Material Myths and Nostalgia-Play in Star Wars

Abstract

Transmedia networks clearly demand different sets of configurative practices dependent on the specific attributes of the medium being engaged with at any particular time. A physical Buffy the Vampire comic is engaged with in a different fashion than the television series that spawned it. Playing Halo 3 involves a different set of configurative practices from those involved in reading the tie-in novel Halo: Primordium. In other words, the specific material and energetic conditions of the medium play a central role in determining the nature of the possible configurations available to the audience member in question, whether we frame them as ‘viewer’, ‘listener’, ‘player’, ‘reader’ or more loosely as ‘participant’.