Ba game is a version of medieval football played in Scotland, perhaps most notably in Orkney and the Scottish Borders, around Christmas and New Year.

Ba is basically mob football, or village football. Two parts of a town have to get a ball to their respective side. For instance the two sides are called the uppies or the downies depending on which part of town they were born, or otherwise owe allegiance to. The ball must be manhandled, and is very often a moving scrum. The game moves through the town, and can go up alleyways, into yards and up streets. Shops and houses board up their windows to prevent damage. Unlike traditional mob football, generally people are not hurt.^[1]

Ba games are played in

• Duns
• Jedburgh Play starts at the Mercat Cross in the centre of the town. The uppies, who first entered the town or were born south of the Mercat Cross, hail (score) the ba at the top of the Castlegate by throwing the ba over a fence at the Castle. The downies, who first entered the town or were born to the north, hail by rolling the ba over a drain (hailing used to be done by throwing the ba over a burn which has now been built over, the drain is directly above the burn.) in the road at a street just off the bottom of High Street. The laddies' game starts at midday and the men's game at 2pm. Both games run until the last ba has been hailed. Most years this means that both games can be running at the same time. There is no boundary as to where the game is played with most of the play occurring in the town centre. This can prove awkward for shoppers, trying to avoid getting caught up in the game, and shopkeepers, who put shutters on their doors and windows in case (as has happened on many occasions) they are pushed on by the ruck.
• Roxburgh
• Kirkwall
• Scone. In this version the men of the parish would assemble at the cross, the married on one side, the bachelors on the other, the play continuing from 2 o'clock till sunset. Whoever got the ball in his hands would run with it till he was overtaken by one of the opposition. If he was not able to shake himself loose, he would throw the ball from him, unless it was wrestled by one of the other side. No player was allowed to kick the ball. The object of the married men was to "hang" the ball: to put it three times into a small lid on the moor which was their "dool", or limit; that of the bachelors was to "drown" or dip the ball in a deep place in the river, which was their limit. The party who achieved either of these objectives won the game; if neither won, the ball was cut into equal parts at sunset.
• Stromness

References[link]

1. ^ Kirkwall Ba game website - History

External links[link]

• Kirkwall Ba game
• Ba' game legal threat fears BBC news article from 9 May 2001)
• bagame.com, photographic website by Dr. Charles Tait.

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Tug of war is an easily organized, impromptu game that requires little equipment.

The Card Players, a 1895 painting by Paul Cézanne depicting a game of cards.

A game is structured playing, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more often an expression of aesthetic or ideological elements. However, the distinction is not clear-cut, and many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports/games) or art (such as jigsaw puzzles or games involving an artistic layout such as Mahjong, solitaire, or some video games).

Key components of games are goals, rules, challenge, and interaction. Games generally involve mental or physical stimulation, and often both. Many games help develop practical skills, serve as a form of exercise, or otherwise perform an educational, simulational, or psychological role.

Attested as early as 2600 BC,^[1][2] games are a universal part of human experience and present in all cultures. The Royal Game of Ur, Senet, and Mancala are some of the oldest known games.^[3]

Definitions[link]

Look up game in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Ludwig Wittgenstein[link]

Ludwig Wittgenstein was probably the first academic philosopher to address the definition of the word game. In his Philosophical Investigations,^[4] Wittgenstein demonstrated that the elements of games, such as play, rules, and competition, all fail to adequately define what games are. Wittgenstein concluded that people apply the term game to a range of disparate human activities that bear to one another only what one might call family resemblances.

Roger Caillois[link]

French sociologist Roger Caillois, in his book Les jeux et les hommes (Games and Men),^[5] defined a game as an activity that must have the following characteristics:

• fun: the activity is chosen for its light-hearted character
• separate: it is circumscribed in time and place
• uncertain: the outcome of the activity is unforeseeable
• non-productive: participation does not accomplish anything useful
• governed by rules: the activity has rules that are different from everyday life
• fictitious: it is accompanied by the awareness of a different reality

Chris Crawford[link]

Computer game designer Chris Crawford attempted to define the term game^[6] using a series of dichotomies:

1. Creative expression is art if made for its own beauty, and entertainment if made for money.
2. A piece of entertainment is a plaything if it is interactive. Movies and books are cited as examples of non-interactive entertainment.
3. If no goals are associated with a plaything, it is a toy. (Crawford notes that by his definition, (a) a toy can become a game element if the player makes up rules, and (b) The Sims and SimCity are toys, not games.) If it has goals, a plaything is a challenge.
4. If a challenge has no "active agent against whom you compete," it is a puzzle; if there is one, it is a conflict. (Crawford admits that this is a subjective test. Video games with noticeably algorithmic artificial intelligence can be played as puzzles; these include the patterns used to evade ghosts in Pac-Man.)
5. Finally, if the player can only outperform the opponent, but not attack them to interfere with their performance, the conflict is a competition. (Competitions include racing and figure skating.) However, if attacks are allowed, then the conflict qualifies as a game.

