Magic Circle

Games are created through the act of gameplay, which is contingent on player acts. However, to understand gameplay, we must also investigate contexts, justifications, and limitations. Cheating can be an excellent path into studying the gameplay situation, because it lays bare player’s frustrations and limitations. It points to ludic hopes and activities, and it causes us to question our values, our ethics. In comparison, the concept of the magic circle seems static and overly formalist. Structures may be necessary to begin gameplay, but we cannot stop at structures as a way of understanding the gameplay experience. Because of that, we cannot say that games are magic circles, where the ordinary rules of life do not apply. Of course they apply, but in addition to, in competition with, other rules and in relation to multiple contexts, across varying cultures, and into different groups, legal situations, and homes.

This article explores the world-building activities of players of the tabletop game Blood Bowl—a game that parodies American Football within a fantasy setting. It utilizes a ritual framework to focus on players’ activities relating to the considerable amount of luck inherent to the game. Based on fieldwork and survey data, it interprets players’ rituals and other actions as an effort to enact a particular social space, a “magic circle,” where enjoyable risk-taking and “edgework” take place. This social space is then analyzed within the Mary Douglas-derived theory of sociocultural viability (cultural theory). Using the theory’s typology, Blood Bowl tournaments can be characterized as individualist–hierarchy hybrid institutions. The article contributes by offering cultural theory as a tool for analyzing and comparing risk-taking behavior in diverse social contexts. The worlds built through Blood Bowl play are both analyzable and comparable with those integral to other social institutions, with cultural theory’s social solidarities ubiquitous. The article thus innovates by linking literatures on leisure and gaming with broader social theory.

Within videogame culture there are many references to famous breaks of the fourth wall: Psycho Mantis' reading of the memory card in Metal Gear Solid, X-Men's use of the Sega Megadrive's reset button, Startropics' use of the letter packaged with the game, and so on. This article concerns a new conception of the fourth wall in gamerelevant terms, being conceived as expansions and contractions of the magic circle. Expansions of the magic circle occur when the synthetic world of the game expands beyond the screen, encompassing the technological apparatus of the console/PC or the paratexts packaged with the game. Contractions occur when the magic circle shrinks behind the display, e.g. Sonic tapping his knuckles upon the screen or the game crashing. In unpacking and re-conceiving the notion of the fourth wall in gaming terms, this article hopes to provide a valuable analytical perspective concerning the use of these expansions and contractions by developers and players, and their impact on wider media culture.

O presente artigo pretende discutir o processo de formação de identidades sociais online nos ‘mundos
virtuais’ - nossa hipótese é a de que a presença do que Salen e Zimmerman (2003) chamam de ‘círculo
mágico’ exerça uma força mediadora que singulariza o processo de criação de identidades sociais, de modo
a tornar tal particularização algo digno de atenção pelos estudos da cibercultura.

In this paper we explore how mobile devices and co-location in mobile contexts contribute social play in game design, addressing the limited understanding of social interactivity in mobile games. Using the Mechanics-Dynamics-Aesthetics (MDA) framework, we code four games illustrating effective use of mobile, social, and co-located elements. Subsequently, we analyse and discuss this data to identify generalisability in these games. In our discussion we identify how these findings address game design problems of designing collaborative games. Furthermore, we contribute to theory of designing for social play from the perspectives of co-located mobile contexts in game design by identifying how mobility: (1) affords co-locating with other players in public spaces, (2) supports physical interactions using spatial context and players bodies, extending games beyond their formal system, (3) supports asymmetric design with information and interaction. Finally we contribute the concept of a pocket magic circle, a particular magic circle, to support a focus on game design leveraging these intersecting properties.

The brigand Procrustes dispatched his victims by stretching or trimming their bodies in order that they be made to fit his bed. Considered as a scientific theory, McLuhan's four "laws of media" risk violating communications research in a dangerously Procrustean manner. Conceived as an exploratory probe, however, this "tetrad" can provide illuminating insights into the social and psychological effects of individual technologies. Applied to digital games, the tetrad reveals the particular ways in which this distinctive cultural form enhances diverse modes of play, obsolesces traditional television viewing, retrieves lost means of participation, and reverses into pervasive and persistent play. The tetrad helps, in short, to situate digital games within the broader technological and cultural environment of which they are a part.

