You’ll never play the same game twice: that was how my mom sold me on trying Bridge. It might have been the same line when my dad talked me into Chess. And come to think of it, pretty much any great game of deep strategy shares this quality, digital or not. Yet Chess only maintains this quality through the game play of your opponent. Same with Bridge, but there it also depends on the cards you’re dealt. Now consider games and sports where you will never play the same game twice and the reason behind this is the altering of the context of the game. I’m talking playing surfaces, environments, and general pregame shenanigans.

I’m watching a Russian by the name of Federer, first name Roger, come from behind to win the first set of a tennis matches in the semifinals of the French Open. I love European championship tennis for two reasons: it’s really good, and it’s on live television in the morning. I’m talking Wimbledon along with this tourney, and watching Federer — perhaps the most dominating tennis player ever — can be a religious experience. Don’t take it from me, take it from David Foster Wallace. But since an article about Federer has already been done, I’ll write one about the second coolest thing in tennis: the surfaces.

Back in the day, and when I say “day” I’m talking seventh grade, my parents recognized my budding interest in the sport of tennis and got me a coach so I’d learn the “right” techniques instead of teaching myself all of the wrong ones. That summer that I was coached (at a country club mind you and my family didn’t even belong), I developed a wicked serve and not much else. But that serve — which is really only effective from the right side since I was right handed and needed maximum hook/spin on the ball — was good enough to walk through every country club tourney I entered that summer. It was great: taking the trophies from all the country club kids week after week. To this day, I have no backhand, a weak forehand, and make general rallying between a friend a pretty miserable experience. But ask me to serve from the right side… I dare you.

So all bragging aside, the real story here is about how that country club offered two different surfaces to play tennis on: hard court and clay. Now you could say a hard court is a hard court is a hard court, but when you play on public courts — more often than not — each hard court comes with it’s own special blend of cracks and divets, all of which must be considered as part of the game. As John Updike would say, it’s the blemishes that make us special… and in tennis on the hard court, it’s the cracks that give the flavor. And what about clay? That’s the surface Federer is playing on right now at the French Open — and the great thing about this is clay seems to be this superman’s kryptonite. Federer is unbeatable on every other surface. But on clay he is mortal. It’s because tennis on clay is a different game than on concrete. Or on grass for that matter, the surface of Wimbledon. And my summer at the country club taught me this full well.

What exactly is clay? It’s sort of like a dirt but more sandy. When it rains, it gets sort of muddy. But basically it’s like a packed dirt surface covered in sand. In France it looks red. What I played on was more black. There is little traction on clay and this is the key element. Not only do your feet suffer as you dart and slide all over the place, but that un-returnable serve from the right side with the hook/spin doesn’t quite cut like it would on a hard surface. And the seventh grade hot shot is quickly humbled as shot after shot is returned to his backhand.

Now I don’t have all day to write about the different games that employ different environments to alter the course of gaming… but to name two of my favorites, think about golf — where the essence of the sport is in the unique design of each course, each hole for that matter — and baseball. Home field advantage is never more apparent than in baseball where on top of a cheering crowd there is the unique design of the field. The home team’s roster is actually crafted to compose of players whose game will benefit from the design of the ballpark they play in. Take a look at Fenway Park in Boston, and then look at whatever corporate name they are calling the San Francisco Giants’ stadium in the bay.

Going back to the deep strategy games, think about ones where “surface” changes game to game and, through this, player advantage changes. I can’t think of any, can you? I mean, there is MarioKart where you can pick your race track. But not exactly deep strategy, really just a digital sport. I guess sim games, like SimCity might qualify… but that’s single player and it’s a sim. Civilization type games are probably the closest thing out there where armies are built for different environments to fight against another, but in my experience with games of this nature it’s less about strategy and more about dedicating effort to simply build the bigger army. I mean the Litmus Test here would be to take the same two armies, fight them in different environments, and find if there can be different outcomes based on how the environment affected them. In other words, does Napoleon have his clay court? Tennis anyone?