Crawford's definition may thus be rendered as: an interactive, goal-oriented activity, with active agents to play against, in which players (including active agents) can interfere with each other.

Other definitions[link]

• "A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome." (Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman)^[7]
• "A game is a form of art in which participants, termed players, make decisions in order to manage resources through game tokens in the pursuit of a goal." (Greg Costikyan)^[8] According to this definitions, some "games" that do not involve choices, such as Chutes and Ladders, Candy Land, and War are not technically games any more than a slot machine is.
• "A game is an activity among two or more independent decision-makers seeking to achieve their objectives in some limiting context." (Clark C. Abt)^[9]
• "At its most elementary level then we can define game as an exercise of voluntary control systems in which there is an opposition between forces, confined by a procedure and rules in order to produce a disequilibrial outcome." (Elliot Avedon and Brian Sutton-Smith)^[10]
• "A game is a form of play with goals and structure." (Kevin J. Maroney)^[11]

Gameplay elements and classification[link]

Games can be characterized by "what the player does."^[6] This is often referred to as gameplay. Major key elements identified in this context are tools and rules that define the overall context of game and that in turn produce skill, strategy, and chance.^{[clarification needed]}

Tools[link]

Games are often classified by the components required to play them (e.g. miniatures, a ball, cards, a board and pieces, or a computer). In places where the use of leather is well established, the ball has been a popular game piece throughout recorded history, resulting in a worldwide popularity of ball games such as rugby, basketball, football, cricket, tennis, and volleyball. Other tools are more idiosyncratic to a certain region. Many countries in Europe, for instance, have unique standard decks of playing cards. Other games such as chess may be traced primarily through the development and evolution of its game pieces.

Many game tools are tokens, meant to represent other things. A token may be a pawn on a board, play money, or an intangible item such as a point scored.

Games such as hide-and-seek or tag do not utilise any obvious tool; rather, their interactivity is defined by the environment. Games with the same or similar rules may have different gameplay if the environment is altered. For example, hide-and-seek in a school building differs from the same game in a park; an auto race can be radically different depending on the track or street course, even with the same cars.

Rules[link]

Whereas games are often characterized by their tools, they are often defined by their rules. While rules are subject to variations and changes, enough change in the rules usually results in a "new" game. For instance, baseball can be played with "real" baseballs or with wiffleballs. However, if the players decide to play with only three bases, they are arguably playing a different game. There are exceptions to this in that some games deliberately involve the changing of their own rules, but even then there are often immutable meta-rules.

Rules generally determine turn order, the rights and responsibilities of the players, and each player’s goals. Player rights may include when they may spend resources or move tokens. Common win conditions are being first to amass a certain quota of points or tokens (as in Settlers of Catan), having the greatest number of tokens at the end of the game (as in Monopoly), or some relationship of one’s game tokens to those of one’s opponent (as in chess's checkmate).

Skill, strategy, and chance[link]

A game’s tools and rules will result in its requiring skill, strategy, luck, or a combination thereof, and are classified accordingly.

Games of skill include games of physical skill, such as wrestling, tug of war, hopscotch, target shooting, and stake, and games of mental skill such as checkers and chess. Games of strategy include checkers, chess, go, arimaa, and tic-tac-toe, and often require special equipment to play them. Games of chance include gambling games (blackjack, mah-jongg, roulette, etc.), as well as snakes and ladders and rock, paper, scissors; most require equipment such as cards or dice. However, most games contain two or all three of these elements. For example, American football and baseball involve both physical skill and strategy while tiddlywinks, poker, and Monopoly combine strategy and chance. Many card and board games combine all three; most trick-taking games involve mental skill, strategy, and an element of chance, as do many strategic board games such as Risk, Settlers of Catan, and Carcassonne.

Single-player games[link]

Most games require multiple players. However, single-player games are unique in respect to the type of challenges a player faces. Unlike a game with multiple players competing with or against each other to reach the game's goal, a one-player game is a battle solely against an element of the environment (an artificial opponent), against one's own skills, against time, or against chance. Playing with a yo-yo or playing tennis against a wall is not generally recognized as playing a game due to the lack of any formidable opposition.

It is not valid to describe a computer game as single-player where the computer provides opposition. If the computer is merely record-keeping, then the game may be validly single-player.

Many games described as "single-player" may be termed actually puzzles or recreations.

Types[link]

Games can take a variety of forms, from competitive sports to board games and video games.

Sports[link]

Association football is a popular sport worldwide.

Many sports require special equipment and dedicated playing fields, leading to the involvement of a community much larger than the group of players. A city or town may set aside such resources for the organization of sports leagues.

Popular sports may have spectators who are entertained just by watching games. A community will often align itself with a local sports team that supposedly represents it (even if the team or most of its players only recently moved in); they often align themselves against their opponents or have traditional rivalries. The concept of fandom began with sports fans.

