Game Design Lessons from Occult Magic ◾ 229
Intellectual historian Owen Davies wryly notes in Grimoires that many
grimoires purport primarily to sate the practitioner’s quest for gold,
but Stratton-Kent embraces the treasure-seeking aspect of goetic magic
as an integral part of the necromantic tradition, closely connected to
ancient Greek mystery rites that involved connecting with the spirits of
the underworld. Viewed in this light, the dungeon crawls and treasure
hunts of early adventure games and role-playing games become more
closely connected to the magical tradition. XYZZY, the rst magic word
scrawled on the wall of the cave in Colossal Cave Adventure, is a telepor-
tation spell designed to help the player locate treasures (see ...