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Games have been part of our lives since the dawn of civilization and perhaps even before. Primitive peoples play many types of games. Some help to develop, and master, necessary skills for survival, others are simply for fun and social interaction. Our games draw us closer together as a community, allow us to compete in non-combative ways, and may even define us as a culture.

Designing games has become a highly competitive business. With the flood of games on the market the ability to get and hold the attention of the gaming public is getting harder and harder. Part of that design has become a work in basic psychology. Game theory has been around for some time. It is the study of how games work, why we play them, and what keeps us playing.

As with any good game, from card games to board games, computer games stimulate certain drives within our unconscious and stimulate our intellect. Most basic with any game is what most people think of as the desire to win, our competitive nature, but in fact it is a more basic need to perform well and gain acceptance. Computer games have been able to tap into that desire much like any other game. Yet there seems to be much more in the case of electronic games as compared to their predecessors.

Modern games have added a whole new psychological dimension to our playtime, "Role Play". Used as a tool in therapy for many years, role playing has found its way into our games. Many games that you would not think of as role play games (RPG) , such as RTS (real time strategy) or FPS (first person shooter) games, have subtle role play elements. They put you in the place of playing the role of the hero as you move through the game, some allowing you to make decisions that effect your "character" along the way. Classical elements of any RPG.

Modern life has many complexities, social and psychological. The rat race of day-to-day existence have stresses that our more agrarian ancestors could not imagine. Though our technology and civilization has eased the physical burdens in our lives, the emotional and intellectual stresses have multiplied a hundred fold. Therefore modern games have changed to reflect that trend.

Computer games are at the height of this new kind of play. That is not to say they are the best kind of game, that is very personal and subjective, we play what we enjoy. They are, however, the most advanced psychologically and the most removed from classical types of games. These new games are a reflection of our complex lives and

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