Battlestar Galactica and Spimatic Meaning in Games - Game Play: Paratextuality in Contemporary Board Games - page 95

the game Monopoly that instructs players to put the money collected by the bank
via community chest or chance cards into the “pot” in the middle of the board
to be collected by the player that lands on “free parking.” Such a rule does exist
not within Monopoly 's “oicial” rules but rather within the “house rules” played
by many households.
Yet “house rules” also change the fundamental structure of the game—playing
with the revised “hirty-hree” card may make the game more akin to the original
show, but it also changes the game itself from what the designers intended. Such
manipulation reveals another hybrid aspect of the paratextual board game: not
just that playing the game by the rules turns players into Spimatic cyborgs, but
also that it provides them the ability to change the system itself. he game is not
as powerful as those playing it; in this respect, the audience can take control of
the narrative through their Spimatic connection within and around the system.
“So say we all...”
In the pilot episode of 2003's Battlestar Galactica , Admiral William Adama
invokes a mantra to unite the survivors of the Cylon massacre: “so say we all.” It is a
saying replete with meaning. Indicative of a group mentality, the mantra coheres
the leet, the civilians, the government, and the military into a single unit. hey
are all united, all acting as one. he BSG08 game also asks its players to unite, to
act as one. But as in the pilot episode, when Sharon “Boomer” Valerii is revealed
to be a Cylon sleeper agent, so too do players of BSG08 have to contend that “we
all” do not “so say” exactly the same things. However, rather than through out-
and-out combat, it is through dialogue with the other players, skillful listening to
conversation, and observational memory that players are able to discern which
of their friends is actually a hidden agent. As Lancaster describes, understanding
the character one is playing in the game means “verbally interact[ing] with each
o t h e r.” 50
he notion that one can be both a teammate and a traitor is highlighted in
the BSG78 game as well, although in that game the diegetic need to pit solider
against solider confuses, rather than augments, the gameplay mechanics
and player interaction. Simulating combat, the game does not ofer the same
opportunities for player cohesion between cult narrative and paratextual board
game. his cohesion, which I have identiied as Spimatic in this chapter, relies
on the individual player being able to make connections between these objects.