. And Finkel figured out it was written 0:08:24.260 --> 0:08:28.710 by a Babylonian scribe who was quoting an early Sumerian document. 0:08:29.150 --> 0:08:31.350 This was all about the royal game of Ur. 0:08:31.470 --> 0:08:34.829 So... What was he looking at? Like, did he find 0:08:34.850 --> 0:08:37.410 directions for the game? He kind of did. 0:08:37.470 --> 0:08:40.530 So the tablet Finkel translated had a set of directions 0:08:40.610 --> 0:08:44.480 for a gameplay that included fortune telling, like landing on 0:08:44.540 --> 0:08:48.080 certain squares apparently predicted your future. But like I said, 0:08:48.100 --> 0:08:51.640 this Babylonian guy was quoting an earlier description of the game. 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:55.480 And so that helped Finkel reconstruct the original method of play. 0:08:56.050 --> 0:08:59.540 And under David Parlett's classification, it's a race game. So 0:08:59.580 --> 0:09:02.180 you move your pieces along the board by rolling dice, 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:04.680 which back in Sumerian times would have been made from 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:08.460 sheep or ox bones. And whoever gets all their pieces 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:11.390 across the finish line wins. Now you can thwart your 0:09:11.429 --> 0:09:13.650 opponent by landing on one of their pieces and then 0:09:13.690 --> 0:09:16.210 sending them back to the start. And according to Finkel, 0:09:16.650 --> 0:09:19.510 special marked squares gave you an extra turn. 0:09:19.530 --> 0:09:20.990 So even some of the little things that you would 0:09:21.010 --> 0:09:23.350 see in today's games. Yeah, I know. It feels so 0:09:23.390 --> 0:09:25.550 modern in a sense. So can you actually play this 0:09:25.590 --> 0:09:26.850 game now? Yeah. 0:09:26.870 --> 0:09:29.390 And so lots of people have made boards modeled after 0:09:29.429 --> 0:09:31.790 the ones at the British Museum. You can find them 0:09:31.830 --> 0:09:33.600 on Etsy if you want to look at this. But 0:09:33.929 --> 0:09:36.910 if you prefer a more digital Sumerian experience, you can 0:09:36.960 --> 0:09:42.600 go to royalur.net and play online. 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:45.100 That is amazing to think you can play a game 0:09:45.140 --> 0:09:48.790 that Mesopotamians played way back when. But You know, one 0:09:49.210 --> 0:09:52.740 thing I learned while researching this episode is that board 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:56.320 game history is really messy and different cultures often developed 0:09:56.390 --> 0:10:00.280 similar games and they evolved as people played. So it's 0:10:00.340 --> 0:10:03.180 not always easy to trace their lineage. Like you think 0:10:03.220 --> 0:10:06.099 about chess, right? Chess was originated in India over a 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:09.839 thousand years ago, but there's also evidence that similar games 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:14.210 were created in China, Pakistan, Russia, and elsewhere. Wow. Yeah. 0:10:14.270 --> 0:10:16.850 And actually for our newer listeners, you know, Mango, didn't 0:10:16.870 --> 0:10:18.650 we do an episode about chess a few years ago? 0:10:19.460 --> 0:10:22.330 Yeah, it was called Why Are Russians So Good at Chess? 0:10:22.730 --> 0:10:24.590 And we got into some of that history, so we 0:10:24.610 --> 0:10:26.469 don't have to go over it now. But I do 0:10:26.510 --> 0:10:28.770 want to tell you about another game with Indian roots 0:10:29.050 --> 0:10:33.210 and a complicated family tree. It's called Pachise, and it 0:10:33.370 --> 0:10:35.950 goes to show how a single game can leapfrog its 0:10:36.010 --> 0:10:38.470 way across the globe. But why don't we get into 0:10:38.550 --> 0:10:55.750 that right after this break? Welcome back to Part-Time Genius, 0:10:55.770 --> 0:10:58.439 where we're talking about board games, where they come from, 0:10:58.559 --> 0:11:00.819 and why we love them. So, Will, I want to 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:02.439 tell you about the game of Parchees. 