110-750: A game is a recreational activity with a set of rules. Game or games may also refer to: Game A game is a structured type of play , usually undertaken for entertainment or fun , and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or games) or art (such as jigsaw puzzles or games involving an artistic layout such as mahjong , solitaire , or some video games ). Games are sometimes played purely for enjoyment, sometimes for achievement or reward as well. They can be played alone, in teams, or online; by amateurs or by professionals. The players may have an audience of non-players, such as when people are entertained by watching
220-584: A chess championship . On the other hand, players in a game may constitute their own audience as they take their turn to play. Often, part of the entertainment for children playing a game is deciding who is part of their audience and who is a player. A toy and a game are not the same. Toys generally allow for unrestricted play whereas games present rules for the player to follow. Key components of games are goals, rules , challenge , and interaction. Games generally involve mental or physical stimulation, and often both. Many games help develop practical skills , serve as
330-407: A controller or a motion sensitive tool ( console games ). More esoteric devices such as paddle controllers have also been used for input. There are many genres of video game; the first commercial video game, Pong , was a simple simulation of table tennis . As processing power increased, new genres such as adventure and action games were developed that involved a player guiding a character from
440-536: A felt coating. Traditionally white, the predominant colour was gradually changed to optic yellow in the latter part of the 20th century to allow for improved visibility. Tennis balls must conform to certain criteria for size, weight, deformation , and bounce to be approved for regulation play. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) defines the official diameter as 65.41–68.58 mm (2.575–2.700 in). Balls must weigh between 56.0 and 59.4 g (1.98 and 2.10 oz). Tennis balls were traditionally manufactured in
550-414: A lawn ; an area of mowed grass (or alternately, on graded soil) generally smaller than a sports field (pitch). Variations of many games that are traditionally played on a sports field are marketed as "lawn games" for home use in a front or back yard. Common lawn games include horseshoes , sholf , croquet , bocce , and lawn bowls . A tabletop game is a game where the elements of play are confined to
660-409: A racket and balls. The components of a tennis racket include a handle, known as the grip, connected to a neck which joins a roughly elliptical frame that holds a matrix of tightly pulled strings. For the first 100 years of the modern game, rackets were made of wood and of standard size, and strings were of animal gut . Laminated wood construction yielded more strength in rackets used through most of
770-507: A tarot deck of 78 cards (used in Europe to play a variety of trick-taking games collectively known as Tarot, Tarock or Tarocchi games), or a deck specific to the individual game (such as Set or 1000 Blank White Cards ). Uno and Rook are examples of games that were originally played with a standard deck and have since been commercialized with customized decks. Some collectible card games such as Magic: The Gathering are played with
880-542: A best-of-five, wins the match. Only in the final sets of matches at the Olympic Games and Fed Cup are tiebreaks not played. In these cases, sets are played indefinitely until one player has a two-game lead, occasionally leading to some remarkably long matches . In tournament play, the chair umpire announces the end of the match with the well-known phrase " Game, set, match " followed by the winning person's or team's name. A game point occurs in tennis whenever
990-560: A community much larger than the group of players. A city or town may set aside such resources for the organization of sports leagues. Popular sports may have spectators who are entertained just by watching games. A community will often align itself with a local sports team that supposedly represents it (even if the team or most of its players only recently moved in); they often align themselves against their opponents or have traditional rivalries. The concept of fandom began with sports fans. Lawn games are outdoor games that can be played on
1100-428: A different game. There are exceptions to this in that some games deliberately involve the changing of their own rules, but even then there are often immutable meta -rules. Rules generally determine the time-keeping system , the rights and responsibilities of the players, scoring techniques, preset boundaries, and each player's goals. The rules of a game may be distinguished from its aims. For most competitive games,
1210-557: A doubles team. The single player gets to utilize the alleys normally reserved only for a doubles team. Conversely, the doubles team does not use the alleys when executing a shot. The scoring is the same as for a regular game. This format is not sanctioned by any official body. "Australian doubles", another informal and unsanctioned form of tennis, is played with similar rules to the Canadian doubles style, only in this version, players rotate court position after each game, each player taking
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#17327718486141320-472: A form of exercise, or otherwise perform an educational, simulational , or psychological role. Attested as early as 2600 BC, games are a universal part of human experience and present in all cultures. The Royal Game of Ur , Senet , and Mancala are some of the oldest known games. Ludwig Wittgenstein was probably the first academic philosopher to address the definition of the word game . In his Philosophical Investigations , Wittgenstein argued that
1430-724: A game that combined elements of racquets and the Basque ball game pelota , which they played on Perera's croquet lawn in Birmingham , England. In 1872, along with two local doctors, they founded the world's first tennis club on Avenue Road, Leamington Spa . This is where "lawn tennis" was used as the name of an activity by a club for the first time. In Tennis: A Cultural History , Heiner Gillmeister reveals that on 8 December 1874, British army officer Walter Clopton Wingfield wrote to Harry Gem, commenting that he (Wingfield) had been experimenting with his version of lawn tennis "for