Stanley Fish cited^{[citation needed]} the balls and strikes of baseball as a clear example of social construction, the operation of rules on the game's tools. While the strike zone target is governed by the rules of the game, it epitomizes the category of things that exist only because people have agreed to treat them as real. No pitch is a ball or a strike until it has been labeled as such by an appropriate authority, the plate umpire, whose judgment on this matter cannot be challenged within the current game.

Certain competitive sports, such as racing and gymnastics, are not games by definitions such as Crawford's (see above) – despite the inclusion of many in the Olympic Games – because competitors do not interact with their opponents; they simply challenge each other in indirect ways.

Lawn games[link]

Lawn games are outdoor games that can be played on a lawn; an area of mowed grass (or alternately, on graded soil) generally smaller than a "field" or pitch. Variations of many games that are traditionally played on a pitch are marketed as "lawn games" for home use in a front or back yard. Common lawn games include horseshoes, sholf, croquet, bocce, lawn bowls, and stake.

Tabletop games[link]

A tabletop game generally refers to any game where the elements of play are confined to a small area and that require little physical exertion, usually simply placing, picking up and moving game pieces. Most of these games are, thus, played at a table around which the players are seated and on which the game's elements are located. A variety of major game types generally fall under the heading of tabletop games. It is worth noting that many games falling into this category, particularly party games, are more free-form in their play and can involve physical activity such as mime, however the basic premise is still that the game does not require a large area in which to play it, large amounts of strength or stamina, or specialized equipment other than what comes in the box (games sometimes require additional materials like pencil and paper that are easy to procure).

Dexterity and coordination games[link]

This class of games includes any game in which the skill element involved relates to manual dexterity or hand-eye coordination, but excludes the class of video games (see below). Games such as jacks, paper football, and Jenga require only very portable or improvised equipment and can be played on any flat level surface, while other examples, such as pinball, billiards, air hockey, foosball, and table hockey require specialized tables or other self-contained modules on which the game is played. The advent of home video game systems largely replaced some of these, such as table hockey, however air hockey, billiards, pinball and foosball remain popular fixtures in private and public game rooms. These games and others, as they require reflexes and coordination, are generally performed more poorly by intoxicated persons but are unlikely to result in injury because of this; as such the games are popular as drinking games. In addition, dedicated drinking games such as quarters also involve physical coordination and are popular for similar reasons.

Board games[link]

Parcheesi is an American adaptation of a board game originating in India.

Board games use as a central tool a board on which the players' status, resources, and progress are tracked using physical tokens. Many also involve dice and/or cards. Most games that simulate war are board games (though a large number of video games have been created to simulate strategic combat; see "Video Games" below), and the board may be a map on which the players' tokens move. Virtually all board games involve "turn-based" play; one player contemplates and then makes a move, then the next player does the same, and a player can only act on their turn. This is opposed to "real-time" play as is found in some card games, most sports and most video games.

Some games, such as chess and Go, are entirely deterministic, relying only on the strategy element for their interest. Such games are usually described as having "perfect information"; the only unknown is the exact thought processes of one's opponent, not the outcome of any unknown event inherent in the game (such as a card draw or die roll). Children's games, on the other hand, tend to be very luck-based, with games such as Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders having virtually no decisions to be made. By some definitions, such as that by (Greg Costikyan), they are not games since there are no decisions to make to effect the outcome.^[12] Many other games involving a high degree of luck do not allow direct attacks between opponents; the random event simply determines a gain or loss in the standing of the current player within the game, which is independent of any other player; the "game" then is actually a "race" by definitions such as Crawford's.

Most other board games combine strategy and luck factors; the game of backgammon requires players to decide the best strategic move based on the roll of two dice. Trivia games have a great deal of randomness based on the questions a person gets. German-style board games are notable for often having rather less of a luck factor than many board games.

Board game groups include race games, roll-and-move games, abstract strategy games, word games, and wargames, as well as the trivia and German-style board games mentioned above. Some board games fall into multiple groups and even incorporate elements of other genres: Cranium is one popular example, where players must succeed in each of four main skills: artistry, live performance, trivia, and language skill.

Card games[link]

Card games use a deck of cards as their central tool. These cards may be a standard Anglo-American (52-card) deck of playing cards (such as for bridge, poker, Rummy, etc.), a regional deck using 32, 36 or 40 cards and different suit signs (such as for the popular German game skat), a tarot deck of 78 cards (used in Europe to play a variety of trick-taking games collectively known as Tarot, Tarock, and/or Tarocchi games), or a deck specific to the individual game (such as Set or 1000 Blank White Cards). Uno and Rook are examples of games that were originally played with a standard deck and have since been commercialized with customized decks. Some collectible card games such as Magic: The Gathering are played with a small selection of cards that have been collected or purchased individually from large available sets.

Some board games include a deck of cards as a gameplay element, normally for randomization and/or to keep track of game progress. Conversely, some card games such as Cribbage use a board with movers, normally to keep score. The differentiation between the two genres in such cases depends on which element of the game is foremost in its play; a board game using cards for random actions can usually use some other method of randomization, while Cribbage can just as easily be scored on paper. These elements as used are simply the traditional and easiest methods to achieve their purpose.

