In their eyes the magic circle is a dangerous philosophy that seeks to cordon off games from the realities of the wider world, limiting what games can be. This critical view of the concept became widespread enough that even Eric Zimmerman addressed it in a Gamasutra article years after the release of the book.Īs is probably abundantly clear from my framing of the critical argument, I don’t particularly agree with that view of the magic circle. As I opened the article: I see the magic circle as a contract between the player and the game - a contract to accept new rules and realities in a limited space, for a limited duration, to experience meaning in interactions they would be otherwise-unable to experience. This contract is necessary to give game rules meaning, and doesn’t exclude the wider contexts outside of the circle, but adds to them. Games are, and should be, informed by world around them. The magical reality inside the world of the game has meaning because it relates back to your life and the world around you.Įxamples of this are everywhere. A player’s personal experience with real-world racism will inform how they react to the ostracization of an alien race in their favorite sci-fi RPG. In the reverse, someone with little experience with real-world racism might gain new perspective from experiencing the treatment of the aliens in this RPG. Or, in a board game of deception and betrayal, personal histories between players may affect how players interpret each others’ actions, and insights gleaned from these fraught interactions may inform future real-world relationships.
These games don’t gain this relevance in spite of the magic circle, but because of it. This suspension of reality inside the circle is what allows in-game interactions to be meaningful enough to be relatable to the real world.
#The magic circle imdb how to#
In the end, regardless of how you decide to interpret it, the concept of “the magic circle” isn’t a principle on how to design games, merely a principle on how to understand players’ relationship to games. It is a lens through which to view your players’ experiences and understand the meanings you’re crafting for them. Homo Ludens: a Study of the Play-Element in Culture.
0 kommentar(er)