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:04.720 So, Mango, I know a lot of times we'll have 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:09.060 discussions around pronunciations, given your family roots and my roots 0:11:09.100 --> 0:11:11.960 here in Alabama. So, I think what you mean, though, 0:11:12.020 --> 0:11:13.000 is Parchees-y, right? 0:11:13.020 --> 0:11:18.710 Yeah. No, I mean Pachis, which is often referred to 0:11:18.750 --> 0:11:21.310 as the national game of India. I had no idea. 0:11:21.330 --> 0:11:23.050 I've been to India a number of times. I did 0:11:23.110 --> 0:11:25.650 not know it was the national game of India. But 0:11:25.790 --> 0:11:30.100 the name comes from the Hindi word, which means 25. 0:11:30.100 --> 0:11:32.680 And it's a classic chase game played on a board 0:11:32.720 --> 0:11:34.720 shaped like a cross. There's a square in the middle. 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:36.479 And the goal is to be the first player to 0:11:36.500 --> 0:11:38.600 get all four of your pieces around the board and 0:11:38.660 --> 0:11:41.270 into the center. I have to say, Mango, that sounds 0:11:41.290 --> 0:11:45.600 a lot like Parcheesi. Yeah, it should, because Parcheesi is 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:48.160 a simplified version of the game that was marketed in 0:11:48.179 --> 0:11:51.340 the US in the late 1800s. But there are differences. 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:54.960 So in the Indian version, the pieces start and end 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:58.739 in the center square. In Parcheesi, each player starts their 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:02.120 pieces in one corner and then races to the center. Also, 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:06.990 Parcheesi uses dice. Parcheesi uses cowrie shells. You throw them 0:12:07.050 --> 0:12:08.770 and count the number of shells that land with the 0:12:08.870 --> 0:12:11.679 open end up. And that determines the number of spaces 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:13.980 you can move. And in most versions of the game, 0:12:14.140 --> 0:12:16.380 the highest value you can get from these cowrie shells 0:12:16.410 --> 0:12:16.890 is 25, hence the name. 0:12:19.190 --> 0:12:21.070 You know, the cowrie is, of course, for those that 0:12:21.110 --> 0:12:23.390 don't know, it's a small, shiny sea snail, which I've 0:12:23.429 --> 0:12:25.970 just discovered is a great tongue twister to say 10 0:12:25.970 --> 0:12:26.510 times fast. 0:12:26.750 --> 0:12:29.720 Well, what's really interesting is that no one knows exactly 0:12:29.820 --> 0:12:33.140 where pachis came from. It may have evolved from games 0:12:33.220 --> 0:12:36.940 that began in the 4th century or even earlier. They're 0:12:37.000 --> 0:12:40.760 depictions of cross-shaped boards that date back to the 2nd 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:43.990 century BCE. We do know there was an early version 0:12:44.070 --> 0:12:48.430 called Chowpar that was popular among mogul royalty in the 0:12:48.770 --> 0:12:52.330 16th century, including the Emperor Akbar. And he actually had 0:12:52.370 --> 0:12:54.900 a life-size game set up at his palace. And instead 0:12:54.940 --> 0:12:57.740 of using tokens, he and his friends played by calling 0:12:57.780 --> 0:13:01.020 out their moves to courtesans who walked across the outdoor board. 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:02.120 That's interesting. 0:13:02.140 --> 0:13:05.870 And how did Pachise get turned into Parcheesi for those 0:13:05.910 --> 0:13:06.790 of us in America now? 0:13:07.179 --> 0:13:11.960 Around 1860, there was a British games company that made 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:16.370 a version called Pachisi for the UK market. A few 0:13:16.390 --> 0:13:18.770 years later, a New York man named John Hamilton made 0:13:18.809 --> 0:13:20.929 his own version, copyrighted it, and sold it to a 0:13:20.970 --> 0:13:24.849 company that became known as Selchow and Ryder, which is 0:13:24.910 --> 0:13:28.119 a major games publisher. And that's where it was rebranded 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:29.620 