Gameology: Commentary and Resources for the Game Studies Community

Strangely enough, I was thinking about posting (less eloquently) on the topic of these "paratexts" of games with relation to which documents we should consider in the study of the games. I think Zach is entirely right in noting that our engagement with the game occurs through so many levels that assigning the term "paratext" to things like the HUD, instruction manuals, and the like is only accurate in a strictly linguistic sense. But doesn't that still make it a good term to use, even if we have to neglect some of the values Genette has assigned to it?

At any rate, I'm interested in the multitude of paratexts that accompany long-running serial games like Metroid or The Legend of Zelda. My work with Metroid engages narrative and thematics in many ways, which makes outside texts like instruction manuals potentially important for analysis. But the Metroid universe extends away from what comes in the box - into print form, like comics that pop up in Nintendo Power magazine, or other digital forms like e-manga.

The situation for Zelda, you can imagine, is even more complex.

I guess my question would be how far removed from the game environment (for these purposes, I would say "what comes in the box") can these paratexts be and still remain relevant to study? I can't read or speak Japanese, so do the Japanese manga have any impact on my analysis? And do any of these paratexts have meaning for the average Metroid gamer?

I may be off here, but there only seems like one good way to read a book, and so most of the paratexts of a book will be involved at any point in time. With a series of games like Metroid, however, you can play to focus on any number of elements - the story, the puzzles, the exploration, the action, the speedrunning - and each of these strategies make different paratexts relevant to your experience of the game.