Magic circles and the Lusory Attitude

When playing a game, the player or players get into a sort of zone. This zone can be physical, it can be to do with time or it may just be psychological. If you were to take the example of a football match, the match would be played on a football pitch with 2 halves of 45 minutes each with the objective to score more goals than the other team. The Dutch historian Johan Huizinga calls this zone, “A Magic Circle”. This “Magic Circle” as particular boundaries and by playing a particular game, you cross the boundaries and enter the magic circle.

Closely linked to this theory of the “Magic Circle” is the theory of a “Lusory attitude”. If a player wants to play a particular game, he or she adopts a “Lusory attitude” choosing to enter the magic circle of the game accepting the rules of the game and crossing the boundaries voluntarily to enter the zone of whichever game he or she is going to play. The “Lusory attitude” also claims that games are meaningless and a waste of time and energy because there is no obvious benefit apart from to have some fun. As Huizinga puts it as “the acceptance of constitutive rules just so the activity made possible by such an acceptance can occur” (http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/pcu/noesis/issue_vi/noesis_vi_3.html).

If I think about when I play snooker online, even by going to the particular site on the internet, I am adopting the “Lusory attitude”. I immerse myself into the state of mind that I need to complete the particular task at hand, which in the case of online snooker, is to pot the particular balls into the pockets in the order that it tells you to. The boundaries of this particular game are the digital snooker table where the game is played, the time limit which varies from around 90 seconds to 300 seconds and also the mental state of wanting to complete the task. There is no obvious reward if I do win the game. However, contrary to the theory of the “Lusory attitude”, I believe that there is at least a sense of satisfaction when you do win, provided that the level of the task is appropriate. You feel good about your abilities and this will boost your self confidence.

Bibliography:

Kudos for Ludus (2003). Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 25th February 2007: http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/pcu/noesis/issue_vi/noesis_vi_3.html