In Defence of a Magic Circle: The Social, Mental and Cultural Boundaries of Play

Jaakko Stenros

Abstract


This article reviews the history of the concept of the magic circle, its criticism and the numerous other metaphors that have been used to capture the zone of play or the border that surrounds it, such as world, frame, bubble, net, screen, reality, membrane, zone, environment, or attitude. The various conceptions of social, mental and cultural borders are reviewed and identified. Finally, a model is put forward where the psychological bubble of playfulness, the social contract of the magic circle and the cultural game forms are separated.


Full Text:

HTML PDF

References


Anchor, R. (1978): “History and Play: Johan Huizinga and His Critics.” History and Theory, vol. 17, no. 1,(1978): 63-93.

Anderson, J. “Pugilistic Prosecutions: Prize Fighting and the Courts in Nineteenth Century Britain”. The Sports Historian, Vol. 21, No. 2 (2001): 37-57.

Apter, M. J. “A structural-phenomenology of play.” In J.H. Kerr & M.J. Apter (eds): Adult Play: A Reversal Theory Approach. Swets & Zeitlinger, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1991.

Bakhtin, M. Rabelais and his World. Indiana University Press; Bloomington, ID, 1965.

Bateson, G. “A Theory of Play and Fantasy.” Psychiatric Research Reports 2, 1955. Quoted from K. Salen, and E. Zimmerman (eds) The Game Design Reader. A Rules of Play Anthology. 314-328. The MIT Press; Cambridge, MA, 2006.

Berger, P. L. and T. Luckmann. The Social Construction of Reality. A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. Anchor Books; New York, NY, 1966.

Bogost, I. Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames. The MIT Press; Cambridge, MA, 2007.

Caillois, R. Les jeux et les hommes, 1958. Referred from English translation: Man, Play and Games. University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago, IL, 2001.

Calleja, G.. “Erasing the Magic Circle.” In J.R Sageng, T.M. Larsen and H. Fossheim (eds): The Philosophy of Computer Games. Springer Press; UK, 2012.

Castronova, E. Synthetic Worlds. The Business and Culture of Online Games. The University of Chicago Press; Chicago, IL, 2005.

Consalvo, M. “There is no magic circle.” In Games and Culture, vol. 4 no. 4 (2009): 408-417

Copier, M. (2005): “Connecting Worlds. Fantasy Role-Playing Games, Ritual Acts and the Magic Circle”. In Proceedings of DiGRA 2005 Changing Views: Worlds in Play. 2005. Online at http://www.digra.org/dl/db/06278.50594.pdf

Crawford, C. The Art of Computer Game Design, 1983. Referred from the 1997 electronic version. ARCade ARDhive, ref. 25.5.2010, http://arcarc.xmission.com/Magazines%20and%20Books/Art%20of%20Game%20Design.pdf, 1997.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. Beyond Boredom and Anxiety: The Experience of Play in Work and Game. 1975. Referred from Beyond Boredom and Anxiety: Experiencing Flow in Work and Play. 25th Anniversary Edition. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA, 2000.

DeKoven, B. The Well-Played Game. A Playful Path to Wholeness. 3rd Edition. Writers Club Press; San Jose, CA, 2002.

Denzin, N. K. “The Paradoxes of Play.” In Loy, J. (ed): The Paradoxes of Play. Proceedings of the 69th annual meeting of The Association for Anthropological Study of Play. Leisure Press; New York, NY, 1982.

Egenfeldt-Nielsen, S., J.H. Smith, and S.P. Tosca. Understanding Video Games. The Essential Introduction. Routledge; New York, NY, 2008.

Ehrmann, J. “Homo Ludens revisited.” Yale French Studies, no. 41, (1968): 31-57.

Elias, G.S., R. Garfield and K. R. Gutschera. Characteristics of Games. The MIT Press; Cambridge, MA, 2012.

Frasca, G.. Play the Message. Play, Game and Videogame Rhetoric. PhD Dissertation, IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark, 2007.

