Play, Game, and the Magic Circle

Metagame Book Club: Game Studies. "Play, Game, and the Magic Circle" by Sherry Jones. Published July 15, 2014. Last Updated: Jan. 14, 2019.

Note: This is a mirror page of the "Play, Game, and the Magic Circle" from the Metagame Book Club.

Welcome to Week 1 of Track 1: Game Studies reading club! Our reading adventure will begin with an exploration of the definitions of play and game. For Game Scholars, the terms, "play" and "game," are very different and multivalent concepts, the meanings of which continue to be objects of scholarly debate. Long before Game Studies had burgeoned as a field, theorists were exploring the cultural meanings of play, and defining the relationship between play and games. Cultural theorist Johan Huizinga reminds us: "Play is older than culture, for culture, however inadequately defined, always presupposes human society, and animals have not waited for man to teach them their playing" (Homo Ludens, Huizinga, 1938). In essence, play is an activity that all animals, not just human beings, engage in. However, human beings have further defined and differentiated various types of games, each with its own parameters for confining the act of playing. What then, is the relationship between play and games? It is with this central question in mind that we begin our readings for this book club.

There are 5 main readings for this week (with some optional readings listed below the main readings). For the sake of clarity, I have organized the texts in a linear fashion, under subheadings, to be read in successive order. Enjoy!

-- Sherry Jones (Track 1: Game Studies Facilitator)

Main Readings

What is Play?

What is a Game?

Philosophy of Play and Game in the Age of Computation