![]() As LARP Grows Up –Theory and Methods in LARP (2003). References Aarseth, Espen, "Allegories of Space: The Question of Spatiality in Computer games" (1998). In Fantasy Role Playing games the magical circle is constructed and performed as a ritual space, in which players create identities and meaning because they are performing the game between worlds. By using this information I will discuss how the magical circle is being constructed with diffuse borders. To contextualize the Dutch Fantasy Role Playing scene in an international perspective I will refer to US (Fine and Mackay) and Scandinavian (Nordic role-playing convention publications) theoretical research and fieldwork on RPGs. This festival is important in the Dutch Fantasy subculture as it attracts more than 20.000 participants, who are interested in fantasy and RPGs. This theoretical analysis will be embedded in examples from the fieldwork I conducted at the yearly Elf Fantasy Fair in the Netherlands (20, ). I will discuss how in analogue and digital RPGs this is not an already existing and closed framework but a space that is being constructed in time. ![]() Secondly, I will discuss how the game space or the magical circle as the Dutch historian Johan Huizinga called it, works in RPGs. It will be argued why this ‘being on the border’ of RPGs is exactly what makes them interesting and useful to research. I would like to discuss how RPGs are at the same time included but also excluded from definitions of (digital) games and play. ![]() I will focus on the construction of borders and space/ time in these games and the Fantasy subculture in the Netherlands from various perspectives/ levels. Therefore the fantasy subculture surrounding these games, existing in the daily life of the players, is crucial in this analysis. RPGs are not only constructed in the fantasy world of the game but also in the daily life of the players. I will argue that these games are quite literally ‘worlds of play’, which tend to exist in a mixed reality. In this analysis I will not only focus on digital RPGs (Multi User Dungeons and Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) but also on ‘analogue’ RPGs such as the table-top ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ game and Live Action Role Playing (LARP). Specifically the borders of play and space/time as they are constructed in my object of research: (Fantasy) Role Playing Games (RPG). Here I will focus on the construction of borders and spaces in games and play. In this paper I will take the ideas as presented in ‘The Other Game Researcher’ a step further. I argued that creating a new autonomous discipline such as game studies mainly involves constructing boundaries on different levels. Herein I discussed how game researchers are busy doing game studies: researching, writing and publishing articles, organizing conferences and creating a curriculum. Abstract As I demonstrated in my article ‘The Other Game Researcher’ (presented at Level Up DiGRA gamesconference 2003), on the development of gamestudies and a game research methodology, I’m fascinated by the construction and workings of borders. Research Methodologies and Case Studies: Role Playing Games and the Fantasy subculture in the Netherlands. Categories Theoretical Perspectives: game definitions and the construction of the magical circle.
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