The Magic Circle

Pretending is the act of creating a notional reality in the mind, which is one element of our definition of a game. Another name for the reality created by pretending is the magic circle. This is an idea that Dutch historian Johan Huizinga originally identified in his book Homo Ludens (Huizinga, 1971) and expanded upon at some length in later theories of play. The magic circle is related to the concept of imaginary worlds in fiction and drama, and Huizinga also felt that it was connected to ceremonial, spiritual, legal, and other activities.

Huizinga did not use the term magic circle as a generic name for the concept. His text actually refers to the play-ground, or a physical space for play, of which he considers the tennis court, the court of law, the stage, the magic circle (a sacred outdoor space for worship in “primitive” religions), the temple, and many others to be examples. However, theoreticians of play have since adopted the term magic circle to refer to the mental universe established when a player pretends.

Adams, Ernest. Fundamentals of Game Design. Second Edition. Berkeley, CA: Pearson Education Inc., 2010. 4-5. Print.

Huizinga’s thesis, which was more widely distributed and readily acknowledged than Bakhtin’s, had a different emphasis, positing that the wellspring of all culture, or at least all great culture, was the instinct for play.

Simon, Sadler. The Situationist City. Cambridge (Mass.) ; London : The MIT Press, 2001. 35. Print.