1540-429: A game. Muggins , Mexican Train , and Chicken Foot are very popular domino games. Texas 42 is a domino game more similar in its play to a "trick-taking" card game . Variations of traditional dominoes abound: Triominoes are similar in theory but are triangular and thus have three values per tile. Similarly, a game known as Quad-Ominos uses four-sided tiles. Some other games use tiles in place of cards; Rummikub
1650-571: A group of American and French tennis players playing exhibition matches to paying audiences. The most notable of these early professionals were the American Vinnie Richards and the Frenchwoman Suzanne Lenglen . Players turned pro would no longer be permitted to compete in the major (amateur) tournaments. In 1968, commercial pressures and rumours of some amateurs taking money under the table led to
1760-405: A high degree of luck, which can be directed to some extent by the player through more strategic elements of play and through tenets of probability theory . Such games are thus popular as gambling games; the game of Craps is perhaps the most famous example, though Liar's dice and Poker dice were originally conceived of as gambling games. Domino games are similar in many respects to card games, but
1870-627: A large area in which to play them, large amounts of strength or stamina, or specialized equipment other than what comes in a box. This class of games includes any game in which the skill element involved relates to manual dexterity or hand-eye coordination, but excludes the class of video games (see below). Games such as jacks , paper football , and Jenga require only very portable or improvised equipment and can be played on any flat level surface, while other examples, such as pinball , billiards , air hockey , foosball , and table hockey require specialized tables or other self-contained modules on which
1980-503: A large number of video games have been created to simulate strategic combat), and the board may be a map on which the players' tokens move. Virtually all board games involve "turn-based" play; one player contemplates and then makes a move, then the next player does the same, and a player can only act on their turn. This is opposed to "real-time" play as is found in some card games, most sports and most video games. Some games, such as chess and Go , are entirely deterministic, relying only on
2090-408: A new type of equilibrium strategy not found in traditional games. The entanglement of player's choices can have the effect of a contract by preventing players from profiting from what is known as betrayal . Games can take a variety of forms, from competitive sports to board games and video games. Many sports require special equipment and dedicated playing fields, leading to the involvement of
2200-399: A particularly exhausting game, Louis drank a large quantity of cooled wine and subsequently died of either pneumonia or pleurisy , although there was also suspicion of poisoning. Because of the contemporary accounts of his death, Louis X is history's first tennis player known by name. Another of the early enthusiasts of the game was King Charles V of France , who had a court set up at
2310-444: A pawn on a board, play money , or an intangible item such as a point scored. Games such as hide-and-seek or tag do not use any obvious tool; rather, their interactivity is defined by the environment. Games with the same or similar rules may have different gameplay if the environment is altered. For example, hide-and-seek in a school building differs from the same game in a park; an auto race can be radically different depending on
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#17327718486142420-635: A piece of information that one player knows, and the object is to coerce others into guessing that piece of information without actually divulging it in text or spoken word. Charades is probably the most well-known game of this type, and has spawned numerous commercial variants that involve differing rules on the type of communication to be given, such as Catch Phrase , Taboo , Pictionary , and similar. The genre also includes many game shows such as Win, Lose or Draw , Password and $ 25,000 Pyramid . Video games are computer- or microprocessor -controlled games. Computers can create virtual spaces for
2530-465: A play, to make all open endpoints sum to a given number or multiple, or simply to play all dominoes from one's hand onto the board. Sets vary in the number of possible dots on one end, and thus of the number of combinations and pieces; the most common set historically is double-six , though in more recent times "extended" sets such as double-nine have been introduced to increase the number of dominoes available, which allows larger hands and more players in
2640-469: A player to contest the line call of a point, a system known as Hawk-Eye . Tennis is played by millions of recreational players and is a popular worldwide spectator sport. The four Grand Slam tournaments (also referred to as the majors) are especially popular and are considered the highest level of competition for the sport. These tournaments are the Australian Open , played on hardcourts ;
2750-416: A player toward winning. For instance, an intermediate aim in football is to score goals, because scoring goals will increase one's likelihood of winning the game, but is not alone sufficient to win the game. An aim identifies a sufficient condition for successful action, whereas the rule identifies a necessary condition for permissible action. For example, the aim of chess is to checkmate, but although it
2860-413: A sequence of games played with service alternating between games, ending when the count of games won meets certain criteria. Typically, a player wins a set by winning at least six games and at least two games more than the opponent. If one player has won six games and the opponent five, an additional game is played. If the leading player wins that game, the player wins the set 7–5. If the trailing player wins