as Pachisi and became a hit. 0:13:30.290 --> 0:13:32.699 I do like it when things like this evolve and 0:13:32.740 --> 0:13:34.620 sort of bounce around over time. So in this case, 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:38.010 this bounce from India to Britain to America, and I 0:13:38.010 --> 0:13:40.090 guess with slightly different names at each stop. 0:13:40.570 --> 0:13:42.630 I mean, what's weird is that there's even a little 0:13:42.650 --> 0:13:45.630 bit more back and forth. So in the 1890s, after 0:13:45.670 --> 0:13:48.270 Parcheesi took off in the US, the game changed again 0:13:48.290 --> 0:13:52.069 in England, and people modified it to a smaller board, 0:13:52.230 --> 0:13:55.329 and they used one die instead of two. And that 0:13:55.370 --> 0:13:58.070 version was called Ludo, which I'm sure you've heard of. 0:13:58.370 --> 0:14:01.390 And strangely enough, in the 20th century, there was a 0:14:01.610 --> 0:14:05.750 Ludo craze that swept India. So I mean, it's kind 0:14:05.770 --> 0:14:08.290 of amazing to think this board game that started in 0:14:08.429 --> 0:14:13.500 India Ends up traveling, evolves, and then comes back to India. Oh, 0:14:13.540 --> 0:14:14.580 that's wild. All right. 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:15.939 So for my next fact, I think I'm going to 0:14:15.980 --> 0:14:19.000 go back to British games historian David Parlett and his 0:14:19.040 --> 0:14:21.780 game classification system. You remember him from the top of 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:22.600 the episode, Mango? 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:26.490 I mean, how could I forget British games historian David Parlett? 0:14:26.740 --> 0:14:28.160 I like that every time we're going to mention him, 0:14:28.180 --> 0:14:30.040 we're going to have to say in full British games 0:14:30.100 --> 0:14:31.840 historian David Parlett. 0:14:32.420 --> 0:14:33.560 It's good branding for him. 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:35.960 But I want to get into the modern era of 0:14:36.020 --> 0:14:38.220 board games here, which is really when we start to 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:41.240 see the rise of what Parlett calls these theme games. 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:43.360 And one of the first themes people applied to board 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:44.580 games was geography. 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:46.360 And why do you think that was? 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:49.350 Well, in the late 18th century, board games took off 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:51.710 in Europe. Now, this was the age of enlightenment. So 0:14:51.730 --> 0:14:54.760 there were all kinds of theories about education and And 0:14:54.830 --> 0:14:58.030 people realized that board games could be educational. Now, at 0:14:58.070 --> 0:15:01.150 the same time, you have cartographers who were getting into 0:15:01.190 --> 0:15:04.870 the game publishing business, creating game boards out of maps. 0:15:05.390 --> 0:15:08.800 And these geographic board games mostly followed the same pattern. 0:15:09.220 --> 0:15:11.620 So you move from city to city across a map, 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:15.120 learning little facts along the way. And here's an unusual detail. 0:15:15.320 --> 0:15:19.620 Most games didn't use dice because dice were associated with gambling. 0:15:20.100 --> 0:15:23.100 So instead, people used the spinning top with numbered sides 0:15:23.230 --> 0:15:24.230 called teetotem. 0:15:24.590 --> 0:15:27.050 And have you ever heard of this? I actually have. 0:15:27.110 --> 0:15:29.670 It kind of looks like a dreidel, right? In fact, 0:15:29.730 --> 0:15:31.050 it became the dreidel. 0:15:31.090 --> 0:15:35.170 Like European Jews modified it by replacing numbers with Hebrew letters. 0:15:35.190 --> 0:15:38.100 So by using a teetotem instead of dice, it made 0:15:38.140 --> 0:15:41.680 board games socially acceptable. And back then, travel wasn't as 0:15:41.740 --> 0:15:44.320 common as it is now. So geographic board games were 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:47.820 also a way to discover places that you might not otherwise. 