Narratives and Databases in Game of Thrones - Game Play: Paratextuality in Contemporary Board Games - page 156

of events, places, people, and battles, when interpreted through the forced
serialization of the game, the show reveals the progression of events as dependent
on individual action—much like the game itself. In Game of hrones , one person
can make a diference: Tyrion Lannister can change the course of a battle in the
novel; Arya Stark can inluence a leader like Tywin in the show. he same is true
of the HBO Card Game . One player can lead his or her family, made identiiable
through the images on the cards, to victory. Conversely, A Game of hrones: he
Board Game does not ofer that same sense of individualized victory. A speciic
character does not win; a family does. A speciic player does not win alone, but
must ally with others in order to do so.
Ultimately, both games reveal the efect of examining a particular media text
through a particular structural lens. Although Manovich notes that the database
and the narrative are two competing structures within new media technologies
and texts, the renewed presence and popularity of paratextual board games
indicates that these structural lenses exist for multiple forms of media, old and
new, ludic or otherwise.