We explain what the game is and what are all the benefits that this activity offers. Also, the types of games that exist.
What is game?
The term game comes from Latin iocus, which means something like joke, and is understood as an activity carried out by Humans (and in a certain way also some animals), which involves the development of the mind and body, with a sense of play, distraction, fun and learning.
Games act as a stimulus for mental activity and practicality, insofar as, in almost all cases, they are presented in the same sequence: the player is in one circumstance and has to reach another by designing one. strategy mental, which will then be put into practice. This strategy is limited by the rules and guidelines that the game presents, which give it a framework.
This is the way in which the game generally develops is that it acquires its educational character: the child learns not only to develop strategies, but to adapt to the resources and conditions that he has and knows in advance. It is not by chance, then, that the child's transition from the family bosom to educational institutions takes place in kindergarten, where play is the primary activity.
Types of games
The games that the person encounters as they develop correspond to different classes:
- Table games. Often practiced by using a board and generally by a small number of persons (usually two to six). Such is the case with ludo, checkers, chess. They have a strong component of strategy, but many times it is complemented by a significant amount of chance, as in those in which dice are used. This group could also include card games, such as poker, the canasta (both use the so-called French cards) or the fifteen broom (Spanish cards) and the traditional post or race games, such as the game of the goose. or the rancher, who added the variant of banking and a kind of money. In some cases, what is sought is to reward the knowledge, as in trivia games.
- Sport games. They are those that are practiced spontaneously or directed by teachers and coaches, in open spaces and with the use of the body. In general, in addition to the body there is some other object, although sometimes it is limited to competencies for the development of a ability purely physical. They can be both individual and group and always complement the physical skill aspects with strategy and a cold mind to think about how to do it. Schools, families and even the state, from their Sports Secretariats, they are in charge of spreading this type of games among young people, which are very popular.
- Video game. They are made from digital tools, manifested through a screen. They were not practiced until the end of the 20th century, and in some cases they coincide with those included in the previous categories, but offered in a virtual way. Due to their eventual complexity, and in many cases, due to non-compliance with the main general characteristics of the game (that is, the lack of group activity and the development of strategies according to conditions), they are often criticized, and parents are recommended to regulate the game. children's contact with this kind of games.
- Games of chance. It groups together all those games that depend on the fortuitous, without major intervention from the skill individual. The lottery is the classic example of this kind of game.
In adult life, play is a healthy way to maintain a space for recreation and fun. However, sometimes gambling with money bets awakens in adults behaviors compulsive, straying from their natural and enriching purpose.