The Social and Cultural Uniqueness of the Play Experience - Article Example

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Huizinga’s Magic Circle in Understanding the Social and Cultural Uniqueness of the Play Experience Individuals find pleasure when they engage themselves in acts that society considers a play experience. Play is somewhat being considered as a thing voluntary done to satisfy the individual need of enjoyment. The socio-cultural distinctiveness of the play experience has been subject to many interpretations, and most of which, have aimed to provide an explanation that will hopefully lead the people to understand better play in the context of culture and society, or the reality. One significant theory related to the concept of the play experience is Johan Huizinga’s Magic Circle, where he has noted that games have its own reality (Ferrara, 2012). According to Huizinga (cited in Van Den Boomen, et al., 2009, p.165), play occurs “within its own boundaries of time and space” having its own set of rules. It is being likened to activities happening inside a playground, where specific rules apply only for the sake of creating the game itself and not for other purposes. A virtual world is then created that forms the so called magic circle. Now, as the player enters into this magic circle, the rules that have been set specially made for this virtual world have to be followed so that the experience will take its course, while rejecting the rules of the real world (Ferrara, 2012). As the game progresses, a “new reality is formed” (Van Den Boomen et al., 2009, p.165). This magic circle has turned the idea of a game into something that nurtures the imagination and encourages experimentation (Van Den Boomen et al., 2009, p.165). Huizinga (cited in Rodriguez, 2006) believes that playing has its significance to the player and since they value play, they have knowledge of how it is supposed to be played. Thus, there is an intuitive understanding of the game (Rodriguez, 2006), which eventually leads to a satisfying play experience. Play, as inferred by Huizinga (cited in Rodriguez, 2006) is free, meaning its main purpose is to create an experience for the players. Hence, people choose to play not to accomplish a practical task but only for the benefit of experiencing what they expect from a particular game (Rodriguez, 2006). Adult people do not consider play a serious matter because it is only some form of a leisurely undertaking (Rodriguez, 2006). On the other hand, play is also separated from the idea of logic since it only intends to put emphasis on human experience and not to give ideas on matters that deal with reasoning (Rodriguez, 2006). Thus, if the magic circle is used to explain the concept of play, the outcome of such will become limited and may not extend beyond the social and cultural distinctiveness of the play experience. The magic circle no longer applies since the games in the market, at present, are way different from the games that existed way back when Huizinga conceptualised his magic circle (Woodford, 2008, p.7). Huizinga contends that this circle sets the limits between the world of games and reality, and so what is within the circle should not be released out of it (Ferrara, 2012). If this is the belief of Huizinga, then the play experience will not be fully understood in its social and cultural context because the circle acts as a keeper that hinders the information to flow freely. Defense of the Ancients (DotA) and the Magic Circle The famous game Defense of the Ancients otherwise known as DotA has become a worldwide hit and is being enjoyed by most teenagers, especially boys from the younger generation. The game has indeed become a phenomenon and to many young individuals, it has become an addiction, a hard to break habit that increases the time they spend in front of the computer. In this game, the player will choose a hero who will guard the bases against the attacks of the enemy (Aziz, 2005, p.5). This game is often played in teams having five members (Aziz, 2005, p.5). Thus, the players will have to exert much effort to protect their bases, which requires teamwork and coordination. Like any other game, DotA has its own set of rules that players have to follow. Although the world of dotA does not look like the real world where people live, the rules somehow resemble those of reality. In the game DotA, the right amount of intelligence and skills are needed to defend oneself and to prevent the team from losing; just like in the real world, where people have to equip themselves with intelligence through learning and skills through training, in order to survive the daily battle of life. The application of the magic circle in understanding the social and cultural impact of DotA to the lives of those who have been hooked to it may not seem that much beneficial since the game’s concept is not far from the reality that people experience, and this is despite the presentation of a virtual world where heroes with extraordinary powers exist. In the magic circle, boundaries are being set that separate the temporary world that the game creates, and the real world where the rules of life apply. The world of DotA may be a fantasy world, but the experiences obtained by the players allow them to feel that sense of pleasure and accomplishment, which they also probably seek in the real