Different types of play Essay

The activity called playing is a form of enjoyment that provides pleasure, excitement and competition. A person playing more often than not is enjoying himself and having fun. Games are the factors of playing that creates the whole essence of the word. Studying two â€Å"types† of games can help provide more understanding regarding this subject matter. The Traditional Games that have been active from different nations during the course of time, and the technology-based Video games, particularly in China and Europe are the two main aspects of this paper. II. TRADITIONAL GAMES Traditional games are the games that nations have produced due to people’s love for enjoyment and leisure. These are the games that were inspired by the times and have been kept alive through the passing of the knowledge of the game from generation to generation. A. TRADITIONAL GAMES IN ASIAN COUNTRIES Traditional games very much vary due to the differences of cultures and nationalities. Taking a look at examples of two different Asian countries can help assist compare and contrast traditional games. Two nationalities that have interesting traditional games are China and the Philippines. 1. ) China Due to China’s rich history, it has produced so many different traditional games throughout the years of the civilization’s existence. Here are some of the games (The Chinese Historical and Cultural Project, 2007). â€Å"Chinese Yo-Yo or Pull-Bell† The bamboo â€Å"empty bell† is represented in Records of Scenes at the Capital from the Ming dynasty (1386-1644 A. D. ): The two ends are circular saucer shapes. In the center is a horizontal bit of wood. Mount it on a string and twirl with a vibrating motion. It emits a humming sound. This was a game played by girls and boys during the springtime, when the willow leaves turns green. It became specifically famous in the North. A poem was even made about it. â€Å"Kites† Different folk tales about the beginning of the kite do exist. A Sung Dynasty statement makes their initial appearance in the Warring States era. But Lin K’un of the Yuan dynasty perceived that the kite was created in the Han dynasty to faze the opponents by the eerie sounds of connected whistles. History displays that the kite was also utilized to call for help. In Taiwan, kite flying is incorporated with the season of autumn. Cut bamboo, which is strong and light, is the conventional material for creating the frame of the kite. â€Å"Jump Rope† The jump rope dates back 1,500 years to say the least in China. It was named â€Å"jumping one hundred threads† due to the rope’s appearance displaying like a hundred different ropes as it circled in the air. During the Spring Festival in the South, this was the time that â€Å"jump rope† was most famous. It can be created with the utilization of different materials such as cotton and grass, straw and cotton combinations with wax coating. Group and single jumping are both popular in China as well as in the Wes. â€Å"The Shuttlecock (Chien-tsu)† The Shuttlecock developed out of an ancient military exercise It was famous during the time of the Han and T’ang dynasties. Subsequent to the Sung dynasty, the game was named Chien-tsu, the Chinese term for â€Å"arrow† which sounds just exactly like the word for â€Å"shuttlecock†. Consisting of a small, weighted round base with tassels or feathers at a single end, the Shuttlecock is usually kicked with the heel, the toe, instep and outer side of the foot, and the same with the knee. This game was most appropriate for cold weather because this energetic exercise warmed the body. The Tawainese government during the year 1975 included this game in physical education programs of their elementary schools, and it somehow brought back the popularity of the game. 2. ) Philippines The Philippines, despite having a diverse history due to different colonial periods, has produced such enjoyable and challenging traditional games. Most of these games were usually played during town â€Å"fiestas† (feasts) while some are just the usual pastime of Filipino children. The following are samples of Filipino traditional games (Filipino Games, 2008). â€Å"Agawang sulok† Agawang sulok – catch and own a corner – The â€Å"it† or tagger stands in the center of the ground. The participants in the corners will try to exchange places by running from one base to another. The â€Å"it† must persevere to protect a base or corner by running to any of the corners when it’s left vacant. â€Å"Araw-lilim† Araw-lilim – sun and shade – The tagger or it attempts to touch or tag any of the participants who directly in contact with the sunlight. A player saves himself or herself from being tagged by simply staying within the shade. The tagged player will in turn become the next game’s tagger. If there are five or more players participating, two or three taggers can be allowed as the taggers at the same time. â€Å"Bulong-pari† Bulong-Pari – whisper it to the priest – It is composed of an it and two teams. Team A’s leader goes to the priest and whispers one of the names of Team B’s players. Then he goes back to his place and the priest shouts out, â€Å"Lapit! † (â€Å"Approach! †). One of team B’s players must approach the priest, and if it happens to be the one whom the leader of team A whispered, the priest will then say, â€Å"Boom† or â€Å"Bung! † The participant then falls out of line and stays somewhere close, serving as the priest’s prisoner. â€Å"Luksong-tinik† Luksong-tinik – jump over the thorns – Two players acts as the base of the tinik (thorn) by placing their left or right feet together (soles touching gradually building the tinik). Players shall set a starting point, providing a runway for the participants to attempt a higher jump, so as not to hit the tinik. The other players of the team starts jumping over the tinik, then the other team members follow. â€Å"Langit-lupa† Langit-lupa – heaven and earth – An â€Å"It† chases after participants who are permitted to run on level ground (lupa) and climb over objects (langit). The â€Å"tagger† may tag participants who stay on the ground, but not those who are standing in the â€Å"langit† (heaven). The player who gets tagged then becomes â€Å"It† and the game continues. â€Å"Patintero† Patintero or harangang taga – try to cross my line without letting me to touch or catch you – The group’s members who is it stands on the water lines. The middle perpendicular line allows the â€Å"it† appointed on that line to cross the lines occupied by the â€Å"it† that the parallel line intersects, thus adding up to the opportunities of the runners to be cornered. â€Å"Palosebo† Palo-sebo – greased bamboo pole climbing – The challenge of this game includes a bamboo pole that is greased that players must accomplish to reach the top by climbing. Usually played during town fiestas, more often in the provinces, the game’s objective is that for the participants to attempt to be the first person to reach the prize which is usually a little bag placed at the peak of the bamboo pole. The bag normally has money or toys inside. â€Å"Piko† Piko – hopscotch – The participants stand behind the edge of a box, and each must have to throw their cue ball. The first to play is dictated depending on the agreement of the players (e. g. nearest to the moon, wings or chest). The one who had success in throwing the cue ball closest to the point or place that they have agreed upon will be the first to play. The next closest is second, and so on and so forth. â€Å"Sipa† Sipa – game of kick – The thing being utilized to play the game is also named â€Å"sipa†. It is consisted of a washer with colorful threads, commonly plastic straw, connected to it. The sipa is then thrown above for the participant’s toss utilizing his/her foot. The participant should prevent the sipa to reach the ground by hitting it several times using his/her foot, and sometimes the portion just above the knee. The participant must count the number of times he/she was able to kick the sipa. The player with the most number of kicks shall win the game. â€Å"Sungka† Sungka – The game’s objective is to amass stones or cowrie shells in the participant’s home base (bahay) by ceaselessly distributing the shells around smaller holes until the participant have no more shells to use. The player who gathers the most number of shells in his or her bahay wins the game. â€Å"Ubusan lahi† Ubusan lahi – game of conquer – A player attempts to conquer the members of a group (as in claiming the members of another’s clan). The player tagged from the main group then transforms as an ally of the â€Å"it†. The more players, the better it is. The game shall begin with just a single it and then try to conquer and tag other participants. Just as soon as one player is tagged by the tagger, he or she then will assist the â€Å"it† to tag the other remaining members until no other player is left on the original group. B. TRADITIONAL GAMES IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES 1. ) England There are also many famous traditional games present in England, one example of it is the game â€Å"Skittles†. â€Å"Skittles† Skittles or Nine Pins has existed in the Inns of England for a long time. Generally, participants take turns to stroke balls of wood down a lane at the end of which are several skittles also made of wood, to try to knock them all over. Across England there are a number of skittle games. Undoubtedly, Skittles has been one of England’s most popular games. Different books have made mention of this game. Seemingly, for numerous centuries up until today, a bunch of the different games of Skittles are still being played. 2. ) Scotland Scottish people are considered as Highlanders, their traditional games are called the Highland games which they held throughout the year. This is their way of celebrating Celtic culture and Scottish heritage. The common facets of the games almost are epitomes of Scotland. They use the bagpipes, the kilt and the heavy events. Held in Dunoon, Scotland every August, the Cowal Highland Gathering, (better known as the Cowal Games), is the biggest Highland games in Scotland, appealing to around 3,500 competitors and somewhere in the region of 15-20,000 of international crowd (Grondin, 2006). III. VIDEOGAMES A video game is a game that regards interaction with a user interface to create visual feedback on a video device. The term video in video game usually referred to a raster display device. But with the famous use of the term â€Å"video game†, it now connotes any type of display device (Newman, 2004). The electronic systems utilized to play video games are named as platforms; sample of these are video game consoles and personal computers. These platforms range broadly, showing from big computers to little handheld devices. Video games that are specialized such as arcade games, while previously common, have gradually declined in use as home video game consoles have grown to fame and notoriety (Garrat, 2004). Moreover, Video games have changed the landscape of playing games, or the more common term of today, gaming. Almost being a more comfortable way of playing, Video games provide a person with the chance of enjoying himself at home. The genre of Video games has evolved throughout the years. Starting off with the Atari System and evolving to the Nintendo Wii and XBOX 360s of today, Video games have changed and made an impact to the youth of today’s generation (Silberman, 2007). It can be said that Video games have transformed a lot on people, almost affecting their way of life and their perception of play. A. VIDEOGAMES IN ASIAN COUNTRIES A lot of countries in Asia have many addicted people with regards to Video games. The following two countries can be considered as one of the top countries in Asia who have a large following for Video games. 