New Narratives: Stories and Storytelling in the Digital Age

13 Using the Force

239 13 Using the Force lego Star Wars: The Video Game, Intertextuality, Narrative, and Play james newman and iain simons Even though Star Wars did not become a video game until 1983, we contend that it was a richly playable experience from its very first exposure to the public. The popular assumption of the Star Wars canon as one primarily seeded by a series of six films is one that is ripe for challenge. Star Wars, in its broadest sense is, and always has been, richly transmedial. Collectible cards, licensed novels, themed lego sets, and the “Expanded Universe” of characters and stories reach out, extend, and sometimes run parallel to the purely cinematic experience of Star Wars. These are not trivial additions to cinematic “primary texts.” Rather, these extrafilmic texts are vital parts of the storytelling system adding weight, richness, depth, and dimension to the resources of the canon. While action figures , merchandising, and the “Expanded Universe” are comparatively well documented in writings on Star Wars (e.g., Kapell and Lawrence 2006; Brooker 2002), video games have been largely neglected within scholarly discussions of transmedia storytelling. From their first appearance in the arcades to the current raft of home console titles, Star Wars video games have offered opportunities to play as and with different characters, swapping between the Rebellion in X-Wing or the Empire in Tie-Fighter and Dark Forces, for instance. However, for all their playfulness, Star Wars video games usually operate within the strict bounds of the canon (or the “Expanded Universe” as with Shadow of the Empire). Raph Koster, developer of the Star Wars Galaxies online role-playing game, perhaps suggests one reason (see Jenkins 2007). Star Wars is so beloved by its fans that possess an intimate knowledge of its minutiae that it might be reasonably assumed that they would be critical of any deviation from canonically sanctioned authenticity. However, in our case study of the lego Star Wars video game series, 240 Using the Force we see levels of canonical abandon that allow characters from the different film episodes to coexist on screen. Moreover, we witness the dissolution of the central narrative tenet of good versus evil as Jedi and Sith characters are forced to cooperate to overcome the series of puzzles that compose the gameplay. Here, we encounter a video game that is infused with the playful spirit of lego and, as such, is not simply a video game of a film but rather a video game that exists in the continuum of Star Wars toys. It is not that the lego Star Wars video games present the first chance to remix the elements of this much loved saga, as action figures and plastic bricks have long facilitated this. Rather, through their structure and status as “official” texts, the video games effectively sanction these inventions . However, what makes the lego Star Wars video games so fascinating as texts is that while they offer freedom far beyond that of other Star Wars video games, their playfulness and inventiveness remains located within carefully policed boundaries. Their virtual world is far from a Star Wars sandpit where anything goes, and like any (video) game, their rules, restrictions, and limitations still contain the possibilities and govern what is permissible. By exploring the development processes of the lego Star Wars teams and their engagements with Lucasfilm, we gain a glimpse of the unexpected freedoms offered the games’ designers in working with the otherwise fiercely protected Star Wars canon (see Jenkins 1992). Transmediality In this chapter, we wish to explore the concept of transmedia storytelling as outlined by Henry Jenkins (e.g., 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007) with reference to a set of specific Star Wars games by examining their surfaces and boundaries and considering their place and function within the Star Wars canon and universe. Star Wars and its franchised range of coordinated media assets have always been beacons of transmediality. As Jenkins notes, “We might also see performance taking centre stage in the release of action figures which encourage children to construct their own stories about the fictional characters or costumes and role playing games which invite us to immerse ourselves in the world of the fiction. In the case of Star Wars, the Boba Fett action figure generated consumer interest in a character that had otherwise played a small role in the series, creating pressure for giving that character a larger plot function in future stories” (2007). [13.58.39.23] Project MUSE (2024-04-26 11...