Expanding the Magic Circle in Pervasive Casual Play

Abstract

Typically, in digital entertainment, the screen is the center of the player's attention. If the real world was part of the gameplay, the player would also pay attention to what is happening around her. That is the case of pervasive games. Our objective is to find ways of making pervasive play available for a large casual audience, but in a way that casual games are not deprived of their intrinsic characteristics. Casual games are easy to play, have simple rules and easy to understand interfaces and the introduction of real world elements must thus not deprive them of these characteristics.

User-Defined Game Input for Smart Glasses in Public Space

“…Casual game is one of the game categories with the most players [13], and it is shown high potential in public gaming [34,5]. We chose top 90 casual games[38] from existing platforms, including PCs, consoles and mobile games (30 games for each) by crawling and analyzing the sale and download count data from famous gaming websites [3,39,37,14].…”

The Self-starring Perspective: The Player as a Character

“…Conway (2010) affirms that the term magic circle can very much function similarly to the notion of the fourth wall. But the line where the circle starts and ends can be more malleable than originally proposed by either Huizinga (2014) and Caillois (2001) when applied to the context of computer games as pointed out by both Montola (2005) and Reis (2012). Any actions or happenings of a play outside the fourth wall of the stage inevitably will break it, whereas the magic circle can be expanded to incorporate more, such as the experience of, say, a soccer game can go beyond just the field to incorporate the cheer from the stands, the large screen used for close-ups, and the narration of the game's announcer in some circumstances.…”

“…The reasoning for this is that, even though these games can function beyond the program's window, they are still performing tasks that any other computer program would be capable of executing without reaching into the real world or having lasting consequences, once the Actor leaves their computer or console. This sets the Self-starring game apart from the idea of pervasive games championed by Montola (2005) and Reis (2012), since these games can use information from real life and don't exactly stop when away from the game's device. Undoubtedly, if a Self-staring game used a computer's webcam to record or collect pictures or video within its mechanics, or, for instance, used the player's social media to make a post in their name, that would be a legitimate cause for anxiety and concerns over privacy.…”

Designing a Tangible User Interface (TUI) for the Elderly Based on Their Motivations and Game Elements

“…According to this definition, pervasive games differ from traditional games by breaking the limits of the "magic circle" established by Huizinga [46]. A non-pervasive game (within the magic circle) is always played in a particular place, during a specific time, and with certain people [47,48], facilitated through current devices and technologies [49].…”