Home > Invented card game

1 Classification of card games

Card games can be classified into three categories, according to their origin and process of evolution, which are

• Developed card games. Most traditional and popular card games are of this sort. These games are not owned by any inventor or organization, but rather evolve in the public domain. They are often descendants of other pre-existing card games. Hearts, Euchre, and Poker are all developed card games. Almost invariantly, a solitary "inventor" of such a game cannot be identified.
• Commercial card games, which are proprietary games. Because the traditional 52-card deck is in the public domain, commercial games are usually designed to use a special deck, giving the manufacturer a monopoly on it. Examples include The Great Dalmuti and 6 Nimmt .
• Invented card games, which are the creation of a known individual or organization. Notable examples include 500, invented by the U.S. Playing Card Company, in the early 20th century, and Contract Bridge, invented in 1925, two card games among this category which have achieved canonical status.

2 Status of invented card games

Among some card players, invented card games hold lower status than canonical developed card games, mainly for the following reasons:

• Many invented card games are not well-tested. Developed card games, which result from the creative work of hundreds, if not thousands, of player-inventors, have already been through a thorough process of playtesting by the time they are even noticed.
• Some invented card games are idiosyncratic and appeal only to one person or group of people.
• The relative obscurity of many invented card games makes finding players difficult.

Most in the gaming community find that the stigma of the invented card game is unfair: There are many high-quality invented card games, some of which even attain canonical status ( FreeCell, 500, Bridge) because of their enjoyable play.

As well, the delineation between invented and developed card games is itself controversial. Most card games which, originally, were developed, could be argued to have been invented at the time they were published in a reference such as Hoyle's Rules of Games. Such publication, de facto, standardizes a game, and those involved in writing the "official" rules have considerable editorial influence over which version (and many exist, prior to the game's canonization and standardization) is classified as "standard", which versions are included as minor variants, and which are not included at all. Conversely, an invented game may not be entirely the work of its inventor; they often include elements of earlier games, which may be developed games.

3 See also

• Bridge
• 500
• FreeCell

4 External link

• Pagat.com's list of invented card games contains rules for approximately 400 different card games.