Wiki Games

36 Carnival Wheel

Price: $875*
(Online Sports)

This professional carnival wheel is a full 36 in diameter with 40 durable metal pegs and 20 spaces. Quality selector will stand up to years and years of use. Add a fun and easy-to-play game of chance with this carnival wheel. You can label each space with your choice of prizes.

Merchant: Online Sports

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Digital Concepts Kidzcam Digital Camera Kit

Sale Price: $39.99*
Retail: $54.99 (27% off!)
(Modell's)

Create stories, edit photos and play games all with the Digital Concepts Kidzcam Digital Camera Kit. Of course, the camera also shoots stunning video clips, can be used as a webcam, and takes up to 152 pictures.

Merchant: Modell's

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Cube World--Slim and Scoop

Price: $27.98*
(Are You Game)

Cube world is the fun, modular, handheld electronic toy that can be enjoyed fully by itself-each cube features a unique character, and you can give commands and play games with a single Cube World cube unit.

Merchant: Are You Game

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Xbox 360 B4B00009 Wireless Network Adapter for

Price: $94.99*
(J&R Music & Computer World)

Chat with friends / Play games with XBox Live / Avoid clutter of wires / 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.

Merchant: J&R Music & Computer World

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Dora the Explorer Magnetic Dry-Erase Desk

Price: $9.99*
(Boscov's Department Stores)

Set includes: 1 magnetic dry-erase desk, 2 dry-erase markers, 1 dry eraser, and 2 magnet sheets. Everything gets stored neatly inside! Draw, play games, and write messages. Play to learn and learning through play! On-the-go activities! For ages 3 years and up.

Merchant: Boscov's Department Stores

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Sesame Street: Play With Me Sesame - Let's Play Games

Price: $12.99*
(ToysRUs)

Sesame Street: Play With Me Sesame - Let's Play Games

Merchant: ToysRUs

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Definition

Although many animals play, only humans confirmably have games. Whether some animals are intelligent enough to game is debatable, though a game has ritualistic elements (such as rules and procedures) that are voluntarily acted upon, rather than as a result of instinct. The existence of rules and criteria that decide the outcome of games imply that games require intelligence of a significant degree of sophistication.

Non-human animal species may, however, engage in games whose rules and sophistication may be of such a nature as to be incapable of detection by humans in their present state of knowledge. It would, for example, seem incongruous that large brained species such as many Cetaceans and the larger hominids did not play games. Our inability to observe and understand such games should not be taken as a confirmation that they do not exist. Some courtship displays by some species of bird, such as the Black Grouse, appear to have a component which, from an anthropolgical view, might appear to be a game in which there are clearly victors and losers.

Games can involve one player acting alone, or two or more players acting cooperatively. Most often involve competition among two or more players. Taking an action that falls outside the rules generally constitutes a foul or cheating.

All through human history, people have played games to entertain themselves and others. There are an enormous variety of games; for specific information about different types of games, see the links at the end of this article.

Although Games have been played for thousands of years, many people do not know as much as we believe about them. Things such as how they were invented and why are all matters of the human races of knowledge not yet understood today in the 21st century.

A game is an (often, but not always recreational) activity involving one or more players. This can be defined by either a goal that the players try to reach, or some set of rules that determines what the players can or can not do. Games are played primarily for entertainment or enjoyment, but may also serve as exercise or in an educational, simulational or psychological role. Group leaders will also use games for other following purposes, such as ego-boundary or group boundary creation/ altering, or mood control. Since games can generate a higher and less cognitive arousal level, they are useful after a large meal or a long and tedious task, but are not good for pre-sleep needs.

Anthropology of games

Games, being a characteristic human activity strongly determined by custom and the frequent subjects of folklore, have been the subject of anthropological investigations.

Classes of games

While many different subdivisions have been proposed, anthropologists classify games under three major headings, and have drawn some conclusions as to the social bases that each sort of game requires. They divide games broadly into:

• Games of skill, such as hopscotch and target shooting;
• Games of strategy, such as checkers, go, or tic-tac-toe;
• Games of chance, such as craps and snakes and ladders

In addition to these basic classifications, there are mixed games; such as football and baseball, involving both skill and strategy, and poker, involving strategy and chance. Baseball Hall of Famer Casey Stengel addressed the illusion of luck dominating skill in his sport when he remarked, "I had many years when I was not so successful as a ballplayer, as it is a game of skill."

Games of pure skill are likely the oldest sort of game, and are found in all cultures, regardless of their level of material culture. They are associated with cultures that place a high value on individual performance and prowess.

Games of strategy require a higher material basis. They are associated with cultures that possess a written language: not surprising, since most strategy games are based on mathematics and feature the manipulation of symbols. They often require special equipment to be played. They are associated with hierarchical societies that place a high value on obedience.

Games of chance appear at a variety of levels of material culture; what they seem to share generally is a sense of economic insecurity. They are associated with cultures that place a high value on personal responsibility, keeping one's word, and maintaining personal standing in the face of misfortune; in other words, with "cultures of honor".

Games and sports

There is no clear line of demarcation between games and sports. Generally, sports are athletic in nature, and have an element of physical prowess, but then so do many games. For cultural anthropologists, the distinction between games and sports hinges on community involvement. Sports often require special equipment and playing fields or prepared grounds dedicated to their practice, a fact that often makes necessary the involvement of a community beyond the players themselves. Most sports can have spectators. Communities often align themselves with players of sports, who in a sense represent that community; they often align themselves against their opponents, or have traditional rivalries. The concept of fandom began with sports fans. Games amuse the players; sports amuse a broader public; in advanced material cultures, sports can be played by paid professionals. When games like chess and go or even video games are played professionally, they take on many of the characteristics of a sport.

One-person games

One-person games or one-player games are sometimes called solitaire games, but this term can be easily confused with the peg game and the card game of same name.

Types of one-player games include:

• many arcade games
• most computer and video games
• juggling
• most types of puzzles (logical, mechanical, mathematical, etc.)
• solitaire card games