Pervasive Games

Pervasive games blur the lines of traditional thinking that games are separate from ordinary real life as stated by J.Huizinga. Pervasive games can take place in the real world extending the "magic circle".
An example of this is killer, or Assassin. A group of Assassin players will assign a target and then the players have to 'assassinate' the target  through various methods (eg use of maybe direct contact with a wooden spoon posing as a knife), much of the game is simply like a hide and seek being carried out in the real world with players constantly having to be aware.
This has it's risks as it could be confusing to bystanders who are unaware of the nature of the game and perceive aggressive actions as real.

Many films have played upon this idea and in one of my lectures we watched "La Decima Vittima". A surreal satirical Italian film that takes the idea to the extreme. It reminded me much of another film "Series 7 : The Contenders" (2001) also a film about contenders having to kill each other set in the real world.

also see Battle Royale a Japanese version of this theme and The Hunger Games films.


Huizinga,J 91992[1949]) Homo Ludens. Beacons Press. Boston