Magic Circle

Huizinga (1980 p.13) suggests that the characteristics of play are a voluntary activity knowingly outside our “ordinary” life, and perceived as “not serious”, however at the same time as this we are utterly absorbed in the activity. No “real” material profit can be gained by it, it proceeds within its own proper boundaries of time and space according to fixed rules and in an orderly manner. (copied for a book needs to be rearranged a bit).

Suit (12093u2) states the Lusory attitude which is the formula states the necessary and sufficient conditions for any activity to be an instance of game playing. It is the attitude taken be the game players towards playing the game, defined as “the acceptance of constitutive rules just so the activity made possible by such an acceptance can occur”.

As I pick up the guitar in the warehouse hold it in both hands and proceed to take it behind my head and to swing it round to hit the zombie standing in front of me good and hard, I fear for my life as I know that if I do not kill him I will die. I am completely absorbed by this and very little could take my attention away for saving my own life. But deep down at the same time I also know that its not real its just a computer game. However, when I picked up that controller I chose to play a game and I therefore step into “the magic circle”. The game zombie its self is very realistic to the world in which we live…minus the zombies. First level involves you basically killing all the zombies around you and trying to find as many survivors as possible (humans that have not been infected). As unrealistic as this may sound when I play I become completely absorbed in the game and actually I refuse to play on my own as the game at some point does scare me, but all I would have to do is turn off the game and I would no longer be scared as I would be stepping out of the magic circle. Losing myself in the medium can be creative and in a way liberating, however Lister (2003 p.263) worries that there is a possibility that this immersion can be hypnotic, seductive, ‘mindless’ as well as bodiless.




Bibliography

Huizinga, J. (1944) Homo Ludens: a study of Play-Elements in Culture, London; Redwood Burn Ltd.

Lister. M, Dovey. J, Giddings. S, Grant. I, and Kelly K, (2003) New Media: A Critical Introduction, New York; Routledge.

Frther reading:
Bradford, G. (2003) Retrieved: 26th February for the World wide web;
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/pcu/noesis/issue_vi/noesis_vi_3.html