2970-492: A sequence of sets. The outcome is determined through a best of three or five sets system. On the professional circuit, men play best-of-five-set matches at all four Grand Slam tournaments, Davis Cup, and the final of the Olympic Games and best-of-three-set matches at all other tournaments, while women play best-of-three-set matches at all tournaments. The first player to win two sets in a best-of-three, or three sets in
3080-579: A significant debate on how to standardise the rules. In the United States in 1874, Mary Ewing Outerbridge , a young socialite, returned from Bermuda with a sphairistikè set. She became fascinated by the game of tennis after watching British army officers play. She laid out a tennis court at the Staten Island Cricket Club at Camp Washington, Tompkinsville, Staten Island , New York. The first American National championship
3190-401: A single opponent ( singles ) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles ). Each player uses a tennis racket strung with a cord to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over or around a net and into the opponent's court . The object is to manoeuvre the ball in such a way that the opponent is not able to play a valid return. If a player is unable to return the ball successfully,
3300-424: A small area and require little physical exertion, usually simply placing, picking up and moving game pieces. Most of these games are played at a table around which the players are seated and on which the game's elements are located. However, many games falling into this category, particularly party games , are more free-form in their play and can involve physical activity such as mime. Still, these games do not require
3410-413: A small selection of cards that have been collected or purchased individually from large available sets. Some board games include a deck of cards as a gameplay element, normally for randomization or to keep track of game progress. Conversely, some card games such as Cribbage use a board with movers, normally to keep score. The differentiation between the two genres in such cases depends on which element of
Game (disambiguation) - Misplaced Pages Continue
3520-409: A third person perspective through a series of obstacles. This "real-time" element cannot be easily reproduced by a board game, which is generally limited to "turn-based" strategy; this advantage allows video games to simulate situations such as combat more realistically. Additionally, the playing of a video game does not require the same physical skill, strength or danger as a real-world representation of
3630-461: A true game played for entertainment or a competitive activity describable in principle by mathematical game theory. John Nash proved that games with several players have a stable solution provided that coalitions between players are disallowed. Nash won the Nobel prize for economics for this important result which extended von Neumann's theory of zero-sum games. Nash's stable solution is known as
3740-459: A turn at playing alone against the other two. As such, each player plays doubles and singles over the course of a match, with the singles player always serving. Scoring styles vary, but one popular method is to assign a value of 2 points to each game, with the server taking both points if he or she holds serve and the doubles team each taking one if they break serve. Wheelchair tennis can be played by able-bodied players as well as people who require
3850-415: A virtual environment is provided in which the player may be free to do whatever they like within the confines of a particular game's universe. Sometimes, there is a lack of goals or opposition, which has stirred some debate on whether these should be considered "games" or "toys". (Crawford specifically mentions Will Wright 's SimCity as an example of a toy.) Online games have been part of culture from
3960-416: A wide variety of game types. Some video games simulate conventional game objects like cards or dice, while others can simulate environs either grounded in reality or fantastical in design, each with its own set of rules or goals. A computer or video game uses one or more input devices , typically a button / joystick combination (on arcade games ); a keyboard , mouse or trackball ( computer games ); or
4070-458: A worldwide popularity of ball games such as rugby , basketball , soccer (football) , cricket , tennis , and volleyball . Other tools are more idiosyncratic to a certain region. Many countries in Europe, for instance, have unique standard decks of playing cards . Other games such as chess may be traced primarily through the development and evolution of its game pieces. Many game tools are tokens, meant to represent other things. A token may be
4180-500: A year and a half". In December 1873, Wingfield designed and patented a game which he called sphairistikè ( Greek : σφαιριστική , meaning "ball-playing"), and which was soon known simply as "sticky" – for the amusement of guests at a garden party on his friend's estate of Nantclwyd Hall , in Llanelidan , Wales. According to R. D. C. Evans, turfgrass agronomist , "Sports historians all agree that [Wingfield] deserves much of
4290-405: Is a let or net service , which is void, and the server retakes that serve. The player can serve any number of let services in a point and they are always treated as voids and not as faults. A fault is a serve that falls long or wide of the service box, or does not clear the net. There is also a "foot fault" when a player's foot touches the baseline or an extension of the centre mark before the ball
4400-514: Is a variant of the Rummy card game family that uses tiles numbered in ascending rank among four colors, very similar in makeup to a 2-deck "pack" of Anglo-American playing cards . Mahjong is another game very similar to Rummy that uses a set of tiles with card-like values and art. Lastly, some games use graphical tiles to form a board layout, on which other elements of the game are played. Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne are examples. In each,
4510-572: Is acknowledged that this stereotype still exists). In 1954, Van Alen founded the International Tennis Hall of Fame , a nonprofit museum in Newport, Rhode Island. The building contains a large collection of tennis memorabilia as well as a hall of fame honouring prominent members and tennis players from all over the world. Part of the appeal of tennis stems from the simplicity of equipment required for play. Beginners need only
