Word feud – thoughts on gaming and the magic game circle

In train, challenged in wordfeud by F. He made a smuck remark in the chat… Not actually a gentle compassioned remark on my regretted defeat. The word in his remark and in the game was ‘heaven’…. I enjoyed this while travelling by train.

The older man sitting opposite of me asked me: “was it really funny?” since my face appearantly was curling up and down very much… I was a bit shy with this remark, not aware my enjoyment was so present and obvious.
But then he mentioned enjoying this experience… And i realised my enjoyment even increased more, since it was not only F and me, but this stranger stepped into the magic circle of gameplay, or play.. He did not even need to know the game or the rules… He was in my magic circle of game and enjoyment and increased my enjoyment of this remarkable game.
Thinking of this and the theory i am reading about right now… Wordfeud feeds my basic needs of competence, autonomy and relatedness! Sdt (self determination theory) by ryan and deci.
I feel more competent using language and words by playing wordfeud, a skill use and need every day to express and communicate…
Autonomy… I feel free to play or not, to choose with whom i play and it even feels my own choice to loose very often in this game, since i am not good at using words, but it is my choice to loose, still enjoy, and progress in the skill which is a bit my handicap but i learn to cope with it (competence again).
Relatedness.. I feel connected to F playing games and chatting about the game… There is a social connection when you compete in a game, but in wordfeud it is coorperation as well since you are both trying to get the field full of words together and enjoy doing that.
Then the bonus relatedness with the guy in the train, makes me enjoy the outer surrounding of the game… The border, the fuzzy magical border of entering someones join, how briefly even… Het made the effort to interact, and related to my joy, refering to his enjoyment.
I love playing games! ; )

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