Foucault's Heterotopias as Play Spaces

This paper applies Michel Foucault's concept of heterotopias, real spaces that embody an "otherness" distinct from everyday society, to the study of play spaces in larp and tabletop role-playing. The authors, Tim Hutchings and Jason Giardino, argue that heterotopias offer game designers and players a more useful analytical toolset than Johan Huizinga's Magic Circle, which they see as less equipped to handle contemporary games that engage with social and political realities. The paper outlines Foucault's six principles of heterotopias, including the distinction between heterotopias of crisis and deviation, their capacity to juxtapose incompatible spaces, their links to slices of time, and their systems of entry and exit.

The authors test these principles against several examples. Dungeons & Dragons is judged a partial fit: it satisfies most principles but falls short on the second, since its players tend to colonize rather than reflect on the wider society around them. By contrast, the Nordic larp Just a Little Lovin', which depicts the AIDS crisis in New York's gay communities in the early 1980s, meets all six principles and engages players in themes of desire, friendship, and fear of death. The paper also draws on Devin Wilson's "Foucauldian mirror test," which asks whether play prompts meaningful self-reflection, and applies it to the board game The Castles of Burgundy.

The paper concludes by addressing the ethical stakes of designing heterotopic play spaces. Because such spaces can produce strong emotional and personal effects, the authors argue that designers must treat them with the sensitivity and care one would bring to a real institution like a hospital, and must avoid encouraging players to engage in mere emotional tourism or exploitation of sensitive subject matter. The work is presented as a conceptual and analytical contribution rather than an empirical study, drawing on theory and illustrative cases rather than survey or sample data.