Game (disambiguation) - Misplaced Pages Continue
4620-443: Is based on the idea of a crossword puzzle , and tic-tac-toe sets with a boxed grid and pieces are available commercially). These games vary widely, from games centering on a design being drawn such as Pictionary and "connect-the-dots" games like sprouts , to letter and word games such as Boggle and Scattergories , to solitaire and logic puzzle games such as Sudoku and crossword puzzles . A guessing game has as its core
4730-482: Is called the doubles alley, playable in doubles play. The line that runs across the centre of a player's side of the court is called the service line because the serve must be delivered into the area between the service line and the net on the receiving side. Despite its name, this is not where a player legally stands when making a serve. The line dividing the service line in two is called the centre line or centre service line. The boxes this centre line creates are called
4840-403: Is expected that players will try to checkmate each other, it is not a rule of chess that a player must checkmate the other player whenever possible. Similarly, it is not a rule of football that a player must score a goal on a penalty; while it is expected the player will try, it is not required. While meeting the aims often requires a certain degree of skill and (in some cases) luck, following
4950-434: Is hit. If the second service, after a fault, is also a fault, the server double faults , and the receiver wins the point. However, if the serve is in, it is considered a legal service. A legal service starts a rally , in which the players alternate hitting the ball across the net. A legal return consists of a player hitting the ball so that it falls in the server's court, before it has bounced twice or hit any fixtures except
5060-519: Is not played, the set is referred to as an advantage set , where the set continues without limit until one player leads by a two-game margin. A "love set" means that the loser of the set won zero games, colloquially termed a "jam donut" in the US. In tournament play, the chair umpire announces the winner of the set and the overall score. The final score in sets is always read with the winning player's score first, e.g. "6–2, 4–6, 6–0, 7–5". A match consists of
5170-417: Is often the same width as the others. The players or teams start on opposite sides of the net. One player is designated the server , and the opposing player is the receiver . The choice to be server or receiver in the first game and the choice of ends is decided by a coin toss before the warm-up starts. Service alternates game by game between the two players or teams. For each point, the server starts behind
5280-426: Is one popular example, where players must succeed in each of four skills: artistry, live performance, trivia, and language. Card games use a deck of cards as their central tool. These cards may be a standard Anglo-American (52-card) deck of playing cards (such as for bridge , poker , Rummy , etc.), a regional deck using 32, 36 or 40 cards and different suit signs (such as for the popular German game skat ),
5390-422: Is unusual in that it is played on a variety of surfaces. Grass , clay , and hard courts of concrete or asphalt topped with acrylic are the most common. Occasionally carpet is used for indoor play, with hardwood flooring having been historically used. Artificial turf courts can also be found. The lines that delineate the width of the court are called the baseline (farthest back) and the service line (middle of
5500-656: The French Championships date to 1891, although until 1925 they were open only to tennis players who were members of French clubs. Thus, Wimbledon, the US Open, the French Open and the Australian Open (dating to 1905) became and have remained the most prestigious events in tennis. Together, these four events are called the Majors or Slams (a term borrowed from bridge rather than baseball ). In 1913,
5610-589: The French Open , played on red clay courts ; Wimbledon , played on grass courts ; and the US Open , also played on hardcourts. Additionally, tennis was one of the original Olympic sports , and has been consistently competed in the Summer Olympic Games since 1988 . Historians believe that the game's ancient origin lay in 12th-century northern France, where a ball was struck with the palm of
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#17327718486145720-572: The Louvre Palace . It was not until the 16th century that rackets came into use and the game began to be called "tennis", from the French term tenez , which can be translated as "hold!", "receive!" or "take!", an interjection used as a call from the server to his opponent. It was popular in England and France, although the game was only played indoors, where the ball could be hit off
5830-478: The Nash equilibrium . If cooperation between players is allowed, then the game becomes more complex; many concepts have been developed to analyze such games. While these have had some partial success in the fields of economics, politics and conflict , no good general theory has yet been developed. In quantum game theory , it has been found that the introduction of quantum information into multiplayer games allows
5940-630: The World Covered Court Championships for indoor courts were awarded annually; Sweden, France, Great Britain, Denmark, Switzerland and Spain each hosted the tournament. At a meeting held on 16 March 1923 in Paris, the title "World Championship" was dropped and a new category of "Official Championship" was created for events in Great Britain, France, the US and Australia – today's Grand Slam events. The impact on
6050-399: The track or street course, even with the same cars. Games are often characterized by their tools and rules. While rules are subject to variations and changes , enough change in the rules usually results in a "new" game. For instance, baseball can be played with "real" baseballs or with wiffleballs . However, if the players decide to play with only three bases, they are arguably playing
6160-542: The ultimate aim is winning: in this sense, checkmate is the aim of chess. Common win conditions are being first to amass a certain quota of points or tokens (as in Settlers of Catan ), having the greatest number of tokens at the end of the game (as in Monopoly ), or some relationship of one's game tokens to those of one's opponent (as in chess's checkmate ). There may also be intermediate aims, which are tasks that move