ATUALIZAÇÃO: Uma versão atualizada e ampliada deste artigo foi publicada na Verso e Reverso: Revista da Comunicação. Com o título "Isto é uma brincadeira? Por uma fenomenologia do jogar: o 'círculo mágico' como mediador das relações e experiências sociais", o artigo está disponível na seção "papers (journals)" deste perfil.

O objetivo deste artigo é discutir e propor uma nova leitura de um conceito clássico dos estudos de jogos, o “círculo mágico”, sugerindo a existência de uma fenomenologia do jogar responsável por mediar as relações e práticas sociais a partir da lógica do jogo. Acreditamos que esta lógica do “círculo mágico” se amplia para ações simples do cotidiano. Nossa hipótese é de que há uma apropriação e enquadre (in)consciente do caráter paradoxal (duplo vínculo) e metacomunicativo da brincadeira e do jogo, apresentados no estudo de Gregory Bateson [1987] e cristalizados no senso comum, ao serem correntemente evocados pelos atores a mediar relações sociais diversas, como opinar e até mascarar reais intenções discursivas ou atos por meio de mecanismos linguísticos como “estou brincando”/”isto é uma brincadeira”/“isto é um jogo”, por exemplo.

This paper proposes a critical discussion about the magic circle concept, through a debate with prior works on the issue, as those elaborated by Johan Huizinga and Katie Salen & Eric Zimmerman, as well as with cognitive psychology studies regarding attention. We shall argue that the magic circle, instead of separating fiction and reality, would work as a cognitive mediation structure with graded “boundaries”, which existence occurs in diverse forms, depending on variables like player immersion and attention. Thus, these boundaries get defined and “solid” as the immersive process is developed and one reality seems to change into another: as the player “gets into the looking glass”.

Agon, alea, mimicry, ilinx: the four types of game/play distinguished by Roger Caillois (1958/2001) have become classic terms in game studies. Now Artur Skweres is aiming at introducing Caillois’ concepts to film studies, and he is proposing two new categories to deepen his analysis: óneiros and pragma. This small book is definitely not a systematic treatise but it can still offer fresh conceptual and theoretical insights to game studies scholars.

В статье на примере неиммерсивных игр (тамагочи, дигимонов, Pokémon Go, первазивных игр) рассматривается предложенное Й. Хейзингой понятие магического круга, то есть границы между игрой и не-игрой. Неиммерсивные медиа рассчитаны на особый режим потребления: пользователь делит внимание между несколькими медиа и занятиями, что приводит к тесному переплетению вымышленного мира и повседневной жизни. Явления такого рода позволяют исследователям компьютерных игр критиковать понятие магического круга, описывая его как проницаемую или подверженную разрывам границу. Анализ литературы показывает, что эта интерпретация является следствием ошибочного понимания Й. Хейзинги, а также теории фреймов. Различение игры и не-игры в неиммерсивных играх сохраняется, однако, за счет своей временной структуры они, подобно ритуалу, придают новые смыслы повседневной жизни. Легенды, стоящие за тамагочи и дигимонами, позволяют предположить, что неиммерсивные игры воспроизводят миф о киберпространстве как гибриде, стирающем разницу между воображаемым и матeриальным. Граница, таким образом, уничтожается в этом акте самоосмысления только символически.

This article, drawing on the example of non-immersive games (Tamagochi, Digimon, Pokémon Go, pervasive games) discusses the notion of magic circle, coined by J. Huizinga, which means a boundary between the game and non-game. Non-immersive media are intended for a special mode of consumption: users split their attention between several media and activities. As a result, the fictional world and everyday life become closely intervened. Such phenomena encourage game studies scholars to criticize the notion of magic circle: they describe it as a boundary that is permeable or easily broken. A critical reading shows that this interpretation is driven by misunderstanding J. Huizinga as well as the frame theory. In non-immersive games, the difference between the game and non-game is not lost. However, their time structure allows them to assign new meanings to the everyday life, like rituals do. The legends behind Tamagochi and Digimon suggests that non-immersive games reproduce the myth of cyberspace as a hybrid that blurs out the distinction between the reality and fantasy. In this self-reflective act, the boundary is broken only symbolically.

