Analog Game Studies

This article builds on a broad conception of the magic circle as a way of understanding the interactions, participation and meanings generated by games. However, this article argues that the magic circle is not only a metaphor for understanding the boundaries of play; it is a technology that paradoxically erects and disturbs ontological divisions and a ritual technique that enacts—as do many forms of magic—a relationship between people and things. Drawing on speculative and animist philosophies, the article seeks to shift discussion away from anthropocentric ideas of play and consider, instead, the magic circle as a technology through which mutual participation and mutual immersion between “world” and “player” is revealed.