#2 | Magic Circles Part 1
I wrote most of this more than a month ago, before the recent wave of police violence and protests. And while the ideas are still resonant for me, it hasn’t seemed relevant or appropriate to share them in this time. But I’m reminding myself, the fight for change and justice is a long one. A really long one. And at least for me, I need to make sure I’m taking a breath. And finding energy and magic along the way to keep me going. So here goes.
In the last few months, a LOT has happened. Our relationship with spaces -
public <-> private,
inside <-> outside,
work <-> play,
virtual <-> physical etc has changed to an almost unrecognisable degree.
In some ways most of our spaces have collapsed into each other. In other ways, mostly virtual, they stretch into an endless void.
I've been wondering - is it the spaces I'm missing or some version of me that exists in those spaces? It might be a bit of both.
It might be the rituals and transitions (coffees, walks, putting on running shoes), even the existence of in-between spaces that prime us for a change in ourselves. I think those certainly play a big part but there is something about the spaces we enter that facilitates this transition too. It’s not just the physicality of a space but how we interact with it, how a space is able to invoke different modes of being.
Playing a game is a form of place-making. Games create their own space where different rules seem to apply, different behaviours are suddenly permitted and magical things can happen. This is the magic circle created by a game.
In game design, magic circles are both an accepted foundational principle and a hotly debated topic.
Magic circles aren’t limited to games. It can apply to permanent physical spaces - when we enter a museum or a library - we implicitly change our behaviour - at least the neurotypical among us are aware of the implicit and explicit rules governing these spaces.
In Rules of Play, a game design classic, Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman lay out 3 lenses - Rules, Play, Culture to explore game design. While thinking about what makes the magic of spaces, I loosely followed this frame. This week, let's explore Rules and Play.
Rules
“Part of the magic of the magic circle is that the rules contain their own authority.” - Rules of Play
The fact that there are rules of engagement in a game, give us permission to simplify. Leave the world outside alone for a moment and focus on the thing in front of us, maybe more importantly, focus on the people in front of us
And in a game, it also seems that there are new implicit rules about how we connect with each other too.
I've been fascinated by how games allow, or even create a safe space for, negative emotions. It turns out that this has been studied formally - teasing or trash talking during a game and the associated emotions it creates, called Happy-embarrassment, is actually a great accelerator of human connection.
This is apparently because, trash talking during games allows us to show and accept each other’s superiority and vice versa - show and accept each other's vulnerability. Isn’t that kind of beautiful?
Play - Emergence and Identity
‘Play’ is the experiential, interactive part of the game space.
This feels like the most magical part in a way. Because the rules stay mostly constant in a game, but who you play with - now that changes the whole game entirely. The people who play, have the power to change the story that emerges from the experience. The order of things, or the actions you take might be the same (bound by rules), but how it feels is entirely different (the experience of play.)
It is the unpredictability and emergence that arises from the same fixed constraints that is sort of thrilling. This is what makes a game endlessly replayable.
And even if you do play the same game with the same people, the magic circle lets you step into different identities.
Today I might feel aggressive, or like I just want to create some chaos. I may say this out loud or I may not. It might be facilitated by a rule itself - think of a game with a hidden element - someone in the group is secretly the thief or imposter. And the group might respond to this change in ‘identity'. It isn't happening in a vacuum.
To be continued..
Thank you for reading all the way to end. I ended up writing so much on this, I decided to split it into two parts. So more on time and cultural contexts in next week's post.