Mutability and Materiality in Star Trek - Game Play: Paratextuality in Contemporary Board Games - page 103

short-range weapons. If either ship clicks down to a zero marker, it is destroyed;
the destruction of the Enterprise results in a game loss.
Because the pieces are inscribed within a game structure, they take on
additional signiicance not just as toys, but as aspects of delimited play.
Unlike traditional feelies (e.g., a toy Batmobile included with a Batman video
game), these HeroClix pieces create diegetic consequences. One could play
with the igurines in whatever way one wanted—having the characters kiss
or the ships join forces, perhaps—but in order to play the game correctly,
one must use the igures in the prescribed, authorized way. Robinson notes
this double standard, arguing that “as an evolving game system, HeroClix
challenges players' identities as superhero fans. With elements beyond their
control, fans must negotiate with WizKids if this game is to be the basis of
their community.” 12 Gray describes this as “self-serving hypocrisy of media
irms that hype their licensed toy lines, only to clamp down on other types of
paratextual play.” 13 Indeed, there is nothing stopping players from using the
game pieces however they want, but itting the game within the paratextual
spectrum of the original media text means being beholden to the original
design of the game and thus the original design of the cult world. Espen
Aarseth argues that the player is “created” by the instructions of the game,
hailed into existence as a particular type of player desired by the game. But
rather than being limited to this interpellated existence, active players can
make use of ruptures within the game system in order to enact “transgressive
play.” Transgressive play “is a symbolic gesture of rebellion against the tyranny
of the game, a (perhaps illusory) way for the played subject to regain their
sense of identity and uniqueness through the mechanisms of the game
itself.” 14 he aforementioned “free parking” rule in Monopoly is an example
of transgressive play, but there are others—for instance, using nonsanctioned
words in Scrabble or allowing oneself to get eaten by zombies in he Walking
Dead: he Board Game .
Transgressive play becomes a meaningful aspect of HeroClix games because
the appearance of the igurines can engender personiication of the characters.
In early writing about board games, Erving Gofman describes how the speciic
shape of the piece is irrelevant to the playing: they “illustrate how participants
are willing to forswear for the duration of the play any apparent interest in the
aesthetic, sentimental, or monetary value of the equipment employed, adhering
to what might be called rules of irrelevance. ” 15 Jesper Juul argues against this
position, noting that “the relation between rules and iction in the games … is
not arbitrary.” 16 He terms this relationship concept “half-real,” noting that video