11. let the games begin!

Let the Games Begin!

Pre-Columbian Art

Mesoamerican Ball Game• Originated with the Olmec, in fact, Olmec is a Nahuatl (Aztec) name

meaning “rubber people”, referencing the rubber ball and the Olmec’s skill in the game

• Rubber came from the latex-growing region of the Olmec territory• Sunken earthen ball courts and rubber balls have been found at

Olmec sites• Little is known about the rules (how many players on the field, how

goals were scored and tallied, how competitions were arranged), but we do know that:• Players could not touch the ball with their hands• Could use their heads, elbows, hips, and legs

Mesoamerican Ball Game• Size of the courts vary, largest known is at Chichén Itzá (500 ft. long);

for reference, a standard soccer field is between 300-400 ft.• Some courts have stone rings for the ball to be tossed through (?)• Ball may have been bounced against the walls and into the end zones• Wore thick leather belts, sometimes helmets• Padded their knees and arms• Was not solely for entertainment; the ball may have represented a

celestial body (like the sun), its movements over the court imitating the sun’s daily passage through the sky

• Sometimes ended in human sacrifice, probably of captives taken in battle and then forced to play the game they were predestined to lose!

Mesoamerican Ball Game• Also see this game in Mesoamerican mythology:

• Maya epic called Popol Vuh (Council Book): legendary twins forced to play against the evil lords of the Underworld • The brothers lose and are sacrificed, the sons of one twin

travel to the Underworld, and after a series of trials, including a ball game, outwit the lords and kill them

• They revive their father who’d been buried in the ball court, the younger twins rise to the heavens to become the sun and the moon, and the father becomes the god of maize

• The ball game and its aftermath here are a metaphor for the cycle of life, death, and regeneration that permeates Mesoamerican religion

Ball Court at Chichén Itzá

Assignment

• Exercise, strategy, fun, competition, education, stress management…there are many reasons why athletics and games have had a place in humanity from antiquity to the present

• Design your own game using readily available materials (things you have access to and that you don’t necessarily have to purchase or search far and wide for)

Assignment

• Construct the rules and regulations of the game, including how points are earned (if there are points) or how goals are scored (if there are goals)– Consider loopholes and how to write rules around

them so that players have to use strategy– You may need to practice your game with others to

identify loopholes or where your rules are lacking!• Identify the objective of the game (it must have a

purpose)

Assignment

• Your game must be original; it can include parts of other games/activities, but shouldn’t be significantly similar to any one game that already exists

• There are so many games that don’t even require props or equipment– Think about what kind of game you want to create and what

purpose it will serve:• Exercise?• Strategy?• Fun?• Competition?• Education?• Stress Management?

Assignment

• Option 1: Design a work of art that illustrates the game in process, or an important part of the game in detail, and include the rules either on the illustration or separately

• Option 2: Actually build/create a prototype that the class will play– You still need to write out the rules so that we can

post them in a visible place while the class plays your game!

Option 1 Example: Artwork of the game in action

Option 1 Example: Artwork of the game in action

Option 1 Example: Can be a detail of the board of your game

Option 1 Example: Can be the full board of your game

Option 1 Example: Can be a logo for your game

Option 1 Example: Can be a logo for your game

Option 2 Examples

• Example of a game with few props:• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nfcv6XVlR

AU (Friends, Ball Game)

• Example of building a prototype: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfXfOCIIFcY (Parks and Rec, Cones of Dunshire)

• Remember, even if you build a prototype, you still need to write out the rules to your game so we know how to play it!

Example: Catchphrase1wordCharadeSoundsWe are going to play this as a class!

• Each person writes 1 well-known thing on a small piece of scratch paper (don’t make things up that other people won’t know!)– Can be a noun or a well known quote (quotes are particularly challenging, and if

they are not written accurately by the clue-giver, their team will forfeit a turn and the clue will be removed from the bowl permanently)

• Collect the papers into a bowl, divide into teams (how many will depend on how many people are playing…each team must have at least 2 people)

• These clues will be used for each round, and each team will get 1-minute intervals to get their team to guess as many clues as possible until all the clues are done for that round

• Players cannot pass on the clue they have; they must get their team to guess the clue in hand before moving on to another!– Round 1: Catchphrase (can say anything except the word or parts of the word, NO

PROPS and no pointing!)– Round 2: 1 word– Round 3: Charades (NO SOUNDS, no props, no writing)– Round 4: Only sounds (guessers must have eyes closed, actor’s eyes can stay open,

no words allowed, ONLY SOUNDS!)

My Dad’s Entries: Some were not written accurately!!!