We also present an analysis about integration with the real world and context data in casual en-tertainment. Through this fusion with the ordinary world, the fictional game world integrates with reality, instead of being isolated from it. In this document, we show how the insertion of real world elements blurred the spatial, temporal and social limits, in our games. Huizinga, the inventor of the magic circle concept, also leaves implicit a social demarcation, separating who is playing the game from who is not playing the game. Games happen inside a magic circle that spatially and temporally delimits the game from the ordinary world. Here, we describe how the insertion of real world elements affected the role of the screen as the primary focus of the player’s attention. We made the choice for these real world elements because data, about those elements, can be acquired making use of functionality already available, or foreseen in the near future, in devices like computers or mobile phones, thus fitting the profile of casual players who are usually not willing to invest in expensive or specialized hardware just for the sake of playing a game.īy resorting to real world elements, the screen is no longer the only focus of the player’s attention because reality also influences the outcome of the game. This defined emotional and mental space can be conceived of as a magic circle. We focused on sound, video, physiological data, ac-celerometer data, weather and location. The dimensions of this mental space aren’t defined in inches and feet but rather in emotional and experiential height, depth, and width. To merge games with reality we resorted to the creation of games that explore di-verse real world elements. In this document we present proposals for merging the fictional game world with the real world taking into account the profile of casual players. Heady stuff indeed. Comments welcome! Full text at este identificador para referenciar este registo:Įxpanding the magic circle in pervasive casual play Where does the game stop? What can it teach us in real life? How does it help us be better negotiators? This is, course, the place where immersive theater emerges. If face, he argues against a strict separation between life and games. We play and we know that we play, just as we did as children. Huizinga (and Eric Zimmermann after him) goes on to discuss the power of the Magic Circle”, the fluid boundary between the game and the “real world” beyond it, which in adulthood is more difficult to keep clear. The arena, the stage (especially the famous red circle on the TED stage), the card table, the temple – these are all temporary worlds where everyday rules are suspended and special rules apply, all dedicated to enhance the performance.īut this circle is porous. Tension in the play helps to solve tension outside the play.Ĭompare this to Huizinga’s notion of the playground, a sacred place divorced from reality, bound by time and space. Personal ego needs are curbed, the child learns to self-regulate. It is a very sophisticated meta level on display. There, she exercises some remarkably advanced capabilities: planning, prioritizing, flexibly changing course, reasoning, emotional intelligence and empathy, all skills that are critical for negotiation success. She learns how to craft and agree on rules for competitive play, and how important that is for keeping the game fair and fun. And she learns the difference to cooperative games. With no undue effort, she can mentally step outside the game to reflect on how it is going. What is interesting, however, is that, at the same time, the child also knows that she is playing. The child is totally immersed in a fantasy world, and blissfully and wholeheartedly at play. One thing literally becomes another: a banana is a telephone, a shoe a bottle. Whole story lines emerge, sometimes with fairly sophisticated character acting. At the age of 4 to 7, and employing intuitive reason rather than logic ,children learn to simplify actions and assign roles and meanings to objects. Piaget focuses especially on the second stage of learning development in children, which is that of “symbolic games and make-believe play or pretend play”. A colleague and fellow play scholar recently brought the work of Jean Piaget to my attention, specifically his work around „double consciousness“ in the learning development of children. Connecting this idea to the concept of the “Magic Circle” of Huizinga yields some powerful insights indeed on the role of games in negotiation.
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