1. ) Korea In South Korea, most people are linked to Video games due to the influences of their history. A sense of integration and correlation with regards to what people need to accomplish in Video games somehow make Koreans feel more attached to the game. Online games are the most popular among Korean citizens and most of them seem to like playing as an organized group different from Americans who loves to play in a solo way. Coordination and cooperation among Korean players somehow makes them much different from other nations (Crego, 2003; Lachlan, 2003). They consider their country as a game nation who accepts different styles of games, especially online ones. The passion for Video games has made Koreans stand out as one of the most addicted nations in terms of Video games. 2. ) China Another interesting country to look at regarding video games would definitely be China. A country with a magnanimous population combined with the huge territory, China has been also expanding in terms of technology development and economic growth. The popularity of Video Games is really high, but it has not yet reached its full potential due to the low Internet penetration within the country. Improvement of this matter can help China be more acquainted with Video games. China has a large market and it draws attention of corporations that create games due to that reason. China is different from Korea in terms of Video Games due to their different favorites. It is predicted that if in the future, 10% of Chinese people would be playing online games, it would showcase that there will be more people playing games online in China than the whole population of any single country in Europe (Lachlan, 2003). B. VIDEOGAMES IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES Video games in Europe are not as popular compared to Asian countries. The drive for online games is just not as fierce unlike in China or Korea. In Europe, Video Games are not as big as compared to China or Korea. Video games in Europe does not become a sensation to the whole of the population. IV. COMPARISON & CONTRAST There is a huge difference with regards to the Traditional games compared to Video games. The Traditional Games somehow creates an image of a more cultural approach while Video games showcase a more technological approach (Smith, 2007). Another major difference regarding the two is that Video Games need power or energy and online games need Internet to provide full satisfaction. Without electricity, Video games won’t even exist. Traditional games tend to become more substantially formed for exercise as compared to the usual Video games, with exception to the Nintendo Wii (Hanson, 1999; Lachlan, 2003). There is a huge difference with regards to different nations’ perceptions about Video games, and it may be influenced by the country’s moral characteristics or traditional aspects. The difference with regards to Asian countries to European countries is that Asian countries freely accept the Video games and allows it to become a huge phenomenon in their respective countries, unlike in Europe. V. CONCLUSION All in all, it can be concluded that there are huge differences regarding Video games and Traditional games. For one, the physicality factor differs a lot. In traditional games, physical exercise is more utilized than in Video games. The latter promotes some sort of laziness while the former encourages fitness and health. It may not be disregarded that both are fun to play and that’s the reason why they both exist in the world today (Smith, 2007). But Video games have displayed both positive and negative sides. The positive side is that it helps educate people towards the advancement of technology. It promotes modernity and futuristic possibilities. These Video games even take the players to different sights and sounds. Only a Video game could provide varying places of fantasy, past, future and other surrealistic worlds or universe. Video games expand man’s creative thinking. But despite all of these positive factors that Video games can create, there are also the negative implications that go along with it. Violence has been a concern with regards to Video games. Due to the freedom of ideas and the creative side of gaming companies, there are huge risks of exposing the youth to violence with the use of these Video games. Many killings are attributed to Video game addictions. The effect of Video games to a person’s mind can be magnanimous. Today, there are so many different violent games that somehow scare many nations. This seems to be a wrong path for children who love to play Video games. The influence of Video games to children can be surmountable and be hard to analyze. The school killings in the United States somehow showcase the suspects as attributed to love for video games with violent content. Overall, Video games are not bad, they just need to be utilized and maximized for the good because they can even influence the youth for education. Video games used as academic tools are a big help for educators and students alike. Tradition and modernization must coincide for a better future. The traditional games should not be regarded as a threat to children’s development. Instead it should serve as the basis for people’s concept of play and parents must ensure proper guidance and child-rearing. The video games should be inspired by these traditional games that have lasted for centuries and has proven that they are fun that’s why they last. Hopefully this lasting impression could still be present in the next generations to come. Traditional games and Video games may sound different but they both posses the access to fun and enjoyment in terms of playing and they can help improve people’s socialization, fine motor and psychomotor, intellectual, leadership, time management, problem solving, decision making, and planning skills. REFERENCES Crego, R. (2003). Sports and Games of the 18th and 19th Centuries. Wesport, CT: Greenwood Press. Lachlan, K. (2003). Popular Video Games: Quantifying the Presentation of Violence and Its Context. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 47, 58. Newman, J. (2004). Videogames. London: Routledge. Silberman, L. (2007). 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