6270-706: The "board" is made up of a series of tiles; in Settlers of Catan the starting layout is random but static, while in Carcassonne the game is played by "building" the board tile-by-tile. Hive , an abstract strategy game using tiles as moving pieces, has mechanical and strategic elements similar to chess , although it has no board; the pieces themselves both form the layout and can move within it. Pencil and paper games require little or no specialized equipment other than writing materials, though some such games have been commercialized as board games ( Scrabble , for instance,
6380-406: The 20th century until first metal and then composites of carbon graphite, ceramics, and lighter metals such as titanium were introduced. These stronger materials enabled the production of oversized rackets that yielded yet more power. Meanwhile, technology led to the use of synthetic strings that match the feel of gut yet with added durability. Under modern rules of tennis, the rackets must adhere to
6490-643: The IOC decided to reintroduce tennis as a full-medal sport at Seoul in 1988. The Davis Cup , an annual competition between men's national teams, dates to 1900. The analogous competition for women's national teams, the Fed Cup , was founded as the Federation Cup in 1963 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the ITF. In 1926, promoter C. C. Pyle established the first professional tennis tour with
6600-666: The International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF), now the International Tennis Federation (ITF), was founded and established three official tournaments as the major championships of the day. The World Grass Court Championships were awarded to Great Britain. The World Hard Court Championships were awarded to France; the term "hard court" was used for clay courts at the time. Some tournaments were held in Belgium instead. And
6710-463: The Olympics after the 1924 Games , but returned 60 years later as a 21-and-under demonstration event in 1984. This reinstatement was credited by the efforts of then ITF president Philippe Chatrier , ITF general secretary David Gray and ITF vice president Pablo Llorens, with support from International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch . The success of the event was overwhelming, and
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#17327718486146820-624: The United States and Europe. Although the process of producing the balls has remained virtually unchanged for the past 100 years, the majority of manufacturing now takes place in the Far East . The relocation is due to cheaper labour costs and materials in the region. Tournaments that are played under the ITF Rules of Tennis must use balls that are approved by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and be named on
6930-563: The abandonment of this distinction, inaugurating the Open Era , in which all players could compete in all tournaments, and top players were able to make their living from tennis. With the beginning of the Open Era, the establishment of an international professional tennis circuit, and revenues from the sale of television rights, tennis's popularity has spread worldwide, and the sport has shed its middle-class English-speaking image (although it
7040-454: The arm than most strings. Most synthetic strings are made from monofilament or multifiliament nylon strings. Monofilament strings are cheap to buy, and are used widely by many recreational level players for their all round performance, while multifilament strings are created to mimic natural gut more closely by weaving together fibres, but are generally more expensive than their monofilament counterparts. Polyester strings allow for more spin on
7150-432: The ball than any other string, due to their firm strings, while keeping control of the ball, and this is why many players use them, especially higher player ones. Kevlar tennis strings are highly durable, and are mostly used by players that frequently break strings, because they maintain tension well, but these strings can be stiff on the arm. Hybrid stringing is when a tennis racket is strung with two different strings for
7260-410: The baseline, between the centre mark and the sideline. The receiver may start anywhere on their side of the net. When the receiver is ready, the server will serve , although the receiver must play to the pace of the server. For a service to be legal, the ball must travel over the net without touching it into the diagonally opposite service box. If the ball hits the net but lands in the service box, this
7370-406: The baselines, dividing it into two equal ends. It is held up by either a cord or metal cable of diameter no greater than 0.8 cm ( 1 ⁄ 3 in). The net is 3 feet 6 inches (1.07 m) high at the posts and 3 feet (0.91 m) high in the centre. The net posts are 3 feet (0.91 m) outside the doubles court on each side or, for a singles net, 3 feet (0.91 m) outside
7480-502: The best strategic move based on the roll of two dice . Trivia games have a great deal of randomness based on the questions a person gets. German-style board games are notable for often having rather less of a luck factor than many board games. Board game groups include race games , roll-and-move games, abstract strategy games , word games , and wargames , as well as trivia and other elements. Some board games fall into multiple groups or incorporate elements of other genres: Cranium
7590-442: The chair umpire in tournament play. A break point occurs if the receiver, not the server , has a chance to win the game with the next point. Break points are of particular importance because serving is generally considered advantageous, with servers being expected to win games in which they are serving. A receiver who has one (score of 30–40 or advantage), two (score of 15–40) or three (score of love–40) consecutive chances to win
7700-536: The clergy, the law profession, and the aristocracy and he sent thousands of sets out in the first year or so, in 1874." The world's oldest annual tennis tournament took place at Leamington Lawn Tennis Club in Birmingham in 1874. This was three years before the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club would hold its first championships at Wimbledon, in 1877. The first Championships culminated in
