Abstract
Pervasive games defy Johan Huizinga’s classic definition of play as being something “outside ‘ordinary life’” with their “own proper boundaries of time and space according to fixed rules and an orderly manner”. Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman develop Huizinga’s concept of the magic circle and discuss its function as a boundary between the real world and the game world. However, pervasive games seem to form a distinct category of games or types of play that breach both the spatial and the temporal confines of the magic circle. Pervasive games are of particular interest for the way in which they make use of the natural or the built environment as a playspace in a distinct and sometimes alarming overlap with the real world. This chapter offers some definitions and examples of some popular pervasive games, briefly tracing the evolution of treasure hunts, assassination games, live action role-play and alternate reality games, all of which more-or-less confound the notion of the magic circle.
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Notes
- 1.
See Barthes (1964) p. 14 for a distinction between the available speech acts in a language system (langue), which Barthes likens to the rules of a game, and any particular speech act (parole) which, like a particular instance of a game, is constrained by rules.
- 2.
Eric Zimmerman revisits the territory of the magic circle in a later online essay written as a rejoinder to those “earnest graduate students” and eminent scholars who would tilt at the windmill of the magic circle as described by Salen and Zimmerman in Rules of Play (see Zimmerman 2012). In this later piece, Zimmerman clarifies the position of Rules of Play: like a pervasive game, it too simultaneously occupies different spaces—the example he gives is of a work with sociological content that is not itself a sociological text: a better description of Rules of Play might refer to it (as, indeed, he does) as an inter- or multi-disciplinary work that doesn’t occupy a single position. The present work, albeit by neither an earnest graduate nor an eminent scholar, doesn’t seek to denigrate Salen and Zimmermans’ concept—or to join “the magic circle jerk” as Zimmerman might put it—but to merely point out the interesting double articulation presented by pervasive games.
- 3.
- 4.
The term “muggle” is derived from the Harry Potter series of children’s books by J.K. Rowling (for example, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone) where it is used to refer to ordinary mortals who lack magical powers. In a geo-caching context, the term “muggle” is used to refer to a community outsider, someone unfamiliar with geo-caching. See https://www.geocaching.com/about/glossary.aspx.
- 5.
“Lusory attitude” is a term coined by Bernard Suits to refer to the state of mind of a player who accepts the rules and conventions of a game. See Suits (2014) “The definition”, pp. 36ff. The fact that the lusory attitude of the player might not be shared by the non-player or observer is not explicitly considered in Salen and Zimmerman’s discussion of the magic circle, although Sniderman’s concept of “the frame”, to which they do refer, touches on this point (See Salen and Zimmerman 2004, p. 94).
- 6.
The events involving the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon and another location (a fourth hijacked aeroplane was brought down, with the loss of all lives on board, before it reached its target) have come to be referred to collectively in popular media discourse as “nine-eleven”, a reference to the date (September 11) in the North American date format. Coincidentally, 911 (pronounced “nine-one-one” although the numbers are the same as the date 9/11 or “nine eleven”) is also the telephone number of the North American emergency services (cf the British “999”).
- 7.
McGonigal notes “being accidentally ‘attacked’ by a player is somewhat startling–but also potentially enjoyable. In a best case scenario, the ‘victims’ of play feel genuinely welcome or complimented or appreciated. At the start of the game when players are timid and groups are small, this tend to be the case. Later, as players get bolder and teams get larger, strangers are more likely to be clued into the unusual nature of the activity and provoked to wonder why everyone is making such showy efforts of gratitude and kindness.” (McGonigal 2011, p. 194).
- 8.
“Invisible Theatre” takes place in a public space among an “audience” of by-standers, who might be drawn into a dialogue with performers, unaware that a performance is being staged. See Boal (2002).
- 9.
“Question Cubes” are game items that appear in the Super Mario Brothers series of console games published by Nintendo. Question Cubes typically contain items such as mushrooms, flowers or coins, which can help a player make progress through a game level.
- 10.
See It’s a Knockout http://www.its-a-knockout.tv/ for a history of the British and European television series.
- 11.
- 12.
See http://oaklandish.com/about for a brief resume of the development of the Oaklandish community project. Greenberg (2015) offers a more detailed account of the emergence of the Oaklandish collective in 2000 and Hull’s relationship with it until his departure in 2006 following the closure of the Oaklandish Gallery.
- 13.
See the Nonchalance mission statement http://nonchalance.com.
- 14.
- 15.
According to IMDB, a sequel of sorts, The Esquire, is scheduled for release in 2016. The Esquire tells the story of Octavio Coleman, the leader of the cult in The Jejune Institute.
- 16.
I am grateful to Anton Nijholt for directing my attention to an even earlier real-world implementation of a computer game in the form of ARQuake: see Thomas et al. (2000).
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Duggan, E. (2017). Squaring the (Magic) Circle: A Brief Definition and History of Pervasive Games. In: Nijholt, A. (eds) Playable Cities. Gaming Media and Social Effects. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1962-3_6
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