Entry 3: games and play

Whether playing golfing videogames, or golf in real life, Huizinga believed we entered into a concept termed "magic circle". Salen and Zimmerman define the magic circle of a game as a "delineation in time and space of the game's existence. While this model of a game does describe many experiences of play, there are many examples of games that purposefully blur the border between the world of the game and "real life."(http://www.gamesconference.org/digra2003/2003/index.php?Abstacts/salen/%2C+et+al.

When playing Golden Sun, you enter into a safe area where if you make a mistake and the character dies you can start again from the same point, whereas in real life when we make mistakes you're often unable to rectify the consequences. When looking at the lusory attitude of the magic circle, it's useful to think about two thought provoking questions.

Do games stem from play? Does play stem from games? Although there's no definite answer, something we can be sure of is there's many factors involved with 'why' and 'how' we play games. According to Huizinga's notion of play, there's four key characteristics which are adhered to if a person is involved in play: play is voluntary, outside of ordinary life, has fixed boundaries and promotes social groups. However, after spending time playing Tiger Woods 2005 (on two player) and golden sun (a one player only game), I started thinking if Huizinga's notion of play is still relevant to today's phenomenon of videogames. In conclusion, it's mostly accurate because you usually play digital games for the enjoyment factor, brought about largely through them being relaxing and very absorbing.

For example, if one had a childhood dream about being a professional golfer, Tiger Woods allows one to create your own personal profile of your name and the way the golfer looks, which in turn can create a 'dream like ' state in the magic circle, where for a moment, you think you've become a professional golfer (my own blurred experience).

There's fixed boundaries in the magic circle of playing Tiger woods because there's a limited spacial element where you can hit the ball, and you're restricted to watching the screen. It's great playing against friends to socialize. However, playing Golden Sun, the contrary happened because its time consuming element caused one to become reclusive to progress. Moreover, the addictive element of Golden Sun left me trying to kill a boss many times with no luck, which turned the enjoyment factor into frustration. Was my frustrating attempts to kill the boss a duty, because of the time already invested in the game, or was it to experience the subsequent joy of finally killing the boss--both reasons. Therefore, Huizinga's four characteristics of play aren't completely applicable to playing videogames.