Recent advances in the technologies of virtual and augmented reality give a rise to discussions of legal problems both in serious and seemingly unserious contexts. As for the serious, one may recall a case of 2019 where a British soldier was charged after “going rogue” in virtual combat simulation. As for the seemingly unserious, a good example is hype about Pokémon Go back in 2016 and discussions around possibility of legal qualification of placing virtual pokémons into representations of real spaces. A sophisticated reader can also trace the core of this discussion back to the issues of virtual property and virtual law in 2000-s, which are also absolutely relevant. However, now it becomes apparent that the problem underlying particular legal collisions is extremely broader. In terms of J. Baudrillard, we live in a new [postmodern] world full of simulacra. At the same time, the classic legal institutions are not ready to give up, and this results, metaphorically speaking, in two parallel worlds – the one of “old-fashioned” tangible reality where what we perceive as law exists and operates, often implying threat of coercion, and the one of “deceptive” media reality where we can easily be misled by simulacra. Hence, from the standpoint of legal theory and philosophy, the problem of finding a line between “real” and “virtual” worlds actually can be interpreted as a problem of certain new limits of law. Such limits can conventionally be called as the “semantic” ones because here we speak about different realities, re-created in our minds by concepts, and we navigate between these “worlds” by means of switching between the conceptual fields and connections of signs and meanings, as opposed to the case where we switch between various legal systems by means of travelling through different territories. If we follow this approach, many other cases may supplement the practical examples of legal collisions that relate to virtual worlds and virtual property, as long as they involve some kind of simulacra. In this sense, to summarize, the core idea of this paper is that most of the legal collisions  that are conventionally related to “virtual reality”, in fact, imply a broader problem that can be re-conceptualized as the problem of legal significance of the artifacts of media reality, or the “attitude” of law to various simulacra. Hence, the problem of the “magic circle” pertaining e.g. to the online multiplayer games context in general and to virtual property in particular actually is just a tip of the iceberg. A good example of the broader field would be the problems of applying Internet content restriction rules which exist in modern Russia to imaginary, humorous and other “unserious” contexts (or, better to say, this is the question of how to define when the context is “serious enough” for the purposes of law and when it is not). If we look into this problem from the standpoint of legal interpretation or application of law, it appears that it can be explained by means of H.L.A. Hart’s idea of “core” and “penumbra” (also, this problem also naturally is the problem of absurdity and common sense in law). Artifacts of media reality are somewhere in the penumbra. It is required then both for theoretical and practical purposes to find a way to connect those artifacts which are not simulacra, to the core meaning of certain concept-word used in the respective legal text, or to explain why this is not the case. In the end, what is suggested in this paper, is to employ a two-tier test comprising of the “criterion of reality” and the “criterion of seriousness”, based on the notion of generalized symbolic media from the field of sociology (in the latest interpretation by S. Abrutyn). An object of social relationship can have legal significance in case it has “socio-currency value”, i.e. it serves as an external referent of value of certain generalized symbolic medium and as such has this kind of intersubjective value. The “criterion of reality” is satisfied when an artifact of media reality has functional correspondence to the core meaning of a concept-word used in the respective legal text (so that it formally falls within the scope of a legal concept-word), this is a formal criterion. The “criterion of seriousness” is satisfied when an artifact of media reality by itself is an external referent of value and has “socio-currency value" (so that it would not be absurd by default to apply law to it), this is a substantial criterion. If both criteria are satisfied, then it is a kind of “easy case” where there is no absurdity at all. If just one of the criteria is satisfied, it is a case requiring “balancing” or “weighing” of values. If both criteria are not satisfied (just as when, in most cases, you engage in “interaction” with non-player characters of videogames, but not in all cases, to be fair), it would be absurd to consider the object of the corresponding relationship to be of legal significance in this particular aspect. Ultimately, this reasoning could be correlated with and translated into the formal language of legal argumentation.

Cari amici, ho il piacere di confermarvi l’attivazione della summer school “La Magia nell’Antichità Classica. Documentazione e Metodi di Studio” (6-8 settembre 2018, Genzano di Roma), iniziativa promossa dal Museo delle Religioni “Raffaele Pettazzoni” in collaborazione con il liceo scientifico “Ascanio Landi” di Velletri (Roma). Quanti tra voi non avessero avuto la possibilità di registrarsi e procedere alla pre-iscrizione entro il 20 luglio scorso, se lo desiderano, potranno comunque iscriversi alla summer school entro il 15 agosto, secondo le modalità riportate nella scheda informativa sottostante. Dato il successo riscontrato in fase di pre-iscrizione, la direzione ha ritenuto di aprire la frequenza della summer school, gratuitamente in qualità di “uditori”, ai soci sostenitori del Museo delle Religioni “Raffaele Pettazzoni” e dell’Associazione Calliope che siano in regola con il versamento della quota annuale di iscrizione (20,00 euro). Maggiori informazioni al riguardo nella scheda informativa sottostante.
Ricordo che la Summer School rientra nelle iniziative di formazione e aggiornamento dei docenti, secondo la normativa vigente, e dà luogo – per insegnanti di ogni ordine e grado – agli effetti giuridici ed economici della partecipazione alle iniziative di formazione, ed è finanziabile con la “Carta del docente” prevista dalla L. 107/2015 cosiddetta “La Buona Scuola”.