7810-424: The court). The short mark in the centre of each baseline is referred to as either the hash mark or the centre mark. The outermost lines that make up the length are called the doubles sidelines; they are the boundaries for doubles matches. The lines to the inside of the doubles sidelines are the singles sidelines, and are the boundaries in singles play. The area between a doubles sideline and the nearest singles sideline
7920-399: The credit for the development of modern tennis." According to Honor Godfrey, museum curator at Wimbledon, Wingfield "popularized this game enormously. He produced a boxed set which included a net, poles, rackets, balls for playing the game – and most importantly you had his rules. He was absolutely terrific at marketing and he sent his game all over the world. He had very good connections with
8030-478: The dice has a profound impact on the outcome of the game, however dice games are differentiated in that the dice do not determine the success or failure of some other element of the game; they instead are the central indicator of the person's standing in the game. Popular dice games include Yahtzee , Farkle , Bunco , Liar's dice / Perudo , and Poker dice . As dice are, by their very nature, designed to produce apparently random numbers , these games usually involve
8140-440: The elements of games, such as play , rules, and competition, all fail to adequately define what games are. From this, Wittgenstein concluded that people apply the term game to a range of disparate human activities that bear to one another only what one might call family resemblances . As the following game definitions show, this conclusion was not a final one and today many philosophers, like Thomas Hurka , think that Wittgenstein
8250-467: The first lawn mower in Britain in 1830 is believed to have been a catalyst for the preparation of modern-style grass courts, sporting ovals, playing fields, pitches, greens, etc. This in turn led to the codification of modern rules for many sports, including lawn tennis, most football codes, lawn bowls and others. Between 1859 and 1865, Harry Gem , a solicitor, and his friend Augurio Perera developed
8360-497: The following guidelines; The rules regarding rackets have changed over time, as material and engineering advances have been made. For example, the maximum length of the frame had been 32 inches (81 cm) until 1997, when it was shortened to 29 inches (74 cm). Many companies manufacture and distribute tennis rackets. Wilson, Head and Babolat are three of the most commonly used brands; however, many more companies exist. The same companies sponsor players to use these rackets in
8470-533: The four recipient nations to replace the "world championships" with "official championships" was simple in a general sense: each became a major nation of the federation with enhanced voting power, and each now operated a major event. The comprehensive rules promulgated in 1924 by the ILTF have remained largely stable in the ensuing 80 years, the one major change being the addition of the tiebreak system designed by Jimmy Van Alen . That same year, tennis withdrew from
8580-404: The game (tying the set 6–6) a tiebreak is played. A tiebreak, played under a separate set of rules, allows one player to win one more game and thus the set, to give a final set score of 7–6. A tiebreak game can be won by scoring at least seven points and at least two points more than the opponent. In a tiebreak, two players serve by 'ABBA' system which has been proven to be fair. If a tiebreak
8690-411: The game has break point , double break point or triple break point , respectively. If the receiver does, in fact, win their break point, the game is awarded to the receiver, and the receiver is said to have converted their break point. If the receiver fails to win their break point it is called a failure to convert. Winning break points, and thus the game, is also referred to as breaking serve , as
8800-419: The game is foremost in its play; a board game using cards for random actions can usually use some other method of randomization, while Cribbage can just as easily be scored on paper. These elements as used are simply the traditional and easiest methods to achieve their purpose. Dice games use a number of dice as their central element. Board games often use dice for a randomization element, and thus each roll of
8910-409: The game is played. The advent of home video game systems largely replaced some of these, such as table hockey, however air hockey, billiards, pinball and foosball remain popular fixtures in private and public game rooms. These games and others, as they require reflexes and coordination, are generally performed more poorly by intoxicated persons but are unlikely to result in injury because of this; as such
9020-464: The game, and can provide either very realistic, exaggerated or impossible physics, allowing for elements of a fantastical nature, games involving physical violence, or simulations of sports. Lastly, a computer can, with varying degrees of success, simulate one or more human opponents in traditional table games such as chess , leading to simulations of such games that can be played by a single player. In more open-ended video games, such as sandbox games ,
9130-408: The games are popular as drinking games . In addition, dedicated drinking games such as quarters and beer pong also involve physical coordination and are popular for similar reasons. Board games use as a central tool a board on which the players' status, resources, and progress are tracked using physical tokens. Many also involve dice or cards. Most games that simulate war are board games (though
9240-436: The generic device is instead a set of tiles called dominoes , which traditionally each have two ends, each with a given number of dots, or "pips", and each combination of two possible end values as it appears on a tile is unique in the set. The games played with dominoes largely center around playing a domino from the player's "hand" onto the matching end of another domino, and the overall object could be to always be able to make
