Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
games in particular are constructed of both
rules
and
iction
at the same time—
that is, video games have real rules guiding the action within ictional worlds.
Board games complicated this notion of the “half-real”—paratextual board
games even more so. he appearance of the pieces in a paratextual board game
takes on even more signiicance than in a video game, I would argue, because
although one is still playing within a ictional universe, there is a tangibility
and materiality to the game that more irmly places it within the real world of
the player. As Peters notes here about video game feelies, they “raise questions
about how we immerse ourselves in ictional worlds on material, narrative, and
cultural levels, encouraging scholars to further explore the intersection between
the virtual and the real.”
17
If video game feelies permit players to feel a certain
connection to the virtual world on their television and computer screens, then
the HeroClix igures become material connections to the diegetic world itself.
For Robinson, HeroClix is not about the pieces themselves, but about the
way the combination of pieces becomes “representative of the person building
them”—the character I choose to play in
Expeditions
helps to fashion my own
identity as game player (Figure 5.1).
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his is made even more overt with booster
packs, as more HeroClix characters can be added to the player's roster.
his identiication is particularly telling with HeroClix, as diferent types
of miniatures help to engender diferent types of identiication. Playing as a
particular character may help players identify more with the actions; playing as
an entire ship abstracts the game play. As Costikyan notes: “Getting players to
identify with their game position is straightforward when a player has a single
Figure 5.1
HeroClix Spock, Uhura, McCoy, and Kirk, lanked by a Klingon Battle
cruiser and the
Enterprise
.
Star Trek: Expeditions
©WizKids 2011. Photo by Katie
Booth.
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