Dice games[link]

Dice games use a number of dice as their central element. Board games often use dice for a randomization element, and thus each roll of the dice has a profound impact on the outcome of the game, however dice games are differentiated in that the dice do not determine the success or failure of some other element of the game; they instead are the central indicator of the person's standing in the game. Popular dice games include Yahtzee, Farkle, Bunco, Liar's dice/Perudo, and Poker dice. As dice are, by their very nature, designed to produce apparently random numbers, these games usually involve a high degree of luck, which can be directed to some extent by the player through more strategic elements of play and through tenets of probability theory. Such games are thus popular as gambling games; the game of Craps is perhaps the most famous example, though Liar's dice and Poker dice were originally conceived of as gambling games.

Domino and tile games[link]

Domino games are similar in many respects to card games, but the generic device is instead a set of tiles called dominoes, which traditionally each have two ends, each with a given number of dots, or "pips", and each combination of two possible end values as it appears on a tile is unique in the set. The games played with dominoes largely center around playing a domino from the player's "hand" onto the matching end of another domino, and the overall object could be to always be able to make a play, to make all open endpoints sum to a given number or multiple, or simply to play all dominoes from one's hand onto the board. Sets vary in the number of possible dots on one end, and thus of the number of combinations and pieces; the most common set historically is double-six, though in more recent times "extended" sets such as double-nine have been introduced to increase the number of dominoes available, which allows larger hands and more players in a game. Muggins, Mexican Train, and Chicken Foot are very popular domino games. Texas 42 is a domino game more similar in its play to a "trick-taking" card game.

Variations of traditional dominoes abound: Triominoes are similar in theory but are triangular and thus have three values per tile. Similarly, a game known as Quad-Ominos uses four-sided tiles.

Some other games use tiles in place of cards; Rummikub is a variant of the Rummy card game family that uses tiles numbered in ascending rank among four colors, very similar in makeup to a 2-deck "pack" of Anglo-American playing cards. Mah-Jongg is another game very similar to Rummy that uses a set of tiles with card-like values and art.

Lastly, some games use graphical tiles to form a board layout, on which other elements of the game are played. Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne are examples. In each, the "board" is made up of a series of tiles; in Settlers of Catan the starting layout is random but static, while in Carcassonne the game is played by "building" the board tile-by-tile. Hive, an abstract strategy game using tiles as moving pieces, has mechanical and strategic elements similar to chess, although it has no board; the pieces themselves both form the layout and can move within it.

Pencil and paper games[link]

Pencil and paper games require little or no specialized equipment other than writing materials, though some such games have been commercialized as board games (Scrabble, for instance, is based on the idea of a crossword puzzle, and tic-tac-toe sets with a boxed grid and pieces are available commercially). These games vary widely, from games centering on a design being drawn such as Pictionary and "connect-the-dots" games like sprouts, to letter and word games such as Boggle and Scattergories, to solitaire and logic puzzle games such as Sudoku and crossword puzzles.

Guessing games[link]

A guessing game has as its core a piece of information that one player knows, and the object is to coerce others into guessing that piece of information without actually divulging it in text or spoken word. Charades is probably the most well-known game of this type, and has spawned numerous commercial variants that involve differing rules on the type of communication to be given, such as Catch Phrase, Taboo, Pictionary, and similar. The genre also includes many game shows such as Win, Lose or Draw, Password and $25,000 Pyramid.

Video games[link]

Video games are computer- or microprocessor-controlled games. Computers can create virtual spaces for a wide variety of game types. Some video games simulate conventional game objects like cards or dice, while others can simulate environs either grounded in reality or fantastical in design, each with its own set of rules or goals.

A computer or video game uses one or more input devices, typically a button/joystick combination (on arcade games); a keyboard, mouse and/or trackball (computer games); or a controller or a motion sensitive tool. (console games). More esoteric devices such as paddle controllers have also been used for input. In computer games, the evolution of user interfaces from simple keyboard to mouse, joystick or joypad has profoundly changed the nature of game development.^{[citation needed]}

There are many genres of video game; the first commercial video game, Pong, was a simple simulation of table tennis. As processing power increased, new genres such as adventure and action games were developed that involved a player guiding a character from a third person perspective through a series of obstacles. This "real-time" element cannot be easily reproduced by a board game, which is generally limited to "turn-based" strategy; this advantage allows video games to simulate situations such as combat more realistically. Additionally, the playing of a video game does not require the same physical skill, strength and/or danger as a real-world representation of the game, and can provide either very realistic, exaggerated or impossible physics, allowing for elements of a fantastical nature, games involving physical violence, or simulations of sports. Lastly, a computer can, with varying degrees of success, simulate one or more human opponents in traditional table games such as chess, leading to simulations of such games that can be played by a single player.

