Yudhishthira’s Dice

Yudhishthira was the eldest Pandava, the five brothers about whom the Mahabharata is written. He was a great man and a great king, but he also had a great folly: he loved to gamble and play at dice. This weakness lost him his kingdom and nearly lost him his wife and family as well.

The other name I almost gave the blog was another Hindu term: Lila, which means “play.” However it means more than that as well. Lila is the divine play of Lord Krsna, through which he makes and sustains the universe. It is the games of divinity, the joy of life, the dance of ages, and everything else, all made into play, into fun, into a game. It is joy in life, it is play.

The two together came to me because I intend to write very seriously about game here, a subject many would not take seriously at all. But between kings and gods there has been much gained and lost in games and play, and I believe there is a real way in which we make our world and ourselves more clearly in the things we imagine, the things we play, the gambles we take than at any other time.

One further note. I will not be nice in this journal. I will make judgemental statements and say that things are “good” or “bad” gaming without qualifying them. By this I do mean “good for me and the kinds of games I want to play and design” and not “good for all games.” I don’t believe there is such a thing as good for all games, the very idea is stupid. I do, however, believe there is a good for me, and that is what I am going to focus on. And except for this paragraph, I will not repeat that statement again.