Battlestar Galactica and Spimatic Meaning in Games - Game Play: Paratextuality in Contemporary Board Games - page 79

the “feel” of their requisite television program, but each does so using diferent
game mechanics and aesthetics. In the case of BSG78 , the speciic game board
aesthetics seem to draw the player into a spatial understanding of the cult world
of Battlestar Galactica . For BSG08 , the mechanics of game play, including the
hidden Cylon mechanic and player interaction, highlight a more temporal
understanding of the unfolding of the serial narrative of Battlestar Galactica .
While both of these methods approach an audience's understanding of the
“essence” of Battlestar Galactica , they hinge on a single premise: the player must
be seen as a co-participant within the narrative itself in order to draw the player
into the cult world of the show. Players of these games must navigate both their
own player choice and the demands of the game itself in order to complete
the play session. he mechanics and aesthetics of the game, as a collaboration
between a technology and the individual, highlights both what is uniquely
algorithmic about the human experience and what is distinctively human about
technology.
In BGS08 , players play as characters on board the Galactica , which is on the
run from the Cylons. During each turn, a number of events happen that players
must solve together. Events are solved by players contributing numbered cards
to a pile; if the appropriate number is reached, then the event is solved. Each
event might cost or provide one of four resources—food, fuel, population, and
morale. Additionally, Cylons might attack or board the ship, and one (or more)
players are “hidden” Cylons, sleeper agents that can attempt to subvert the card-
number system and sabotage the ship. In BSG78 , alternately, each player plays
as an unnamed pilot ighting over a Cylon Raider. Using three strategies—turbo
thrust (an additional role), force ield (making another player lose a turn), or
laser cannon (entering a ireight with a player)—each player attempts to haul
the Raider back to Galactica.
According to Karl Bergström, Stafan Björk, and Sus Lundgren, efective game
creation happens when the game play mirrors a particular game design . In other
words, and in reference to BSG08 speciically, “the close connection between the
game and the TV-series can … result in a very strong emotional immersion …
as players identify with their characters and the humans' goal to save humanity.” 8
Indeed, both Battlestar Galactica series ofer similar narratives, but approach
them in vastly diferent ways. Lincoln Geraghty describes the new Battlestar
Galactica as a “vindication of a show long gone”—the “reimagined” series is
vastly more critically acclaimed, and he describes it as “far more a product of
modern television programming than it is a throwback.” 9 In discussing the