In more open-ended computer simulations, also known as sandbox-style games, the game provides a virtual environment in which the player may be free to do whatever they like within the confines of this universe. Sometimes, there is a lack of goals or opposition, which has stirred some debate on whether these should be considered "games" or "toys". (Crawford specifically mentions Will Wright's SimCity as an example of a toy.)^[6]

Online games[link]

From the very earliest days of networked and time-shared computers, online games have been part of the culture. Early commercial systems such as Plato were at least as widely famous for their games as for their strictly educational value. In 1958, Tennis for Two dominated Visitor's Day and drew attention to the oscilloscope at the Brookhaven National Laboratory; during the 1980s, Xerox PARC was known mainly for Maze War, which was offered as a hands-on demo to visitors.

Modern online games are played using an Internet connection; some have dedicated client programs, while others require only a web browser. Some simpler browser games appeal to demographic groups (notably women and the middle-aged) that otherwise play very few video games.^{[citation needed]}

Media audiences' characteristic has been changing in consequence of the social changes and development. They are becoming active and interact more than ever before. The players of the game in this phenomenon are just like the social formation in society. They are both self-regulating, creating their own social norms and subject to regulation and constraint through the code of the game and sometimes through the policing of the game by those who run it. The values that are policed vary from game to game. Many of the values encoded into game cultures reflect offline cultural values, but games also offer a chance to emphasise alternative or subjugated values in the name of fantasy and play. The players of the game at the new century are now apparently expressing their profound self through the game. When they can play with their anonymous status, they are found to be more confident to express and to step out from the position they have never been out from. It offers new experiences and pleasures based in the interactive and immersible possibilities of computer technologies.^{[citation needed]}

Role-playing games[link]

Role-playing games, often abbreviated as RPGs, are a type of game in which the participants (usually) assume the roles of characters acting in a fictional setting. The original role playing games—or at least those explicitly marketed as such—are played with a handful of participants, usually face-to-face, and keep track of the developing fiction with pen and paper. Together, the players may collaborate on a story involving those characters; create, develop, and "explore" the setting; or vicariously experience an adventure outside the bounds of everyday life. Pen-and-paper role-playing games include, for example, Dungeons & Dragons and GURPS.

The term role-playing game has also been appropriated by the video game industry to describe a genre of video games. These may be single-player games where one player experiences a programmed environment and story, or they may allow players to interact through the internet. The experience is usually quite different from traditional role-playing games. Single-player games include Final Fantasy, Fable, The Elder Scrolls, and Mass Effect. Online multi-player games, often referred to as Massively Multiplayer Online role playing games, or MMORPGs, include RuneScape, EverQuest 2, Guild Wars, MapleStory, Anarchy Online, and Dofus. As of 2009^[update], the most successful MMORPG has been World of Warcraft, which controls the vast majority of the market.^[13]

Business games[link]

Business games can take a variety of forms, from interactive board games to interactive games involving different props (balls, ropes, hoops, etc.) and different kinds of activities. The purpose of these games is to link to some aspect of organizational performance and to generate discussions about business improvement. Many business games focus on organizational behaviors. Some of these are computer simulations while others are simple designs for play and debriefing. Team building is a common focus of such activities.

Simulation[link]

The term "game" can include simulation^[14][15] or re-enactment of various activities or use in "real life" for various purposes: e.g., training, analysis, prediction. Well-known examples are war games and roleplaying. The root of this meaning may originate in the human prehistory of games deduced by anthropology from observing primitive cultures, in which children's games mimic the activities of adults to a significant degree: hunting, warring, nursing, etc. These kinds of games are preserved in modern times.^{[original research?]}

See also[link]

Sports and games portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Game

• Game classification
• Game club
• Game theory
• Gamer
• Girls' games and toys
• History of games
• Lawn game
• List of games
• Ludibrium
• Ludology

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Avedon, Elliot; Sutton-Smith, Brian, The Study of Games. (Philadelphia: Wiley, 1971), reprinted Krieger, 1979. ISBN 0-89874-045-2

Kristina Bernadette Cojuangco Aquino (born February 14, 1971), commonly known as Kris Aquino, is a Filipino television and movie personality who gained prominence from her talk shows, game shows, and numerous endorsements. Known as the Queen of All Media, and Philippines' Queen of Talk, she is the youngest daughter of former Philippine senator Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. and Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino, who served as the 11th President of the Philippines, and sister of Benigno S. Aquino, III, the current President of the Philippines.

Her first movie was Pido Dida, Sabay Tayo, which earned her a Box-office Queen title. Her 2004 films such as Feng Shui and So... Happy Together also gave her the Box-office Queen title again.^{[citation needed]} In 2006, she regained the same Box Office title for her movie Sukob, which is the highest-grossing Filipino film of all time.^[1] She is also the Executive Editor of her own bi-monthly magazine called K! The Kris Aquino Magazine. In December 2009, Aquino showcased her own Home Collection called K Everyday. In partnership with ABS-CBN Licensing, K Everyday features cooking collection, kitchen collection, plastic collection, and stationery collection.

