![]() As she moves toward the final objective, following the advice from the Old Pro all the while, she finds notes and audio logs that reveal the full extent of the struggle between Ish and Coda. The player is placed in the middle of competing forces, guided along by an artificial intelligence (The Old Pro) who’s stuck in the game’s code. Having brought in a representative of the fan community (a young woman named Coda Soliz), Ish soon finds his project slipping away from him. The Magic Circle isn’t interested in cheekily pointing out the lemming-like role players are willing to assume, but in opening up a greater discussion about the ways in which audiences and developers must rely upon one another for artistic success.Īs The Magic Circle’s player rewrites the world around her, she learns that the game she’s testing is a long-awaited sequel, trapped in a kind of creative stasis because its lead designer Ishmael “Ish” Gilder is unable to reconcile his changeable vision with the expectations of his fans. Its story shifts to a concern with the state of game development itself-the push and pull of creative and audience ego. Before long, though, the game moves beyond this topic. It seems, from the start, like The Magic Circle is preparing to talk only about how players interact with games. It echoes The Stanley Parable’s all-knowing narrator and BioShock’s fateful “would you kindly” directive. This early scene is pretty straightforward metacommentary. If “The Magic Circle” is going to have an interesting story, the player’s agency has to be limited so the cast isn’t murdered before they have a chance to contribute to the plot. Players are too fickle, one eyeball says. The two developers complain that their audience can’t be trusted not to kill friendly characters if they’re given a weapon. They represent the fictional designers of the game being tested (also called “The Magic Circle.”) As the player is prepared to accept a sword from a partially rendered figure, the action stops. Its opening moments see a pair of floating eyeballs approach the player, freezing the world around her. The Magic Circle initially seems like it wants to chime in on this already tired conversation. They ignore the fact that most players are fully aware of the contract they enter into as soon as they pick up the controller-that we come to games feeling okay about following direction and prepared to kill anything that tries to hurt our avatar. But, even as these arguments point out the style of play we take for granted in so many games, they fail to offer anything more substantive than a basic recognition of design trends. They ask us to feel gullible for unconsciously following mission markers or guilty for happily gunning down enemies. Games like BioShock, The Stanley Parable, Spec Ops: The Line, and Hotline Miami comment on the player’s willingness to do as they’re told. Rather than engage with the culture and politics of the wider world, many of our smartest titles are concerned with the ways in which videogames are currently structured. Whatever the reason, games about games have become common. This could be a response to the fact that nuanced criticism of games has become a lot more common over the last several years, or to the frustration inherent in a mainstream seemingly unable to break from producing overly-predictable, thematically-repetitive titles. Videogames are in a phase of self-reflection and self-reference. By giving the player so much control over The Magic Circle’s virtual world, Question creates a clever platform from which to argue who has more responsibility for the quality of the games we play: their developers or their fans. ![]() This effect serves as a solid foundation for a title whose story tackles the very nature of the game industry. They also offer a level of behind the scenes control that The Magic Circle uses to blur the line between creator and audience. These abilities don’t just allow the player to solve puzzles by subverting the in-game environment. The turtle-like creatures meandering across a field can be turned into floating platforms the corpse slumped against a wall as set dressing can be made to walk and throw fireballs. Her hand reaches out from the corner of the screen, ready to change whatever’s in front of her. The player, a tester who gains administrative access to this world, is given nearly unlimited power over her surroundings. Question’s The Magic Circle takes place within the lines of code and placeholder art of an unfinished videogame. Spoilers: This article openly references plot points from the entirety of The Magic Circle.
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