Trapped Within the ‘Magic Circle’

The Kansas City Royals, as I’m sure many of you know, are a professional baseball team who compete in the American League’s Central Division. At this point, many of you probably realize that the Royals are currently playing the San Francisco Giants in the world series, which could arguably be one of the most important sporting events in the world. Now onto something many of you might not know, videogames, more specifically Clash of Clans almost destroyed the Royals season! So the real questions are, how could seemingly a seemingly innocent game, destroy a professional sports team?

You Can’t Escape Us!

In order to answer this question, one must understand the ‘magic circle‘, as described by Johan Huizinga in his Homo Ludens. The ‘magic circle’ in a basic sense is where the game takes place. It can be expanded on however, to include the idea that within the ‘magic circle’ events in the real world cease to be as important as what is currently taking place within it. It is also important to understand that the ‘magic circle can be applied to many different things, for example a simple cell phone game creates a ‘magic circle’ in the same way a world series game would.

Now, it would be assumed that a professional baseball player would be capable of remaining within the ‘magic circle’ of a baseball game, however this was no longer the case with some Royals players who were allowing the ‘magic circle’ created by the game Clash of Clans to envelop them off as well as on the field. This was leading to a lack of attention during team meetings and could definitely have been a distraction during the games. This lack of attention forced a team meeting during which the distraction caused by Clash of Clans was discussed. This meeting brought to light that for some players, such as Jarrod Dyson, it was clearly an obsession. Dyson would go on to state “I’m ending it. I’m winding it down. I’m toning it down. I’m trying to tone it down. It’s going to be hard, but I’m trying to tone it down.” about his addiction to the game. His apparent difficulty in stopping playing Clash of Clans is a clear indication that he is/was trapped within the games ‘magic circle’.

Clearly the Royals managed to find a way out of this tough situation and stick around to the world series. However, this is a clear demonstration of how the ‘magic circle’ can trap somebody within and begin draining away their attention from other important parts of their lives, which is the main problem I have found to be associated with those who fall victim to this trapping.

Through the Royals, society itself could certainly learn a valuable lesson. That lesson being that sometimes it is necessary to evaluate the way in which you spend your time in order to figure out what is and what isn’t truly important. As I’m sure Jarrod Dyson could tell you today, he would much rather come back from the current 3-2 deficit the royals face and win the world series then win his next raid in Clash of Clans. At least hopefully that’s what he would tell you. If not, maybe he needs another intervention. After all, which looks like more fun

Red sox win the world series (2013)

Playing on phone

                             OR

 

 

 

 

I personally know way to many people who allow themselves to become entrapped within ‘magic circles’, myself included, whether they are simple games on cell phones or huge MMORPG‘s. These games slowly draw us in until we begin thinking that they are important parts of our lives and this allows them to slowly begin to take away from our lives outside of the game. However, with a quick check of our values, almost anyone can come to realize that our real lives consist of many more important things such as family and friends when compared to virtual games.

So, people reading this article, if you made it this far, please take a lesson from Jarrod Dyson and the Kansas City Royals, go out and enjoy life. Spend your time doing with you love with who you love. Don’t allow yourself trap yourself within a ‘magic circle’ because once you’re inside in can be pretty hard to get out.