Info
Locandina:
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Dépliant:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JigopLjUM3oWhikNFRaOZQUadds2IfdC/view?usp=sharing
Per informazioni sull’attività didattica: igorbaglioni79@gmail.com
Per informazioni sui riconoscimenti: calliopevelletri@gmail.com
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The Stanley Parable es un ejemplo magistral de metajuego, por medio del cual se realiza una reflexión paródica sobre el lenguaje videolúdico y su diferencia con la narrativa tradicional. Con este artículo se pretende llevar a cabo una aproximación al tema central de este título –el metajuego y la interactividad del jugador–, partiendo para ello de la teoría de los frames ontológicos y de la constitución del Círculo Mágico a través de estos. De esta manera, comprobaremos como se produce un constante cambio de marco de realidad por medio de la voz del Narrador, mediante lo cual podemos observar la dicotomía jugador/personaje, marcada por la agencia.

The Stanley Parable is a masterful example of metagame, whereby is made a parodic reflection on the videogame language and its difference from the traditional narrative. This paper intends to perform an approach to the central theme of this title –metagame and interactivity of player–, based on the theory of ontological frames and the constitution of the Magic Circle through these. In this way, we will check as it occurs a constant changing of reality frames through the Narrator's voice, by means of which we can see the player/character dichotomy marked by the agency.

Este artigo pretende refletir acerca dos jogos pervasivos enquanto espaços
heterotópicos a partir das noções de presença e performance. Busca-se com
esta reflexão considerar o corpo enquanto parte de uma espacialidade que
ocupa não apenas o lugar do ordinário nos espaços urbanos cotidianos, mas
implica em uma representação material da diegese quando acionado como
parte da ficção em ambientes imerso-pervasivos. Buscamos defender que a
heterotopia permite o transbordamento entre fronteiras espaço-temporais,
por conduzir, através do espelho mágico, o interagente que constrói nestas
narrativas ficcionais a utopia desejante através da performance de si enquanto
sujeito em sua materialidade corpórea real, mas também enquanto elemento
da diegese do próprio jogo.

This chapter considers the process of online social identity construction and how it is presented in virtual worlds – environments that although carrying a solid heritage of the pure online interaction tools, such as chat rooms, are still organized
around a very specific logic, portraying objectives and structural repetition dynamics inherent to the game as a system. We posit that the presence of what is called the ‘magic circle’ by Salen and Zimmerman (2004) exerts a mediating power, not only by circling, limiting the game environment, but specially by transforming social identities formations processes, attaching it not only to the dynamics built in by the contact with technology – in the form of computer-mediated communication – but also in particular to the dynamics imprinted by the game structure present in such worlds.

A proposta deste artigo consiste em analisar a estratégia de narrativa transmídia, utilizada pela empresa Blizzard Entertainment para explorar o universo ficcional da franquia dos jogos Diablo para computador, buscando compreender como as categorias estéticas foram convocadas e como estas podem ser consideradas metáforas para a compreensão da experiência do usuário de narrativas transmídia cujo eixo central é um jogo digital. Assim, temos como objetivo discutir como as noções de círculo mágico, agência, imersão e transformação podem ser relidas como metáforas a partir do consumo de narrativas transmidiáicas.

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the strategy of transmedia storytelling, Blizzard Entertainment used by the company to explore the fictional universe of the Diablo franchise of computer games, trying to understand how aesthetic categories were called and how these can be
considered metaphors for understanding of the user experience of transmedia narratives whose central axis is a digital game. Thus, our objective is to discuss how the notions of magic circle, agency, immersion and transformation can be reread as a metaphors from consumption transmidiáicas narratives.