This thesis culminates with the design and execution of an original capture the flag map created with the Unreal Engine that tests the concepts of the magic circle and flow in video game spaces. It then introduces the unique spatial languages used to generate spaces that support the creation of flow alongside the gameplay and narrative of a video game.
#The magic circle game theory series#
Through a series of explorations and video game case studies, specifically in the first-person and third person shooter genre, this thesis first observes the transformation of implied spatial meanings in the magic circle. Effective video games spaces are specifically designed to contribute to flow experiences, while ineffective spaces can make a game too easy or too hard, creating a boredom or anxiety for the player. When a state of flow is achieved, the task becomes enjoyable and can be carried out indefinitely until the balance is broken. When completing a task, flow occurs when both the skill level of the participant and the challenge level of the task are equally high. Within the magic circle, the rules of play can transform and give new meaning to spatial organizations that could be considered problematic in real world architectural design.įlow is a psychological concept introduced by Hungarian psychology professor Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. This thesis aims to introduce two concepts specific to video game design, the magic circle and flow, to architects as a means of understanding the design of video game spaces.įirst coined by the Dutch historian Johann Huizinga in Homo Ludens, and later adapted by video game designers Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman, the magic circle refers to the boundary created by the rules of a game that separate reality from the fantasy of the game. As video game spaces begin to enter a new generation’s spatial lexicon, it is important for architects, curators of spatial design, to understand this new medium of space. His third (and revised) edition of The Magic Circle: Principles of Gaming and Simulation is 20 pages shorter than his 2006 edition but the material is still the most comprehensive review of the subject by one of the field's experts-and comprehensive is probably an understatement.
The Magic Circle is a blog about how we create that space how we construct meaning inside that space, outside that space, and on the interface and what motivates us to do so.Video games are a part of modern culture. Klabbers' work in gaming and simulation dates back to the 1960s. Inside the magic circle, the rules of reality as we commonly know them are suspended in favor of the rules of the game's reality.
Inside the magic circle, a plastic toy gun is a Beretta 9mm, a sorcerer can throw a fireball from her bare hands, and your college roommate really is dying of cancer. The magic circle in larp is literally the space within which the game takes place, but it refers to a conceptual as well as a physical space. I come out of the MIT Assassins' Guild, and that's greatly influenced how I think about larp, although I've primarily written games for Intercon. That's all that qualifies me to write this. I've played some larps and written some larps and run some larps and talked a lot about larps, and I have Opinions, Dammit. Otherwise Lizzie Stark's What Is Larp? is a good primer. I don't use it out of any particular agreement with the other principles of the Nordic larp community, although I don't necessarily disagree with them either.) I use larp to mean all larp, even North American boffer larp, not just Nordic larp. (I'm spelling it 'larp' because not capitalizing it saves me the trouble of holding the shift key, which saves my wrists, which lets me write more. I expect to post intermittently here, when I have things to say, and not when I don't. This is the place I natter about larp theory.
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