This weeks reading continued on the focus of Weiqi and Go, two similar games from China and Japan respectively. Whereas last week we covered the Chinese origin of Weiqi, this week the readings focused on the Japanese adoption of the game and how they grew and evolved not the game itself, but the culture surrounding the game.

Japan differed from China primarily in how they codified the surrounding competitive culture of the game. In both cultures, Weiqi had a home within the court and aristocratic class, but where as in China it was a past time, in Japan it became a sport or league. Japan had a set of rankings and rules that overtook anything that existed in China. China made the game, but Japan owned it.

The Japanese Imperial court was a supporter of the game, paying for players to live in residence near the palace and often had them play for top officials. However, Go games were too long for the average bureaucrat, so the games were often played beforehand and reenacted for the officials.

This seems to me to be almost the prototype for recorded games. While the Chess Queen text and other pieces on Weiqi and Go reference specific plays and games being recorded for aiding in learning, this behavior seems to have the distinction of being the first time that I have seen normal games being replayed in a truncated format for an audience.

From a logistics perspective this brings up a question. How was it that the games were able to be compressed into a shorter time frame and how were the moves recorded during the initial play? Are the turns often longer or drawn out with each player contemplating their moves, or were the games, upon replay, set to some point in the middle where the more interesting actions occur? I find myself wishing to play Go with a more experienced player, if only to better understand some of what these texts are saying. For me, trying to comprehend any modern video game in abstract, with no understanding of the game, would be to only glean the highest level of comprehension.

I also noted some cultural parallels both with the reading and from the discussions during last class, where it was mentioned that Weiqi and Go hold equal standing in the media and popular consciousness to physical sports. This brought to mind the modern standing of games such as Starcraft in South Korea and made me wonder if there was a cultural component to these games being so highly regarded. In the West, board or computer games, mental games, are treated very differently than physical games, with the physical games having a much higher standing than their mental counterparts. Look at the media and public attention that football gets, not to mention the money and economic impact the sport has. When compared to almost any other non sport game, the impact pales in comparison.

After the readings for the last few weeks, the question that comes to mind is what cultural element causes the separation of the physical and the mental in Western culture but promotes their integration in the East? I would hazard to guess that the answer to this would help shed light not only on the differences between the regions, but on what cultural forces shape games and their players. Today’s reading specifically was not about the game, but about the players and the meta game that surrounds Go.