Not me. I'm alive, obviously, or you wouldn't be reading this. These last years have been... sort of interesting. I've managed to hold to some of my MA practice by the tips of my nails, though.
But... Okay, some background first. There are games that've been with humankind for, literally, thousands of years. Board games. Such games were not played as we understand the word today. The same way martial arts were not a kindergarden, games were something else. Something that was expected to be useful; a good game IS, but they were expected to be.
So... Westerners have Chess. And it's become a certain badge of intellect, and comfortably shelved away once the kid is boeyond that stage. Next to a dusty guitar. But if you look into the history of the variants of Chess, you'll find some interesting ideas. Check Shogi and prisoners, and think... "Hmm... Mercenaries?" Or the wider board ones. Or...
Then check Go, find how it's shaped the history of Asia, of artificial intelligence. The same AI that helps (or doesn't) your packets reach you. Or your internet search. Or...
There's another game, about as old as the oldest of chess variants. But cultivated by a people who had not much use for writing. Some, just not quite as much. Vikings.
It's an interesting game because you don't need six different kinds of elaborately carved pieces. Two colors of pebbles will do, a single on of those pebbles slightly larger, or redder, or with some peculiar shape.
Tafl.
And it's interesting for another reason. It's assymetrical. The attacher has twice your pieces. And you have to protect a single one of them, have it run away. It's, actually, a self-defense scenario. You can think of several scenes where, whichever player you are, the parallels with real life are downright chilling. And the advantage of the abstract nature of it is that you can make your brain work without having it go into denial: "this would never happen", "there's no way I can flee that!"... and so on and so forth.
Game on. Take care.
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