The magic circle and the puzzle piece
- In a common description, to play a game is to step inside a concrete or metaphorical magic circle where special rules apply. In video game studies, this description has received an inordinate amount of criticism which the paper argues has two primary sources: 1. a misreading of the basic concept of the magic circle and 2. a somewhat rushed application of traditional theoretical concerns onto games. The paper argues that games studies must move beyond conventional criticisms of binary distinctions and rather look at the details of how games are played. Finally, the paper proposes an alternative metaphor for game-playing, the puzzle piece.
| Author details: | Jesper Juul |
|---|---|
| URN: | urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-24554 |
| Publication type: | Conference Proceeding |
| Language: | English |
| Publication year: | 2008 |
| Publishing institution: | Universität Potsdam |
| Release date: | 2008/12/23 |
| Organizational units: | Philosophische Fakultät / Institut für Künste und Medien |
| DDC classification: | 7 Künste und Unterhaltung / 70 Künste / 700 Künste; Bildende und angewandte Kunst |
| Collection(s): | Universität Potsdam / Tagungsbände/Proceedings (nicht fortlaufend) / Conference Proceedings of The Philosophy of Computer Games 2008 / Keynotes |
| Universität Potsdam / Schriftenreihen / DIGAREC Series, ISSN 1867-6227 / DIGAREC Series (2008) 01 / Keynotes | |
| License (German): |  Keine öffentliche Lizenz: Unter Urheberrechtsschutz |
