The tension between social and cultural expectations of behavior and what we do in the games we play is central to conversations in game studies. Cultural historian Johan Huizinga’s “magic circle”—the invisible boundary that divides play space from the rest of ordinary life—has been a core concept in these debates. Despite being broadly understood as a boundary, the magic circle is not impenetrable; it is socially negotiated among players. Following this vein, in this article I will analyze my own experiences playing the board game Small World (2009) in order to explore how games can position players in networks of social difference. Using visual rhetorical analysis, textual analysis, and the lens of performance, I will specifically examine the role of the Lost Tribes tokens in Small World and their possible implications for players. In doing so, I show how games place players in precarious social positions by expecting players to perform in ways or to enact values that contradict their lived realities.
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