Pervasive Games are games designed to extend beyond a clearly bounded play space and into everyday life. Montola (2005) defines them as games that expand the contract of the magic circle in social, spatial, and temporal terms. Rather than remaining confined to a separate fictional arena, the game spreads into the player’s real environment, making ordinary places, movements, relationships, and time itself part of the play experience.
This concept is closely associated with ARGs (Alternate Reality Games), location-based digital games, AR games, real-world puzzle events, and performance-based forms such as radical pervasive theatre. Examples include Ingress and Pokémon GO, which act on the player’s surroundings and blur the boundary between game world and real world. The same boundary-crossing logic is also discussed in relation to LARP research, where spatial, temporal, and social borders are intentionally expanded or disrupted as a core design principle.
A permeable magic circle can support experiences that are difficult or impossible in ordinary life, such as fear, desire, or ethical conflict, while still remaining within a safe social contract. This permeability may encourage self-reflection and personal growth.