Cardboard Poachers: Fan Cultures and Paratext in Board Games
Cardboard Poachers: Fan Cultures and Paratext in Board Games
Cardboard Poachers: Fan Cultures and Paratext in Board Games
By Chad Wilkinson
May 22, 2022
Summary
Introducing a contrast between the video game industry and the board game industry, Will Emigh, a video and board game designer at Studio Cypher and lecturer in game design, notes how the former can sustain efficient means of distribution through the utilization of online spaces.
Websites such as Kickstarter allow for designers to submit ideas for potential games and other products offering any potential fans the opportunity to help fund their ultimate production.
Board Games as Paratexts Providing the link between the board game industry and larger industries surrounding intellectual properties such as Star Wars, the work of Paul Booth, a media scholar and writer of several books exploring media theories through a tabletop gaming lens, is essential for expanding upon ideas of paratexts and their effects upon industry and fan practices.
Fantasy Flight's popular miniatures game effectively acts as a Star Wars themed "Dungeon crawl," a genre of game that distills the experience of popular roleplaying games such as Dungeons and Dragons, offering players a shorter, more structured approach to game mechanics of exploration, combat, and character development.
Blurring the Line Between Consumer and Producer Despite these licensed game iterations largely satisfying elements of fandom usually sought through unlicensed means, fans within the board game industry have nonetheless used such games as starting points for even deeper involvement with franchises.
Star Wars: Imperial Assault is a prime example demonstrating "Affective play" and how the board game medium and the connectivity of online fans has enabled female players to increase their agency in regard to the micro elements of actual game play and transmedia storytelling, and the macro elements of erasing the gender divide in the larger gaming community.
Heroes of the Arturi Cluster is a fan-made campaign for the X-Wing Miniatures Game that, through the co-opting of the original game's player versus player format, demonstrates how textual productivity can alter games at a mechanical level to suit how players want to play.
Reference
Wilkinson, C. (2022, May 22). Cardboard Poachers: Fan Cultures and Paratext in Board Games. Retrieved June 2, 2022, from https://analoggamestudies.org/2022/05/cardboard-poachers-assessing-the-academic-value-of-participatory-fan-cultures-and-paratexts-within-the-board-game-industry/