Early History: Greece
According to Rupert Thompson of the University of Cambridge, the earliest reference to drinking games in Western literature is from Plato's Symposium The Drinking Party. The game was simple: fill a bowl with wine, drink it, slap it, and pass it on to the next person. There is a very similar game played today known as slap the bag. For this game the persons take a bag of cheap wine, drink out of the bag, hit it, then pass it.
Early History: China
Drinking games were enjoyed in ancient China, usually incorporating the use of dice or verbal exchange of riddles. During the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the Chinese used a silver canister where written lots could be drawn that designated which player had to drink and specifically how much; for example, from 1, 5, 7, or 10 measures of drink that the youngest player, or the last player to join the game, or the most talkative player, or the host, or the player with the greatest alcohol tolerance, etc. had to drink.
History: Beer Pong on College Campuses
Pong began as a game with almost no rules. Many College old-timers have said that the game may have started when someone put their cup of beer on the table during a friendly game of ping pong. During the early 1950s, the game was not named and lacked formal procedures. It was a way to combine the activities drinking and ping pong. The alcoholic sport was more focused on the sport aspect and less on the alcohol part. Even through the 1980s, that the alcohol was secondary to the game at hand. Getting drunk was just a bonus to having a good time, It was played more to be social and competitive. Until the 1990s, pong featured just one cup for singles and two cups for doubles on each side of the table, nowadays most games are played with anywhere between 6-10 cup and without the paddles. Many students argue that the more common game requires less skill and is less competitive, but much easier for more people to be good at. It was an interesting transition, as well as, more and more cups were being added, which in turn increase alcohol consumed per game. From pong, to beer pong the game has evolved in front of our eyes with the creation of civil war. Which increased the amount of players and the speed of the game. As college students become bored with the games that are the norm, there will continue to be innovation.
