The boundary that separates a game from ordinary life, inside which special rules and meanings apply. Game scholars debate how porous it is, as when virtual gold sells for real money or a character's grief becomes the player's.
Origin
Drawn from Johan Huizinga's Homo Ludens (1938); applied to games by Eric Zimmerman and colleagues and popularized in Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman's Rules of Play (2003).
Quick answers
- What does "The magic circle" mean?
- The boundary that separates a game from ordinary life, inside which special rules and meanings apply. Game scholars debate how porous it is, as when virtual gold sells for real money or a character's grief becomes the player's.
- Where does the term "The magic circle" come from?
- Drawn from Johan Huizinga's Homo Ludens (1938); applied to games by Eric Zimmerman and colleagues and popularized in Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman's Rules of Play (2003).