0:15:47.440 --> 0:15:49.090 Get to know. Oh, that's really fun. 0:15:49.540 --> 0:15:53.880 So in 1822, a geographic game called A Traveler's Tour 0:15:53.930 --> 0:15:56.410 of the United States became the first board game to 0:15:56.430 --> 0:15:59.010 be published in America. And it was created by a 0:15:59.010 --> 0:16:01.729 New York mapmaker, and it consisted of a map of 0:16:01.910 --> 0:16:04.890 all 24 states at the time. That's all we had 0:16:04.930 --> 0:16:07.100 at that point. And so cities on the map were 0:16:07.160 --> 0:16:10.620 marked by numbers instead of names. There was a corresponding 0:16:10.740 --> 0:16:13.640 list of places. So for example, Trenton, New Jersey was 0:16:13.700 --> 0:16:15.980 marked with a 10 on the map. And if you 0:16:16.020 --> 0:16:18.250 looked up number 10 on the list, it said Trenton. 0:16:18.820 --> 0:16:21.370 And then there were bonus facts like capital of the 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:25.410 state on the Delaware River, 30 miles northeast of Philadelphia, 0:16:25.470 --> 0:16:29.489 population 3,000, stuff like that. And so you spin the T-totem, 0:16:29.770 --> 0:16:32.350 look that number of spaces ahead on the map. And 0:16:32.390 --> 0:16:35.110 if you can name the town without looking at the list, 0:16:35.130 --> 0:16:37.640 you get to move your token there. So if I'm 0:16:37.660 --> 0:16:40.900 a number seven, Wilmington, Delaware, and I spin a three, 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:44.100 I can move to number 10, assuming that I know 0:16:44.200 --> 0:16:45.300 the spot is Trenton. 0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:49.120 Do you follow this? It's a little complicated. I mean, 0:16:49.140 --> 0:16:52.640 I do love this like Oregon Trail nature of these 0:16:52.660 --> 0:16:55.620 games where you're learning about places along the way. But 0:16:56.420 --> 0:16:59.030 this almost sounds painfully educational. Yeah. 0:16:59.050 --> 0:17:01.130 And the goal of the game was to travel from 0:17:01.190 --> 0:17:04.449 the East Coast down to New Orleans. But interestingly, the 0:17:04.510 --> 0:17:08.350 game was political, too. So an Iowa State professor named 0:17:08.430 --> 0:17:12.620 Matthew Wynn-Sivils, he writes this fascinating essay about this in 0:17:12.630 --> 0:17:16.650 The Conversation. And he points out that the location descriptions 0:17:16.710 --> 0:17:20.709 tell a very specific story about the United States in 0:17:20.710 --> 0:17:24.310 1822 and how we wanted to see ourselves. They emphasize 0:17:24.369 --> 0:17:29.540 institutions of higher learning, economic prosperity, the industriousness of American citizens. 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:32.400 And they do not, however, mention slavery. 0:17:32.859 --> 0:17:35.040 So it's like American exceptionalism, the game, right? 0:17:35.220 --> 0:17:38.180 That's exactly right. But you have to know where Trenton is. 0:17:38.300 --> 0:17:39.260 That's the main thing. 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:44.619 Yeah. Fascinating. Well, speaking of things Americans are good at, 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:47.360 I did some research into the creation of the board 0:17:47.400 --> 0:17:50.220 game industry. Like, how did these games go from these 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:54.240 faux creations to indie publications to, you know, a billion 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:57.179 dollar business? And it turns out we have a man 0:17:57.310 --> 0:17:59.500 named Milton Bradley to thank for it. 0:18:00.030 --> 0:18:01.469 You know, for some reason, I always thought that was 0:18:01.550 --> 0:18:03.910 like a law firm name, you know, the partners, last 0:18:03.970 --> 0:18:05.850 names that come together to form the name. 0:18:06.530 --> 0:18:08.109 Yeah, I actually thought so, too. I thought it was 0:18:08.150 --> 0:18:11.770 two partners. But Milton was a real person, and he 0:18:11.790 --> 0:18:15.439 was born in Maine in this tiny town called Vienna. 