Gee, J.P. What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy. Revised and Updated Edition. Palgrave Macmillan; New York, NY, 2007.

Gee, J.P. “Learning and Games.” In K. Salen (ed). The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning. 21–40. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press 2008.

Geertz, C. The Interpretation of Cultures. Basic Books, 1973.

Goffman, E. Encounters: Two Studies in the Sociology of Interaction. Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis, IN, 1961.

Goffman, E. Frame Analysis. An Essay on the Organization of Experience. Northeastern University Press, Boston, MA, 1974.

Hakim B. T.A.Z. The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism. Autonomedia 1985. Referred from web: http://hermetic.com/bey/taz_cont.html

Harviainen, J. T. Systemic Perspectives on Information in Physically Performed Role-Play. PhD Dissertation published by University of Tampere, 2012. http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:978-951-44-8914-3

Harviainen, J. T. and A. Lieberoth . “Similarity of Social Information Processes in Games and Rituals: Magical Interfaces.” In Simulation & Gaming. vol 43. no. 4, (2012): 528-549.

Huizinga, J. Homo ludens: Proeve ener bepaling van het spelelement der cultuur. 1938. Referred from English translation Homo Ludens: A Study of Play Element in Culture. Beacon Press, Boston, MA, 1955.

James, W. The Principles of Psychology, 1890. Referred from 2009 online version: http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/j/james/william/principles/complete.html

Juul, J. Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2005.

Juul, J. “The Magic Circle and the Puzzle Piece.” In S. Günzel,, M. Liebe, and D. Mersch (eds): Conference Proceedings of the Philosophy of Computer Games 2008. pp. 56-67. University Press; Potsdam, Germany, 2008.

Kerr, J. H. “'A Structural Phenomenology of Play' in Context”. In J.H. Kerr and M. Apter (eds),: Adult Play. A Reversal Theory Approach. Swets & Zeitlinger; Amsterdam, 1991.

Klabbers, J. H. G. The Magic Circle: Principles of Gaming & Simulation. Sense Publishers; Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 2006.

Lammes, S. “Spatial Regimes of the Digital Playground: Cultural Functions of Spatial Identification in Post-Colonial Computergames.” Proceedings of Mediaterr@:Gaming Realities. A Challenge for Digital Culture, 2006, pp. 236-243. Online at http://digiplay.info/node/3208

Lastowka, G. “Rules of Play.” In Games and Culture, vol. 4 no. 4 (2009: 379-395. Sage.

Letcher, A.J. The Role of the Bard in Contemporary Pagan Movements. Doctoral dissertation, department of theology and religious studies, University of Southampton, 2001.

Liebe, Michael (2008): “There Is No Magic Circle. On the Difference between Computer Games and Traditional Games.” In S. Günzel, M. Liebe, and D. Mersch (eds), Conference Proceedings of the Philosophy of Computer Games 2008, pp. 324-341. Potsdam, Germany: University Press 2008.

Malaby, T. M. “Beyond Play: A New Approach to Games.” In Games and Culture, vol. 2, no. 2 (2007): 95-113. Sage.

Malaby, T. M. Making Virtual Worlds. Linden Lab and Second Life. Cornell University Press; Ithaca, 2009.

Makedon, A. “Playful Gaming.” In Simulation & Gaming, vol. 15, no. 11 (1984): 25-64.

Marshev, V. and A.K. Popov..“Elements of a Theory of Gaming.” In I. Ståhl,(ed.): Operational Gaming. An International Approach. Pergamon Press; Oxford, UK,1983.

McGonigal, J. This Might Be a Game: Ubiquitous Play and Performance at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century. Doctoral Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 2006.

Montola, M., J. Stenros and A. Waern, Pervasive Games. Theory and Design. Morgan Kaufmann; Burlington, 2009.

Montola, M. “The Positive Negative Experience in Extreme Role-Playing.” Proceedings of DiGRA Nordic 2010: Experiencing Games: Games, Play, and Players. 2010. Online at http://www.digra.org/dl/db/10343.56524.pdf

Montola, M. On the Edge of the Magic Circle: Understanding Pervasive Games and Role-Playing. PhD Dissertation published by University of Tampere, 2012. http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:978-951-44-8864-1

Moreno, J. L. “Therapeutic Vehicles and the Concept of Surplus Reality.” In Group Psychotherapy, Vol. 18. No. (1965): 211-216.

