Abstract
“Jumanji: a game for those who wish to find a way to leave their world behind,” reads twelve-year-old Alan Parrish in the 1995 film Jumanji; “you roll the dice to move your token, doubles get another turn, and the first one to reach the end wins.”1 The story of a magical board game, adapted from Chris Van Allsburg’s 1981 children’s book of the same name, not only captures how games create alternate worlds governed by rules, promising players that they will “leave their world behind,” but also highlights the suspicion many have toward games in their ability—and in the case of games like gambling, a potentially dangerous ability—to impact real life. For the unwitting players of Jumanji, the seemingly harmless board game, first approached as an object of curiosity and amusement, instead brings to life—with every roll of the dice—the horrors and hazards of the African jungles and savannas, including monsoons, killer insects, lions, and stampedes. Far from leaving the world behind, the real world becomes the game world as the game destroys the town, harms citizens, and hinders the lives of its players. As Sarah Wittle remarks, the “last time I played this game, it ruined my life!” While the rules of Jumanji dictate that “the exciting consequences of the game will vanish only when a player has reached Jumanji and called out its name,” the lives of the players are changed even after the board is put away. Similarly, the memories and trials experienced by players with real, historical games demonstrate how games may craft a world with artificial rules yet still have a lasting impression on the lives of players.
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Notes
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Patterson, S. (2015). Introduction: Setting Up the Board. In: Patterson, S. (eds) Games and Gaming in Medieval Literature. The New Middle Ages. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137497529_1
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