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:20.440 His family struggled financially, and they ended up moving to Lowell, Massachusetts, 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:23.639 so his dad could work in a mill. Now, Milton 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:26.420 never finished school, and he had a hard time finding jobs, too. 0:18:26.480 --> 0:18:30.600 But in 1860, he started this lithography business. This happened 0:18:30.619 --> 0:18:34.020 to be in election year. Abraham Lincoln was running against Democrats. 0:18:34.410 --> 0:18:38.119 John C. Breckenridge, and Bradley made a lithograph print of 0:18:38.220 --> 0:18:41.619 Lincoln that sold like hotcakes. Actually, I'm just going to 0:18:41.660 --> 0:18:42.959 send you a copy so you can take a look 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:43.159 at it. 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:46.000 I mean, that's Abraham Lincoln, but his hair is very 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:48.000 short and he doesn't have a beard. 0:18:48.830 --> 0:18:52.170 Yeah, he doesn't have that trademark beard. So, shortly after 0:18:52.210 --> 0:18:55.790 Bradley started selling this lithograph, Lincoln actually grew his beard, 0:18:55.950 --> 0:18:58.840 which made him look totally different. So, not only did 0:18:58.910 --> 0:19:02.160 his stock of prints become worthless overnight, but some people 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:05.540 actually started complaining about this, and Bradley starts giving them 0:19:05.560 --> 0:19:08.440 their money back. It almost put him out of business, 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:11.100 and it's all because of this ridiculous beard. Oh, wow. 0:19:12.609 --> 0:19:16.530 After this disaster, Bradley pivots. He published a board game 0:19:16.630 --> 0:19:19.410 called The Checkered Game of Life. Now, this was probably 0:19:19.430 --> 0:19:21.570 inspired by a British game called The New Game of 0:19:21.630 --> 0:19:24.970 Human Life, which was weirdly based on a 16th century 0:19:25.010 --> 0:19:29.760 game called The Royal Game of Goose, which I feel 0:19:29.800 --> 0:19:31.820 like if you've got a game called The Royal Game 0:19:31.859 --> 0:19:34.560 of Goose, how can you improve on it? But apparently 0:19:34.640 --> 0:19:37.480 they did. But what all these games had in common 0:19:37.540 --> 0:19:40.260 was the idea of moving along a path that represented life. 0:19:40.970 --> 0:19:43.920 And it had a strict moral code that determined the outcome. 0:19:43.980 --> 0:19:46.850 So if you landed on a vice, you'd travel backwards. 0:19:46.960 --> 0:19:49.530 If you landed on a virtue, you move forwards. And 0:19:49.550 --> 0:19:52.750 players didn't have much agency in the games, much like Candyland. 0:19:53.109 --> 0:19:55.750 So wherever your pieces landed, that was kind of your fate. 0:19:56.160 --> 0:19:58.720 So what Bradley does is he adds this level of 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:02.640 decision-making to the game. Players spawn a T-Totem, and then 0:20:02.660 --> 0:20:04.619 they look at the chart that gave them two to 0:20:04.680 --> 0:20:07.450 four options for their move. So some of the spaces 0:20:07.490 --> 0:20:10.609 on the board had points, like landing on college or happiness. 0:20:10.730 --> 0:20:13.689 That actually gave you five points. And other spaces sent 0:20:13.730 --> 0:20:17.530 you back, kind of like snakes and ladders. And weirdly, 0:20:17.790 --> 0:20:20.870 Bradley really pulled from all elements of life. So bad 0:20:20.930 --> 0:20:26.190 spaces included things like ruin, poverty, disgrace, and most surprising 0:20:26.230 --> 0:20:30.250 of all, suicide. Oh, that is horrifying. Yeah, nothing fun 0:20:30.270 --> 0:20:33.370 about that. But Bradley's game was an enormous hit for 0:20:33.390 --> 0:20:37.050 the time. He sold over 45,000 copies in his first 0:20:37.109 --> 0:20:40.230 year alone, which enabled him to build a company named 0:20:40.310 --> 0:20:40.869 after himself. 0:20:41.869 --> 0:20:44.590 And is this checkered game of life related to the 0:20:44.630 --> 0:20:46.340 game life that we played growing up? 0:20:47.530 --> 0:20:48.850