Many commercial publishers put out games that seem void of originality or interest, relying on a popular theme to attract customers. Games for children are again a separate case, since a game need not be original to be fresh to them. But speaking of adult games, although a theme might enhance the play of a good game, a good game never gets its value from its theme. The games that interest me most are abstract strategy games . The word abstract is used because such games usually are presented with no theme, or in which the theme is not important to the experience of playing.
Abstract games are thus the purest of games.
Chess, for example, although it has been said to have a theme of war between medieval armies, is clearly an abstract strategy game. Abstract strategy games furthermore minimize the element of chance. There are ordinarily only two players, since competition between more than two generally leads to temporary alliances to defeat whichever player acquires an early advantage, and strategy succumbs to politics. Contrary to some common assertions, there is an element of luck even in abstract strategy games. For instance, a player might make a move without seeing its value, and later find that any other move would have lost the game.