world, and this makes the magic circle an inappropriate choice to analyzing the value of play experience, as well as its social and cultural uniqueness. Using the Huizinga’s magic circle in appreciating DotA, as a social and cultural phenomenon, may not fully uncover its uniqueness because the magic circle detaches the space of the fictional world from the space of the real world (Calleja, 2011, p.49). Huizinga’s beliefs are inclined to the notion of simulation, where there is a representation as the player assumes to be one with the space of the fictional world experiencing play as something distant from reality (Linser, et al., 2008). Computer games, like dotA for example, have become social phenomena because of their distinct quality that made them seem like a culture more than being an ordinary habit. The Main Advantages and Disadvantages In some instances, the magic circle may prove a point in demonstrating how virtual games work, and on what is a literal gameplay. The detachment of the virtual reality and the actual reality is being accentuated because games are able to bring that magical aura, which draws the attention of the players, thus, leading to their engagement and satisfaction. As inferred by Gunzel et al. (2008, p.60), the magic circle is not actually trying to differentiate a game from “the context in which it is played,” but is only illustrating the noticeable variations of a game and of “its surrounding context” (Gunzel et al., 2008, p.60). It is only a mere boundary that players designate upon their entrance to the game space, and nothing else (Gunzel et al., 2008, p.60). Therefore, when linking this idea to the game DotA, it can be argued that the magic circle only describes what is in the virtual world or what happens in the virtual and does not certainly distinguish these happenings to what happens in reality. For that reason, it would be an advantage to make use of the magic circle when analyzing the boundaries of play experience from the realities of life. On the one hand, the disadvantage of using the magic circle in explaining the social and cultural uniqueness of the play experience is on how it is perceived by some people as something that sets boundaries. The magic circle has been considered not applicable to the modern day games, especially the interactive games that do not reconcile with the idea of setting boundaries. Interactive games, particularly Dota, bring its players to a different world, but the values they obtain as they immerse themselves in the world where the heroes exist need not be separated from the reality. Hence, the concept of the magic circle, if used to explain games and the pleasures of play, may not fully reveal its distinctiveness. When individuals play, most often than not, the conception is that they do this to escape reality. As they become part of the virtual world, they become the person or in the case of the game DotA, the hero whose task is to defend the allies from enemies. However, if one tries to ponder upon this conception, reality is not neglected as individuals play a game; it is more of an outlet for them to become more of themselves, represented by the hero they choose, the hero that is a resemblance of their personality. A game may be likened to a magic circle; in that, it has its rules or characteristics that distinguish it from the real rules of life, but it may also not agree with the magic circle when speaking of how a game may not relate to reality. At the end of the day, games and the experiences gained after the player embarks on a journey in this virtual world have made those as social phenomena, and most of all a part of modern culture that is continuously enjoyed by many. References Aziz, H., 2005. Dota, the phenomenon. GameAxis Unwired, June 2005. Available at: http://books.google.com.ph/books?id=GukDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT17&dq=dota&hl=en&sa=X&ei=5UH2T7L2MIfxrQe33ZTOBg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=dota&f=false [Accessed 5 July 2012]. Calleja, G., 2011. In-game: from immersion to incorporation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Ferrara, J., 2012. Playful design: creating game experiences in everyday interfaces. Sebastopol, CA: OReilly Media, Inc. Gunzel, S., Liebe, M., Mersch, D., & Moring, S., 2008. Conference proceedings of the philosophy of computer games 2008 volume 1 digarec series. Potsdam: Universitätsverlag Potsdam. Linser, R., Linstad, N.R., Vold, T., 2008. The magic circle - game design principle and online role-play simulations. In: Ed Media 2008 -- World conference on educational multimedia, hypermedia & telecommunications. Vienna, Austria 30 June - 4 July 2008. Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE): Chesapeake, VA. Rodriguez, H., 2006. The playful and the serious: an approximation to Huizingas Homo Ludens. The International Journal of Computer Game Research, [Online] December, 6 (1). Available at: http://gamestudies.org/0601/articles/rodriges [Accessed 5 July 2012]. Van Den Boomen, M., Lammes, S., Lehmann, A.S., Raessens, J., & Schafer, M.T. 2009. Digital material: tracing new media in everyday life and technology. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Woodford, D., 2008. Abandoning the magic circle. In: Breaking the magic circle seminar. Tampere, Finland 10 April 2008. IT University of Copenhagen: Denmark. Read More