Posted on 08/01/2005 5:23:01 PM PDT by sionnsar
Hallo again to all. Until the twentieth century, wars were for the most part local and personal. Sometimes the locale was far away from home, as with the Crusades, but the concept of a global war didn't exist until the Great War, later renamed World War I when it happened again. The Second World War was, in truth, much more global than the First, but both were on a scale never before experienced.
Accepting for a moment the notion that it is possible to recover from such a war, part of the French recovery process included diversionary board games that recast war as parlour sport. The Miro company produced two board games that entranced the postwar French: La Conquête du monde and Diplomatie*. Those games were known in the English-speaking world by the names Risk and Diplomacy. Broadly writ, the goal of both games is to dominate the world, but to do so by negotiation and treachery, rather than by force, whenever possible. We are not devoted players of these games, but we recognize and appreciate their value to those who are.
In reading our favourite Anglican publication recently, we noted a reference to a Scottish Episcopal parody site called 'Taking the Episcopalian' and, admidst the delightful silliness of vestment models, liturgy guides, and trouser albs, we found Risk: Anglican Communion Windsor Report Edition, which states that:
The game doesn't really exist, of course, and there's no such business as Potting Shed games. We were sufficiently amused by the idea that we thought briefly about offering this game at our Anglicans Online Shop, but reason reined us in when we realized that the copyright owner of the real Risk game would not be amused.
There! We've made a bit more sense out of the world around us, and we feel good about it. See you next week. Oh, and it's your move; roll the dice. |
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.