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Origin of Games

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games

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Definition

Games are rule-based interactions. In the popular use – and for literally thousands of years – the term refers to playful activity. Computer games are all games that are played using a computer to display the board, generate events, provide other players to play with or, generally, for any other game relevant aspect.

Introduction

Playing and games are an essential part of human behavior, with a plethora of positive effects on the social and cognitive development of individuals.

Games have been played since the dawn of human civilization, and some have persisted through the most dramatic changes in society and environment. Games are seen to serve a range of purposes and have been described as being an integral part of society (Bell 1979), of teaching (Hildmann and Hirsch 2008; Smaldone et al. 2016), learning (Hildmann and Hildmann 2009a), and growing up (Miller et al. 2010).

The history of gameseasily fills entire books and a number of such books offer a detailed account,...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ingeníeria de Sistemas y Automatica, Av. Universidad, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Hanno Hildmann

  2. The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    Jule Hildmann

Authors
  1. Hanno Hildmann
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  2. Jule Hildmann
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hanno Hildmann .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Applied Computer Science Department, Woodbury University Applied Computer Science Department, Burbank, CA, USA

    Newton Lee

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Hildmann, H., Hildmann, J. (2018). Origin of Games. In: Lee, N. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08234-9_231-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08234-9_231-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-08234-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-08234-9

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