She is currently part of ABS-CBN

She is currently residing at Makati City.

Early life[link]

Aquino was born to Corazon Aquino and Benigno S. Aquino, Jr., senator during the Ferdinand Marcos regime. The youngest of five children, her siblings are Maria Elena "Ballsy" Aquino-Cruz, Aurora Corazon "Pinky" Aquino-Abellada, incumbent Philippine President Benigno S. Aquino III, and Victoria Elisa "Viel" Aquino-Dee. She is the cousin of actress and equestrienne Mikee Cojuangco and the niece of Philippine Olympic Committee president Jose "Peping" Cojuangco, Jr.

In the 1978 parliamentary elections where her father was a candidate, the seven-year-old Aquino wowed the crowds as a stand-in for her imprisoned father at campaign rallies. The young campaigner was featured on the front page of New York Times and on Time Magazine. Aquino spent most of her elementary school days in the United States where the Aquino family was in exile. When she was 12 years old, her father was assassinated on the tarmac of the Manila International Airport. Kris Aquino returned to the Philippines and was a precocious presence in rallies against the Marcos regime.

After the 1986 revolution which removed Marcos from power, the teenager Aquino stepped into the limelight, starting with guesting stints on television dramas and comedies, as well as talk shows. Finally, she made her film debut with actor-comedian Rene Requiestas in the comedy Pido Dida. This movie was a blockbuster hit and made Aquino the box office queen for that year.

Aquino afterwards had a commercially steady, though critically panned career and managed to score an acting nomination for The Fatima Buen Story. She starred in a film based on a true-life murder, the Vizconde Massacre. Its financial success and successive crime films of the same vein in which she starred in gained her the nickname "Massacre Queen" by newspaper critics.^{[citation needed]}

Aquino finished her elementary school education at the Poveda Learning Center in Mandaluyong City, high school at the Colegio San Agustin-Makati where she was classmates with Pinky Webb and Karen Davila. She graduated college from the Ateneo de Manila University in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature.

Career[link]

In 1986, Aquino, at 14, made her first TV appearance on Inday Badiday's See-Tru on GMA-7. She was the star of the short-lived comedy show ABS-CBN Luv Ko Si Kris.

With her movie career slowing, Aquino shifted her sights on a television career as a talk show host launched through Kris produced by Viva Television on Channel 4 (at that time named PTV, this was transferred to GMA Network which has partnership with Viva and after Viva's contract with PTV ended). It was in GMA Network showbiz oriented talk show Startalk where she co-hosted with Boy Abunda and Lolit Solis that her hosting capabilities were noticed.

After her GMA and Viva no longer wanted her services, she went back to media conglomerate and GMA Network's rival ABS-CBN which noticed her undeniable hosting wit, offered her a contract and launched Today with Kris Aquino. In January 2003 to May 2004, she hosted the talk show Morning Girls with Kris and Korina, alongside popular broadcast journalist Korina Sanchez. It was intended for only two weeks but went on for 16 months. In 2007, she officially left The Buzz and Pilipinas, Game KNB? after giving birth to her second son, James. She was replaced by Edu Manzano in Pilipinas, Game KNB?. According to her, she had to give up her hosting stint on the said shows to give more time to her baby. It was also assumed that she does not want to go back to The Buzz because she no longer wants to work with former co-host Cristy Fermin.^[2]

In the October 2008 issue of YES! Magazine, Aquino was considered top or the leading celebrity endorser, ranking number one among the twenty popular celebrity endorsers.^[3]

Aquino is the executive editor of the K Magazine of ABS -CBN publishing. "Carrying Kris celebrity equity, "K" is about getting her style, her personality, her lifestyle and her appeal. The magazine reflects the key concerns of the target market presented by Kris herself: beauty, fashion, body, relationships, career, money and self."^[4]

Aquino hosted the Philippine franchise of Deal or No Deal, which is part of ABS-CBN's primetime lineup. It ended its first season on February 23, 2007. The second season of the said game show started on June 11, 2007. On May 5, 2008, she appeared on the US version as part of a "Deal or No Deal around the world" event, where host Howie Mandel and an American contestant were taken to an international location, and played the game in that country, with the local models and host assisting Mandel. She also hosts Boy & Kris, a morning talk show that replaced Homeboy, together with Boy Abunda,^[5] and Be Bench/, a model search show together with Piolo Pascual.^[6][7] Nestor Torre, a known critic of the Philippine Entertainment industry, pointed out that Aquino took a lot of risks when she chose to give up her two former shows. The critic pointed out that giving up The Buzz and Pilipinas, Game KNB? deprived her of the major exposure that those two popular shows afforded her. Torre also noted that it is much more difficult to successfully launch new shows than to resume hosting programs that are already popular.^[8]

She hosted another TV franchise Wheel of Fortune, which incidentally replaced Kapamilya, Deal or No Deal. She said in an interview^{[citation needed]} that she was a huge fan of the U.S. version and was thrilled to bring the show back to her country. (Wheel of Fortune had already had one 2001-02 run in the Philippines, which was hosted by Rustom Padilla and Victoria Wonderheim.) She hosted Showbiz News Ngayon on its newest season. In October 2008 after former The Buzz co-host Cristy Fermin was suspended by ABS-CBN, the Kapamilya network asked Aquino to once again host the top-rated showbiz oriented talk show together with Boy Abunda and Ruffa Gutierrez. After much controversy, Aquino hosted The Buzz again starting on October 26, 2008.

