Ludic Interaction in Doctor Who - Game Play: Paratextuality in Contemporary Board Games - page 158

understanding of how the media reinforce their own importance in our lives.
Applying his work to games leads to the iteenth principle of paratextual board
games:
Principle 15: When seen as strict adaptations, paratextual board games close of
interpretation of the media text; when seen as ludic interaction, they open up
player dialogue with the media text.
While our media environment has become more convergent across multiple
corporations and multiple outlets, and as the numerous methods for viewing
topics, ilms, and television converge, the paratextual board game sits at the
nexus of multiple production spaces at once. As game designer Raph Koster
notes, “the more rigidly constructed your game is, the more limited it will
b e .” 2 Ultimately, this chapter sets the stage for the next board game researcher
by hypothesizing about what “the future” of paratextual games might bring.
Future research will, of course, be necessary to judge the place of board games
within a media environment that itself changes over time. Paratextual board
games are analog but hinge on digital changes; they are game based but rely
on narratological principles. hrough a discussion of interactive play and ludic
interaction, I describe in this chapter how paratextual board games reveal
the diversity within the media sphere, and highlight the ranges of meanings
constructed by audiences and creators alike.
Interactive play in paratextual board games
hroughout this topic I have examined particular manifestations of paratextual
board games for their diferent play mechanics, their diverse narrative focuses,
and, importantly, their larger connection to digital media culture. Although many
paratextual board games can develop strong inter- or intratextual connections
to the original text, this relationship can also be problematic. Contemporary
media products retain a strong sense of narrative development and character
development, two things that board games have diiculty augmenting with the
same referent or intensity as the original text. At the same time, contemporary
cult media franchises thrive on the intense worldbuilding of fantasy, sci-i, and/
or dystopian storyworlds. he most successful media franchises, those that tend
to generate paratextual board games, have fully realized worlds where multiple
variants on narrative and character development can thrive. As Andrea Phillips
describes, along with the creation of narrative backstories, developing fully