Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
he Interactive VCR Board Game
or
Indiana Jones: DVD Adventure Game
, use
another form of media to occasionally interrupt the low of the play experience
and instruct players on what they must do. he unexpected interruption usually
occurs when one is irst playing the game; playing through multiple times
leads to a certain memorization of the interactive elements in these VHS/DVD
games. In general, paratextual board games—like all board games—engender
interactivity as players can manipulate pieces (e.g.,
Star Trek: Fleet Captains
and
Star Trek: Expeditions
), move the game board (e.g.,
LOTR
and
he
Lord of the
Rings: he Complete Trilogy
), adjust their characters' stats (e.g.,
Arkham Horror
and
Training Days
), and even make decisions that change the outcome of the
game (e.g.,
Battlestar Galactica: he Board Game
and
A
Game of hrones: he
Board Game
). And players of interactive paratextual games may be encouraged
to participate with the game pieces, the game board, and the in-game media text
to develop cohesion between players and narratives.
For many players of paratextual board games, including the
Doctor Who
games, the game has “done its job” if it has facilitated a meaningful and playful
interaction with an already experienced text. At the same time, this interruption
becomes a type of “media ritual,” reairming the player's connection to the
original text. he two
Doctor Who
paratextual board games structurally reinforce
the experience of
watching
Doctor Who
and thus become dependent upon
Doctor Who
for their ultimate meaning. Paratextuality portends the idealized
experience of the original media text.
Paratextual board games have something meaningful to contribute to the
larger context of the media franchise, contextualizing the original text by adding
meaning through interpretive framing. Paratextual board games can reveal more
than just a way of playing games; they can also reveal a chance to play with the
media environment.
he act of play simulates lived experiences and paratextual board games
allow us to play in a world we expressly inhabit during viewership. hat is,
while reading or watching our favorite cult media franchises, we can “visit” the
worlds by participating in what Roger Aden has called a symbolic pilgrimage
.
Media viewers can interpret the world of the narrative as a geography to visit,
creating a transcendental relationship with the text.
5
Paratextual board games
allow us to become recognized tourists on this symbolic pilgrimage: we can
collect souvenirs (pieces of the narrative represented as cards, dice, HeroClix, or
igurines), we can follow the journeys of our protagonists (either on the board
or through narrative developments), and we can participate in the narrative.
Search WWH ::
Custom Search