This document discusses key concepts for studying video games, including why they should be studied, who studies them, and different types of analysis. It introduces the concepts of frames and boundaries, the magic circle, and lusory attitude. Regarding frames and boundaries, it explains that every game exists within a frame that communicates it is a game and marks off the space and time of play. The magic circle refers to the special space and time created by a game that establishes an alternate reality governed by its rules. Lusory attitude describes the psychological attitude of faith and social contract required of players to enter into a game.

1. understanding

2. Espen Aarseth
“Computer Game Studies, Year One”
Game Studies 1.1 (July 2001)

3. “Studying Video Games,” from Understanding
Video Games: The Essential Introduction
Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Jonas Heide Smith, Susana Pajares Tosca
Introduction breaks down into three questions:
• Why? (Why study video games?)
• Who? (Who studies video games?)
• How? (Types of analysis)

4. Why? (Why study video games?)

5. Who? (Who studies video games?)

6. How do you study video games?
(Types of analysis)

8. Group Activity
Break into Canvas Groups.
• Choose two games from the following list: Minecraft, Pac
Man, Tetris, Grand Theft Auto, WiiSports, Angry Birds
• For each game, go through the Four Types of Analysis and
try to imagine the different kinds of essays that could be
written from each perspective. What kinds of studies, in
other words, could be produced by a focus on the game,
the players, the culture, and the philosophical foundation of
the game in question. What kind of studies could you
imagine, for example, about Pac Man and players? Or
Angry Birds and culture? Or Tetris and ontology? Or Grand
Theft Auto and games?

9. • How do we enter and exit games?
• How and where does play begin and end?
• What makes up the boundary of a game?
Magic Circle
Frames & Boundaries
Lusory Attitude
A Few Critical Terms

10. Every game exists within a frame – a
marked off time and space.
The frame is what communicates to
players that a game is being played
The Frame of a Game

11. Frames can be…
• physical
• psychological
• technological
• abstract/
conceptual
The Frame of a Game

13. • The “idea of a special place in time and
space created by a game”
• The “space within which a game take place”
• The “alternate reality established by game”
• The space and time that marks off the
artificial world of a game
• The formalized boundary that circumscribes
the activity of play.
The Magic Circle

14. Why magical? What’s magical
about the space and time created
when we play a game?
Within the space of a game, special rules
obtain – and these rules create a special set
of meanings for the players
Things become significant when subject to
the rules and fiction of a game

15. Within the magic circle, special meanings accrue
and cluster around objects and behaviors. In
effect, a new reality is created, defined by the rules
of the game and inhabited by its players. Before a
game of Chutes and Ladders starts, it's just a
board, some plastic pieces, and a die. But once
the game begins, everything changes. Suddenly,
the materials represent something quite specific.
This plastic token is you. These rules tell you how
to roll the die and move. Suddenly, it matters very
much which plastic token reaches the end first.

16. Are frames and boundaries between “magic
circle of a game” and “ordinary world” always
clearly defined?
Can you think of examples where these
boundaries are confused? When games leak
into real life, or real life leaks into magical
world of games?
Discussion

17. Psychological attitude required to enter the
play of the game.
Playing a game is an act of “faith” and a kind
of social contract.
Useful term to describe the attitude required
of a player to enter into a game
Lusory attitude (Bernard Suits)