Aquino officially left Showbiz News Ngayon on June 25, 2010^[9] and The Buzz on June 27, 2010 after being an on and off main host of the show for ten years. The reason for her leaving the show is that she will be spending time with her family and for her not to cause any issues while her brother Benigno Aquino III is in office as President of the Philippines.^[10][11] Despite her leave for her family, she hosted ABS-CBN's new noontime variety show called Pilipinas Win Na Win but left after two months upon the decision of the management.

Film[link]

Aquino got her start in film with the help of Regal Films, one of the oldest film outfits in the Philippines. Her early film includes the Pido Dida series, where she was paired with comedian Rene Requiestas and earned her first box-office queen award. She later shifted into other roles, notably with massacre films such as The Vizconde Massacre, Myrna Diones Story, Elsa Castillo-Ang Katotohanan, and Humanda Ka Mayor. Despite her being a big draw in the box office, her acting skills were considered stiff and mechanical. She was dubbed then as "massacre queen" because of her portrayals in massacre movies which was the vogue during the time.

She first drew praise for her acting when she earned a nomination from the Gawad Urian award-giving body, composed of film critics, for the film The Fatima Buen Story. She eventually won a supporting actress award for the film Mano Po (2002 Regal Films), where she portrayed a weak-willed and submissive scion of a wealthy Filipino-Chinese clan. This was her comeback movie after her long layoff from movie acting.

Aquino's most commercially-successful movies in her career are: Feng Shui, a Star Cinema production that featured Chinese influences and omen. Feng Shui, which was made during the wave of "Asian-style horror" flicks that spread throughout the continent after 2002's The Ring, made P137 million. It was the highest grossing Filipino movie of 2004 (and the second most successful movie overall that year next to Spider-Man 2 which made over P225 million). "Sukob," another horror thriller which she starred with Claudine Barretto in 2006, is the highest grossing Filipino film of all time surpassing Ang Tanging Ina, Anak & her own starrer, Feng Shui.

Aquino had her share of box-office bombs. Her 2003 movie with actor Robin Padilla, You and Me Against the World, flopped at the box-office right from the start. Made for P25,000,000 and released immediately after Aquino won acting awards (for her performance in 2002's Mano Po), You and Me Against the World made only P4,389,005. The film's producers lost an estimated P23,000,000, even with home videos accounted. Because You and Me Against the World failed to attract an audience, several movie theaters pulled the film out and replaced it with another film. Some theaters were reported to have done this on the movie's second day of play.

Personal life[link]

Aquino had a live-in relationship with married actor Phillip Salvador with whom she has a son named Joshua.^[12]

She was married to Philippine Basketball Association professional player James Yap of the Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants. They had a civil marriage on July 10, 2005. The following year, she announced on The Buzz that she was pregnant.^[13] In April, 2007, Aquino gave birth to her first son by Yap in Makati City.^[14] Her son with Yap was named James "Bimby" Aquino Yap. In 2006, a former medical clinic receptionist stated that James Yap had an extra-marital affair with her.^[15]

Aquino suffered a miscarriage with collapsed gestational sac and blighted ovum on March 25, 2008, a day after she announced that her mother was diagnosed with colon cancer.^[12]

On June 27, 2010, Kris Aquino announced that she had separated from Yap, citing personal reasons and stated she is seeking an annulment of their marriage.^[16] Aquino and Yap vowed to become good friends after their annulment.

Ancestry[link]

Business ventures[link]

Being successful in her TV and movie career, Aquino ventured into several businesses. She owns Lena Restaurant and Sencillo, a Mexican restaurant in partnership with several celebrities, and Roberto Antonio, an upscale flower shop in partnership with Boy Abunda.^[17] She established a boutique and agency in partnership with Boy Abunda but also including Nonon del Carmen and Agnes Maranan, and have decided to call it MAD (an acronym for their surnames, Maranan Abunda Aquino del Carmen).^[18] She and Abunda with other partners own Sierra Madre Water, which is promoted as a miracle water for life.^[19]

Filmography[link]

Television[link]

Filmography[link]

Trivia[link]

Her two game shows (Pilipinas) Game KNB? and Kapamilya, Deal or No Deal were replaced by father-and-son actors Edu and Luis Manzano respectively as host.