9350-501: The hand. Louis X of France was a keen player of jeu de paume ("game of the palm"), which evolved into real tennis , and became notable as the first person to construct indoor tennis courts in the modern style. Louis was unhappy with playing tennis outdoors and accordingly had indoor, enclosed courts made in Paris "around the end of the 13th century". In due course this design spread across royal palaces all over Europe. In June 1316 at Vincennes , Val-de-Marne, and following
9460-565: The hopes that the company name will become better known by the public. There are multiple types of tennis strings, including natural gut and synthetic stings made from materials such as nylon , kevlar , or polyester . The first type of tennis strings available were natural gut strings, introduced by Babolat. They were the only type used until synthetic strings were introduced in the 1950s. Natural gut strings are still used frequently by players such as Roger Federer. They are made from cow intestines, and provide increased power, and are easier on
9570-410: The lack of any formidable opposition. Many games described as "single-player" may be termed actually puzzles or recreations . A multiplayer game is a game of several players who may be independent opponents or teams. Games with many independent players are difficult to analyze formally using game theory as the players may form and switch coalitions . The term "game" in this context may mean either
9680-553: The mains (the vertical strings) and the crosses (the horizontal strings). This is most commonly done with two different strings that are made of different materials, but can also be done with two different types of the same string. A notable example of a player using hybrid strings is Roger Federer, using natural gut strings in his mains and polyester strings in his crosses. Tennis balls were originally made of cloth strips stitched together with thread and stuffed with feathers. Modern tennis balls are made of hollow vulcanized rubber with
9790-399: The net. A player or team cannot hit the ball twice in a row. The ball must travel over or round the net into the other players' court. A ball that hits the net during a rally is considered a legal return as long as it crosses into the opposite side of the court. The first player or team to fail to make a legal return loses the point. The server then moves to the other side of the service line at
9900-408: The official ITF list of approved tennis balls. Tennis is played on a rectangular, flat surface. The court is 78 feet (23.77 m) long, and 27 feet (8.2 m) wide for singles matches and 36 ft (11 m) for doubles matches. Additional clear space around the court is required in order for players to reach overrun balls. A net is stretched across the full width of the court, parallel with
10010-411: The older racket sport today called real tennis . The rules of modern tennis have changed little since the 1890s. Two exceptions are that until 1961 the server had to keep one foot on the ground at all times, and the adoption of the tiebreak in the 1970s. A recent addition to professional tennis has been the adoption of electronic review technology coupled with a point-challenge system, which allows
10120-510: The opponent scores a point . Playable at all levels of society and at all ages, tennis can be played by anyone who can hold a racket, including wheelchair users . The original forms of tennis developed in France during the late Middle Ages . The modern form of tennis originated in Birmingham , England, in the late 19th century as lawn tennis . It had close connections to various field (lawn) games such as croquet and bowls as well as to
10230-440: The outcome. Many other games involving a high degree of luck do not allow direct attacks between opponents; the random event simply determines a gain or loss in the standing of the current player within the game, which is independent of any other player; the "game" then is actually a "race" by definitions such as Crawford's. Most other board games combine strategy and luck factors; the game of backgammon requires players to decide
10340-453: The player does". This is often referred to as gameplay . Major key elements identified in this context are tools and rules that define the overall context of game. Games are often classified by the components required to play them (e.g. miniatures , a ball , cards , a board and pieces , or a computer ). In places where the use of leather is well-established, the ball has been a popular game piece throughout recorded history, resulting in
10450-488: The player who is in the lead in the game needs only one more point to win the game. The terminology is extended to sets (set point), matches (match point), and even championships (championship point). For example, if the player who is serving has a score of 40–love, the player has a triple game point (triple set point, etc.) as the player has three consecutive chances to win the game. Game points, set points, and match points are not part of official scoring and are not announced by
10560-410: The player's scores equal at 40 apiece, the score is not called out as "40–40", but rather as "deuce". If at least three points have been scored by each side and a player has one more point than his opponent, the score of the game is "advantage" for the player in the lead. During informal games, advantage can also be called "ad in" or "van in" when the serving player is ahead, and "ad out" or "van out" when
10670-449: The receiver has disrupted, or broken the natural advantage of the server. If in the following game the previous server also wins a break point it is referred to as breaking back . Except where tiebreaks apply, at least one break of serve is required to win a set (otherwise a two-game lead would never occur). Another, however informal, tennis format is called Canadian doubles . This involves three players, with one person playing against
10780-414: The receiving player is ahead; alternatively, either player may simply call out "my ad" or "your ad". The score of a tennis game during play is always read with the serving player's score first. In tournament play, the chair umpire calls the point count (e.g., "15–love") after each point. At the end of a game, the chair umpire also announces the winner of the game and the overall score. A set consists of