Myers, D. “In Search of a Minimalist Game,” Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory. Proceedings of DiGRA 2009, 1-4 September, Brunel University, West London, UK, 2009.

Pargman, D. and P. Jakobsson. “Do You Believe in Magic? Computer Games in Everyday Life.” In European Journal of Cultural Studies, vol. 11 no. 2, (2008): 225-243.

Poremba, C. “Critical Potential on the Brink of the Magic Circle.” Situated Play, Proceedings of DiGRA 2007 Conference. 2007.

Reynolds, R. and M. de Zwart. “The Duty to 'Play': Ethics, EULAs and MMOs.” In International Journal of Internet Research Ethics, vol. 3. no. 1 (2010).

Riezler, K. “Play and Seriousness.” In The Journal of Philosophy, vol. 38 bo. 19 (1941): 505-517.

Rodriguez, H. “The Playful and the Serious: An Approximation to Huizinga's Homo Ludens.” Game Studies, vol. 6 no. 1. (2006).

Salen, K. and E. Zimmerman. Rules of Play. MIT Press; Cambridge, MA, 2004.

Schechner, R. “Playing.” In Play & Culture, vol. 1 no. 1 (1988): 3-19.

Schutz, A. “On Multiple Realities.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, vol. 5 no. 4, (1945): 533-576.

Searle, J. R. The Construction of Social Reality. Penguin Books; London, U.K., 1995.

Sihvonen, T. “Pieni johdatus live-roolipelaamisen psykologiaan.” In N. Vainio (ed.): Larppaajan käsikirja. Suomen live-roolipelaajat, Tampere, 1997.

Shubik, M. “Gaming: A State-Of-The-Art Survey.” In I. Ståhl (ed.): Operational Gaming. An International Approach. Pergamon Press; Oxford, U.K., 1983.

Sniderman, S. “Unwritten Rules.” In The Life of Games, no. 2, October 1999. http://www.gamepuzzles.com/tlog/tlog2.htm

Stenros, J. “Playing the System. Using Frame Analysis to Understand Online Play.” Proceedings of FuturePlay2010, Vancouver, Canada, 2010.

Stenros, J., J. Paavilainen, and F. Mäyrä. “Social Interaction in Games.” In International Journal of Arts and Technology, vol. 4 no.3, (2011): 342-358.

Suits, B. The Grasshopper. Games, Life and Utopia. Broadview Press, 1978.

Sutton-Smith, B. “The Kissing Games of Adolescents in Ohio”. Midwest Folklore, No. 9, (1959): 189-211. Referred from E.M. Avedon and B. Sutton-Smith (eds), The Study of Games. pp. 194-216. John Wiley & Sons Inc, New York, 1971.

Sutton-Smith, B. and D. Kelly-Byrne. “The Idealization of Play.” In P. Smith, and K. Peter (ed), Play in Animals and Humans. Basil Blackwell, Oxford, U.K., 1984, pp. 305-324.

Taylor, T.L. Play Between Worlds. Exploring Online Game Culture. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2006.

von Neumann, J. and O. Morgenstern. Theory of games and economic behavior. Princeton University Press; Princeton, NJ, 1944.

Walz, S. P. Toward a Ludic Architecture. The Space of Play and Games. ETC Press, 2010.

Weisler, A. and R.B. McCall. “Exploration and Play. Résumé and Redirection.” In American Psychologist. July 1976, Vol. 31 (1976): 492-508.

Zimmerman, Eric. “Jerked around by the Magic Circle - Clearing the Air Ten Years Later.” In Gamasutra, February 7th, 2012. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6696/jerked_around_by_the_magic_circle_.php




DOI: https://doi.org/10.26503/todigra.v1i2.10
 
 
Published by the Digital Games Research Association.