Games are metaphors for life, just as any other art form is. Just as a caricature is memorable because it emphasizes some features and minimizes others, games are memorable because they bring some elements of life into greater contrast and visibility.

The most obvious contrast is the game ends, while we hope our lives don't. By shortening the time frame, and compressing the 'life' into a few hours, each moment becomes more important. We celebrate the wins like a resurrection, and the losses like death. But that is obvious, and simplistic, and trite.

Consider time, and how it's marked and measured in different games. In soccer, the clock runs and the referee adds on extra time as he sees fit. In hockey and basketball, the clock stops on every stoppage of play. In football, sometimes the clock stops with the play, and sometimes it doesn't. In baseball, there isn't a clock at all,^1 nor is there one in cricket. Time is the only true non-renewable resource, so it's fascinating that our games treat it so differently.

Our games are also reflections of our societies. We saw the long struggle for integration in pro sports in the US, one whose victory preceded the one in wider society. We have seen big data overturn analytics in a number of sports, particularly baseball, as it is overturning many established patterns in life. And we have seen the corruption that we see in government copied in FIFA, in figure skating, and the IOC at the organizational level, and by the Houston Astros, the Aussie cricket team, and a bunch of PED-o baseball players at the club level. Our games are microcosms of our world, with diverse elements laid out in stark relief. We can learn a lot from studying our games, just as we learn by studying literature or poetry.

^1 - Well, it didn't. I believe a pitch clock was introduced in the minors last year, and it will make its way to the majors next year.