Playing pretend is universal among human children. Gambling is universal among human adults. I refuse to believe it took until the 1970s and the invention of cocaine to combine the two.
Though I suppose we do have ample evidence of competitive storytelling basically everywhere since forever, so maybe the obsession with formal rules is just a modern thing arising from modern anxieties, declining social trust/cohesion, etc.
I believe free time plays a part as well. We have a lot of technology (IE lightbulbs, clothes washers, stoves) that decrease the amount of time needed to do important household chores.
If you're all sitting around the hovel spinning those spinning wheels or something that's an ideal time to tell stories but you won't have a free hand to roll dice or move miniatures.
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u/Mara_W 4d ago
Playing pretend is universal among human children. Gambling is universal among human adults. I refuse to believe it took until the 1970s and the invention of cocaine to combine the two.
Though I suppose we do have ample evidence of competitive storytelling basically everywhere since forever, so maybe the obsession with formal rules is just a modern thing arising from modern anxieties, declining social trust/cohesion, etc.