History VideoGame / TheMagicCircle

** Maze Evelyn is the player's reliable ally, and really just wants to get fired (she can't quit due to contractual complications). But she's also an aggressive, arrogant professional gamer who heaps scorn and contempt on the idea that games can be anything more than competition.

* KeystoneArmy: May happen to you, if you use Group Think to replicate particularly useful behaviours to the whole group of mobs -- if one bearing Group Think is killed, they all revert to their former state.

* TheMinionMaster: You can defeat and recruit every enemy in the game, allowing you to Zerg Rush through most hostile enemies.

** Ishmael is the story-focused head, and wants to cut the player completely out of the narrative of the game, making the player into what is effectively the original trope namer of FirstPersonPeripheralNarrator, Ishmael.

* ProgrammingGame: You can only attack directly by hacking an enemy and rejiggering their programming to make them see you as an ally, effectively turning the enemirs into yoyr {{Mons}}.

'''''The Magic Circle''''' is an extremely {{metafiction}}al game currently available on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}.


InUniverse, '''''The Magic Circle''''' is a widely acclaimed text-adventure game from the glories of gaming's past. Featuring an incredible world, rich, detailed text and a number of innovative gameplay features, ''Circle'' went on to become one of gaming's greatest treasures.

* DummiedOut: The player is able to interact with and restore objects that have had this happen to them.

'''''The Magic Circle''''' is a widely acclaimed text-adventure game from the glories of gaming's past. Featuring an incredible world, rich, detailed text and a number of innovative gameplay features, ''Circle'' went on to become one of gaming's greatest treasures.

* PsychologicalProjection: [[spoiler:During his rant, Ishmael basically says that the one thing gamers really just want is control. The rant ends up unintentionally describing him, an embittered, self-loathing, and depressed man who abuses and manipulates his staff to deal with his many, ''many'' personal problems without ever confronting them directly, perfectly.]]

* GreyAndGreyMorality: The three main "gods" are a flawed bunch, but each has their good reasons:

** The Old Pro himself is nothing but friendly to the player and values creativity and productivity highly. But he's doesn't give a damn about anyone but himself and ''possibly'' you, and is more than happy to ruin the lives of the other developers in order to be hapy

** [[spoiler:Also implied the Player themself is one according to the game's hidden documents]]

* PromotedFangirl: Deconstructed with Coda; her growing disappointment with Ishmael soon results in her [[TheStarscream mutiny]] for the sake of the project.

* PostModernism: It's a game about creating games, taking place in an "unfinished" fictional game, where "glitches" are intentionally included and the player hacks into entities as their main ability. A few have compared the game to something [[{{Television/Community}} Abed]] would make.

That was then. This is now.