Ludic Interaction in Doctor Who - Game Play: Paratextuality in Contemporary Board Games - page 168

Playstation 4 are some of the most advanced gaming systems on the market,
with state-of-the-art graphics, game engines, and CPUs. With the capacity to
download thousands of games, to connect people via the Internet through online
game play, and to provide more complex types of game texts, these systems are
truly revolutionizing the video game market.
But just as video games are making more money than Hollywood, a quieter,
subtler shit is happening in the board game world. Complex, detailed, and
engrossing board games are becoming more popular. As I was researching this
book, two events happened to me that revealed this popularity. At an academic
conference in Seattle, I was chatting with a local resident who was on his way
to attend his weekly board game group at a local bar. It was 11 p.m. and I was
returning from dinner; his night, he said, was just starting and he would be
playing games until 4 a.m. A few weeks later, I walked into a board game store
in a local mall and found scores of people playing a board game tournament—
the owners of the store had organized an oicial competition. he place was
crowded with players, each hovering over his or her own side of the many game
boards on the tables.
Video games may have become more serious business, but board games
relect a focus on more intimate, social experiences. Board games are inherently
a social medium, and the very act of playing a game generates interaction with
other people. Although board games are played (generally) in private spaces,
they are done so with other people, and in close proximity. he game board
itself becomes a force for social coherence. he necessity for intimate closeness
with a board game engenders this sense of community. Board games' inherently
social aspects make them active, and although one can attempt to passively play
a game, the very act of playing a game is generative of performance. And even
though many video games are social, today we oten play them over networks
rather than in person, online rather than next to each other on the couch.
hroughout this topic, I have investigated this paratextual potential in order
to explore two attributes of paratextual board games: (1) that they perform
particular versions of their original text; and (2) that they manifest characteristics
of the new media environment. Just as board games have facilitated great
socialization around more complex narratives, they are also indicative of a shit
in the contemporary media landscape. Our media is synthesizing, as transmedia
connections create texts larger than any one medium can hold. Paratextual
board games, those based on extant media products, relect this environment
not just because they can become part of media franchises, but also because they