10890-1343: The rules of a game merely requires knowledge of the rules and some careful attempt to follow them; it rarely (if ever) requires luck or demanding skills. A game's tools and rules will result in its requiring skill, strategy, luck , or a combination thereof, and are classified accordingly. Games of skill include games of physical skill, such as wrestling , tug of war , hopscotch , target shooting , and stake, and games of mental skill such as checkers and chess . Games of strategy include checkers, chess, Go , arimaa , and tic-tac-toe , and often require special equipment to play them. Games of chance include gambling games ( blackjack , Mahjong , roulette , etc.), as well as snakes and ladders and rock, paper, scissors ; most require equipment such as cards or dice . However, most games contain two or all three of these elements. For example, American football and baseball involve both physical skill and strategy while tiddlywinks , poker , and Monopoly combine strategy and chance. Many card and board games combine all three; most trick-taking games involve mental skill, strategy, and an element of chance, as do many strategic board games such as Risk , Settlers of Catan , and Carcassonne . Most games require multiple players. However, single-player games are unique in respect to
11000-404: The service boxes; depending on a player's position, they have to hit the ball into one of these when serving. A ball is out only if none of it has hit the area inside the lines, or the line, upon its first bounce. All lines are required to be between 1 and 2 inches (25 and 51 mm) in width, with the exception of the baseline which can be up to 4 inches (100 mm) wide, although in practice it
11110-417: The singles court on each side. The modern tennis court owes its design to Major Walter Clopton Wingfield . In 1873, Wingfield patented a court much the same as the current one for his stické tennis (sphairistike). This template was modified in 1875 to the court design that exists today, with markings similar to Wingfield's version, but with the hourglass shape of his court changed to a rectangle. Tennis
11220-468: The start of a new point. A game consists of a sequence of points played with the same player serving. A game is won by the first player to have won at least four points in total and at least two points more than the opponent. The running score of each game is described in a manner peculiar to tennis: scores from zero to three points are described as "love", "15", "30", and "40", respectively. If at least three points have been scored by each player, making
11330-556: The strategy element for their interest. Such games are usually described as having " perfect information "; the only unknown is the exact thought processes of one's opponent, not the outcome of any unknown event inherent in the game (such as a card draw or die roll). Children's games, on the other hand, tend to be very luck-based, with games such as Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders having virtually no decisions to be made. By some definitions, such as that by Greg Costikyan , they are not games since there are no decisions to make which affect
11440-408: The type of challenges a player faces. Unlike a game with multiple players competing with or against each other to reach the game's goal, a one-player game is a battle solely against an element of the environment (an artificial opponent), against one's own skills, against time, or against chance. Playing with a yo-yo or playing tennis against a wall is not generally recognized as playing a game due to
11550-485: The very earliest days of networked and time-shared computers. Early commercial systems such as Plato were at least as widely famous for their games as for their strictly educational value. In 1958, Tennis for Two dominated Visitor's Day and drew attention to the oscilloscope at the Brookhaven National Laboratory ; during the 1980s, Xerox PARC was known mainly for Maze War , which
11660-536: The wall. Henry VIII of England was a big fan of this game, which is now known as real tennis . An epitaph in St Michael's Church, Coventry , written c. 1705 , read, in part: Here lyes an old toss'd Tennis Ball: Was racketted, from spring to fall, With so much heat and so much hast, Time's arm for shame grew tyred at last. During the 18th and early 19th centuries, as real tennis declined, new racket sports emerged in England. The invention of
11770-823: The world was formed, the United States National Lawn Tennis Association (now the United States Tennis Association ) in order to standardize the rules and organize competitions. The US National Men's Singles Championship, now the US Open , was first held in 1881 at the Newport Casino , Newport, Rhode Island . The US National Women's Singles Championships were first held in 1887 in Philadelphia . Tennis also became popular in France, where
11880-430: Was offered as a hands-on demo to visitors. Modern online games are played using an Internet connection; some have dedicated client programs, while others require only a web browser . Some simpler browser games appeal to more casual game-playing demographic groups (notably older audiences) that otherwise play very few video games. Tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against
11990-565: Was played there in September 1880. An Englishman named O.E. Woodhouse won the singles title, and a silver cup worth $ 100, by defeating Canadian I. F. Hellmuth . There was also a doubles match which was won by a local pair. There were different rules at each club. The ball in Boston was larger than the one normally used in New York. On 21 May 1881, the oldest nationwide tennis organization in
12100-753: Was wrong and that Bernard Suits' definition is a good answer to the problem. French sociologist Roger Caillois , in his book Les jeux et les hommes (Games and Men) (1961), defined a game as an activity that must have the following characteristics: Game designer Chris Crawford defined the term in the context of computers. Using a series of dichotomies : Crawford's definition may thus be rendered as: an interactive, goal-oriented activity made for money, with active agents to play against, in which players (including active agents) can interfere with each other. Other definitions, however, as well as history, show that entertainment and games are not necessarily undertaken for monetary gain. Games can be characterized by "what
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