Awards and recognitions[link]

• 1990 Guillermo Mendoza Memorial Foundation Awards - Box Office Queen
• 1998 PMPC Star Awards for TV - Best Talk Show (Today with Kris Aquino)
• 2002 PMPC Star Awards for TV - Best Game Show (Game KNB?)
• 2002 PMPC Star Awards for TV - Best Game Show Host (Game KNB?)
• 28th Metro Manila Film Festival - Best Supporting Actress (Mano Po) 2002
• 2003 PMPC Star Awards for TV - Best Talk Show (Morning Girls with Kris and Korina)
• 2003 PMPC Star Awards for TV - Best Talk Show Host (Kris Aquino & Korina Sanchez)
• 2003 PMPC Star Awards for TV - Best Showbiz Oriented Talk Show (The Buzz)
• 2003 PMPC Star Awards for TV - Best Showbiz Oriented Talk Show Host, Female (The Buzz)
• 2003 5th PASADO Awards - PinakaPASADOng Katuwang ng Aktres, Best Supporting Actress (Mano Po)
• 2003 19th PMPC Star Awards for Movies - Supporting Actress of the Year (Mano Po)
• 2003 51st Famas Awards - Best Supporting Actress (Mano Po)
• 2003 KAPPT Awards - Best Supporting Actress (Mano Po)
• 2004 PMPC Star Awards for TV - Best Talk Show (Morning Girls with Kris and Korina)
• 2004 PMPC Star Awards for TV - Best Talk Show Host (Kris Aquino & Korina Sanchez)
• 2004 Guillermo Mendoza Memorial Foundation Awards - Box Office Queen
• 2005 PMPC Star Awards for TV - Best Game Show (Pilipinas! Game KNB?)
• 2005 PMPC Star Awards for TV - Best Game Show Host (Pilipinas! Game KNB?)
• 2006 Guillermo Mendoza Memorial Foundation Awards - Box Office Queen
• 2006 PMPC Star Awards for TV - Best Game Show (Pilipinas! Game KNB?)
• 2006 PMPC Star Awards for TV - Best Showbiz Oriented Talk Show (The Buzz)
• 2006 PMPC Star Awards for TV - Best Showbiz Oriented Talk Show Host, Female (The Buzz)
• 2008 PMPC Star Awards for TV - Best Celebrity Talk Show (Boy and Kris)
• 2008 PMPC Star Awards for TV - Best Celebrity Talk Show Host (Kris Aquino)
• 2009 27th People's Choice Dangal ng Bayan Awards - Best Female Game Show Host
• 2009 Anak TV Seal Awards - Most Admired Female TV Personality

References[link]

External links[link]

• Kris Aquino at the Internet Movie Database

v t e Benigno S. Aquino III 15th President of the Philippines Family Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. (father) Corazon C. Aquino (mother) Maria Elena Cruz (sister) Aurora Corazon Abellada (sister) Victoria Elisa Dee (sister) Kristina Bernadette Aquino (sister) Benigno S. Aquino, Sr. (grandfather) Servillano Aquino (great-grandfather) Herminio Aquino (granduncle) Lupita Aquino-Kashiwahara (aunt) Paul Aquino (uncle) Butz Aquino (uncle) Tessie Aquino-Oreta (aunt) Jackie Aquino (cousin) Bam Aquino (cousin) Education Ateneo de Manila University Political career Liberal Party Representative from Tarlac's 2nd District Senate Presidency Death and funeral of Corazon Aquino Aquino-Roxas 2010 Aquino-Binay 2010 2010 Elections Transition Inauguration Inaugural address SONA (2010) 2010 Manila hostage crisis Reproductive Health Bill Extrajudicial killings Impeachment of Merceditas Gutierrez Impeachment of Renato Corona Typhoon Sendong Negros earthquake Related House of Representatives of the Philippines Senators of the Philippines Noy (film) Noynoying Predecessor: Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, 14th President of the Philippines

v t e Corazon Cojuangco–Aquino 11th President of the Philippines Family Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. (husband) Benigno S. Aquino III (son) Maria Elena Cruz (daughter) Aurora Corazon Abellada (daughter) Victoria Elisa Dee (daughter) Kristina Bernadette Aquino (daughter) Jose Cojuangco (father) Demetria Sumulong (mother) Eduardo Cojuangco (uncle) Eduardo Cojuangco, Jr. (cousin) Jose Cojuangco, Jr. (brother) Josephine C. Reyes (sister) Mark Cojuangco (nephew) Mikee Cojuangco-Jaworski (niece) Education College of Mount Saint Vincent Presidency 1986 Snap elections EDSA Revolution Operation Big Bird 1987 Philippine Constitution Family Code Local Government and Administrative Codes Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program 1986-87 Coup attempts 1989 civil unrest 1990 Luzon earthquake Tropical Storm Uring Supertyphoon Sisang MV Doña Paz PR 206 crash 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption Post-presidency 1992 elections 1998 elections 2004 elections 2005 electoral crisis 2007 elections Death and memorial service Predecessor: Ferdinand Marcos, 10th President of the Philippines Successor: Fidel V. Ramos, 11th President of the Philippines