Aaron Trammell

Aw, thanks Tess. It’s been such a pleasure working with all of your students. Such creative and amazing thinkers, all of them.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE The Magic System in Modern Games DISSERTATION submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Informatics by Mikael D. Sebag Dissertation Committee: Professor Aaron Trammell, Chair Professor Katie Salen Tekinbaş Dr. Theresa Jean Tanenbaum 2025

ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The Magic System in Modern Games by Mikael D. Sebag Doctor of Philosophy in Informatics University of California, Irvine, 2025 Professor Aaron Tramell, Chair Magic systems are the subsystems of fantasy games that regulate the player’s ability to cast spells. These systems set the rules for what magical feats are mechanically and diegetically possible in the gameworld, how often they can be performed, at what cost, and by whom. While magic systems are often central to how players experience fantasy games, the values encoded within the design and behaviors of these systems have gone critically unexamined. Using Pinch and Bijker’s theory of the social construction of technology, this dissertation traces a history of the magic system as a sociotechnical artifact across three distinct periods of its development. In this narrative, the dominant relevant social group of each period—fantasy novelists, tabletop roleplaying game designers, and early computer game programmers—progessively rationalized the idea of magic in order to address problems they each encountered in representing magic within their respective mediums. Through historical method and the close reading of systems-as-texts, this dissertation analyzes short stories, novels, printed rulebooks, and early computer roleplaying games between the years 1932 and 1986 to argue that modern magic systems have rationalized magic not solely in games but through them—a process that I have termed ludic disenchantment.

So very excited that one of my last remaining PhD students, Mikael Sebag, successfully defended his dissertation—titled "The Magic Systems of Modern Games"—today! I'm so proud of him and so thrilled that people are finally going to get to read this work!

Hssssss

Jonathan’s amazing book on Catan is out now!!!! The best part is that you can read it for free online, too.

Spread the word and if you like it, why not grab a copy, too.

Want to read it? It’s free!

Full color photos! It’s really a delight.

#boardgames @pbooth81.bsky.social @aarontram.bsky.social @uofmpress.bsky.social

🎉🔥🎉ANNOUNCEMENT 🎉🔥🎉DAY🎉🔥🎉

Jonathan Rey Lee’s book on CATAN is almost out. It’s the first in the Tabletop Gaming series that Paul Booth and I have been hard at work editing this past three years. Anyway, the book is fantastic. Please consider it and share with the right people.

A mockup of The Time We Have packaging surrounded by floating door cards. The cover features two brothers sitting on opposite sides of a door with a purple flower motif

The Time We Have: A Conversation Between Brothers is NOW AVAILABLE

A tragic two-player zombie roleplaying game played on opposite sides of a closed door. A game about what it means to be a brother.

Want to learn more about the game? It's time for a megathread ⬇️

Hello folks, I am in need of non-fiction recommendations for:

+ Indigenous histories (esp from Canada & the Philippines)
+ Black history
+ Black Studies
+ Queer histories (esp from Canada and the Philippines)
+ Radicalization
+ Critical Race Theory

Signal boost pls.

Design Diary 3: The ‘C’ Words Controversy.  Love it or hate it, it’s become inescapable.  These days, it’s not just a handful of hot-button issues—almost any topic can become polarizing in a heartbeat.  Clearly, …

Can cultural criticism convince cardboard consumers to challenge colonialism and capitalism in Catan?

Find out in my newest design diary. CU there!

#boardgames @pbooth81.bsky.social @aarontram.bsky.social @uofmpress.bsky.social @beyondsolitaire.bsky.social @nopunincluded.com @stonemaiergames.com

Wish I was there with everyone this week!!!!

Also stay tuned for my awesome chat with Chris!!!!!

BOOM!!!!

Had an amazing conversation with @rowanzeoli.bsky.social @rascal.news during Gen Con! Thanks for hosting me and asking such interesting questions ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️

More great stuff on Jonathan’s upcoming book!

It’s true!!! Hope to see some of y’all here!!!!

Come PUNK with us!!

July 17th is Generation Analog 2025 "PUNK" with keynotes by @aarontram.bsky.social and @gamefiend.bsky.social

A full day of analog games scholarship and design thinking from around the world.

Register NOW:
www.eventbrite.com/e/generation...

Had so much fun chilling with Mandi! I hear you can catch the episode on YouTube if you missed it.

Thanks for having me!!!!

Looking forward to chatting with @saltandsass.bsky.social about the origins of analog game studies. Please come join if you’re at all interested in how tabletop games fit into the academic world.

analoggamestudies.org/about/analog...

Curious about where to start with Analog Game Studies? We’ve got a handy guide you can check out now.

If we missed your book or article please DM. This is just a start and we intend to update it moving forward!!!!

Thanks, Pam!!!!

I think we may be at different UCIs…Out game design program is GDIM.

What department? We should get coffee?

🔥🔥🔥

I don’t post much these days but I wanted to share the good news. Was just promoted to Full Professor at UCI!!!!

Thanks to all of the colleagues and friends who supported me along the way. I love you all and promise that I won’t let this make me crappy ;)

❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️

Jonathan writes some great stuff!!!! I'm looking forward to many more excellent posts on his site.

It was transparent 🤣🤣🤣

Hands down the best critical analysis of CATAN I've ever read! I'm really excited to see Jonathan's book hit the shelves!!!!

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

I had a wonderful time talking to the Pop and Play team on their podcast!!! It’s hot off the presses—-please listen in .

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Are you talented and up and coming game designer looking to figure out how to get your work out there? Please submit to this year’s DJA Emerging Designer Program.

We want you!!!!

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