Board Games as Media
Front cover of Paul Booth’s Board Games as Media
Board Games as Media
Paul Booth
Bloomsbury
ISBN: 9781801357176
The purpose of the book is stated clearly in the introduction; it is ‘an attempt to start a conversation about the relevance of board games in contemporary culture, using methodologies drawn from media and cultural studies’ (2). In a sense this is a conversation that has been going for some time, indeed Booth’s Game Play, published in 2015, might lay a better claim to starting people talking, but it remains true, as Booth points out, that board games remain ‘a remarkably understudied phenomenon’ (3). The conversation about board games, though, appears to be attracting a little more attention of late, and Booth’s latest offering, written as it is with a broad audience in mind, is a welcome addition that looks likely to bring new readers/voices into the conversation. And this, perhaps should be the first note of the review, this is a book that is careful to remain undergraduate-friendly at all points – offering helpful glosses on key critical terms and methodological approaches (such as textual analysis, ideology, survey research and autoethnography). A key point of reference in the book’s opening section is Clara Fernández-Vara’s Introduction to Game Analysis (2019) and the influence of that book in terms of both clarity and purpose can perhaps felt across various the chapters of Board Games as Media which is organised into connected, but helpfully (‘teachably’) discreet, chapters that generally proceed by describing a possible critical approach to board games before offering clear examples of the approach in action. The book is divided into two parts; the first, ‘Textual Analysis’, offers a series of close readings of games (games are, as Booth tells us, texts) and the second, ‘Ethnographic Analysis,’ turns to the experience of players (drawing on surveys and autoethnography). It’s a split that fits Booth’s argument well - games are, he tells us ‘ludo-textual’: ‘both textual objects and systems of interaction’ (19).
In his first chapter Booth offers an introduction to ludo-textual analysis that explores the ways in which it might be possible to read a game as a text (combining the traditions of literary/media analysis with the addition of the less familiar analysis a participatory element). The latter is clarified by readings of player actions in Ryan Lopez DeVinaspre and Jamey Stegmaier’s Scythe: Rise of Fenris (2018; Stonemaier Games) and Rob Daviau and Matt Leacock’s Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 (2015; Z-Man Games). The second chapter expands on this textual analysis through a discussion of game rhetoric in Michał Oracz and Jakub Wiśniewski’s This War of Mine (2017; Galakta) and Michael Fox and Rory O'Connor’s Holding On: The Troubled Life of Billy Kerr (2018; Hub Games). As might be expected, this begins with a response to Ian Bogost’s discussion of procedural rhetoric in Persuasive Games (2007), with Booth making a distinction between video games (in which the constraints of rules structure the ideological positions available to players) and board games in which, as he puts it, ‘player agency trumps creator control’ (42). It’s a fine distinction that, framed in terms of Kenneth Burke’s work on consubstantiation, invites reflection on Bogost’s approach (it seems helpful in understanding the persuasive effects of video games) while further developing the understanding of the role of agency in ludo-textual analysis. The third chapter continues the investigation of the ways in which games make meanings, exploring the interplay of mechanics and theme through a reading of four games about the colonization of Mars. Booth’s aim is ‘to describe how the specific semiotics of a board game – meaning the structure, the rules, the actions, the mechanics, and so on – help to shape the way the players of the game interpret the theme of the game’ (61-2). In doing so, Booth outlines what he calls ‘Ludic Discourse Analysis’, an approach reminiscent of Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc, Robert Zubek’s MDA [Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics] framework, and the chapter, through extended examples, offers a useful demonstration of the approach in action, making real gains from the close attention it pays to four similar-but-different games. The final two chapters of this section move away from close reading to turn attention to designers and fans respectively. The first opens with the note that board game players ‘rarely, if ever, refer to the inventor of the game as the author of the game’ (77). This note is intriguing, not because it’s particularly controversial, but because it draws attention to the way that Booth himself downplays the role of game designers/authors throughout the book (his references give publisher details rather than designers). The chapter itself explores the notion of authorship, and the different identities afforded to game designers concluding (as literary theorists did some time ago) that meanings are always negotiated. This, I suspect, is a chapters that readers might revisit (perhaps in class) as it invites some interesting, potentially thorny, debates about authorship in games. The final chapter, on fans, establishes game players as fans, connecting board game studies neatly to work on fans in media studies, and serving as a bridge to the book’s second section.
Part two of the book, ‘Ethnographic Analysis’, offers a different, though complimentary, way of approaching board game studies. The first two chapters detail a survey conducted in 2019 (which had 807 respondents) about the board gaming hobby with the first taking a quantitative approach and the second a qualitative approach. Both make for interesting reading (I won’t summarise the results here, the book does a fine job of that) and are useful companions to the discussions of gaming communities offered in Gary Alan Fine’s Shared Fantasy (2002) and Stewart Woods’ Eurogames (2012). Moreover, both chapters are accompanied by a helpful reflective account of the process that (again) suggests that the book will be useful in supporting students in their own research projects. The next two chapters take a similar format. Chapter 7 combines a discussion of diversity and inclusion in board game cultures (which Booth analyses along four layers: players, online content creators, designers, and companies) with a discussion of ethnographic interviews, while Chapter 8 offers an autoethnographic account of Booth’s experience with a solo-play of Isaac Childres’ Gloomhaven (2018; Cephalofair) along with a parallel account of autoethnographic writing. This final chapter proves both enjoyable and insightful – the autobiographical confessions offered in ‘Character Name: Paul Booth’ (engaging in their own right) add a fresh dimension to the work, adding detail to the discussion of fan cultures (better understanding, for example, the hidden costs that might challenge such seemingly-straightforward as ‘it’s an inexpensive hobby’ (163)), revealing the influence our backgrounds have on our thinking, and offering insight into the ways in which personal and cultural contexts impact on the types of study individuals pursue. In considering the future of board game studies, a topic that Booth suggests might be ‘less valued’ than others, these are important considerations. The book concludes with a reflection on the ecological impact of games on the environment that reflects on the book’s argument – focusing on the ‘stuff’ of games (which clearly contributes to the climate crisis) and on our interaction with games which, Booth suggest, might also help us to think about our own relation to the environment.
To conclude, Board Games as Media looks to be well placed to succeed in its aim to start conversations about board games. Readers already interested in board game studies will find much of interest, but those with most to gain are those new to the topic. For those readers, the clearly-written introductions to a range of possible critical approaches, and the clear examples of those approaches in practice will be of great benefit. It is perhaps fair to say that this reviewer was already interested in the topic at hand, and the real signs of success will be seen when the book picked up by media scholars from outside game studies, or better still, when it finds its way into the classroom curriculum.
Paul Wake