Board game instruction’s genre

Abstract

The article presents the genre pattern of contemporary board game instructions, also considering earlier texts. The study material consists of 100 instructions issued from 1861 to 2021. The methods of genologi-cal, stylistic and cultural analysis were used, emphasizing the important role of situational context due to the instruction’s practical character. Four aspects of the text were examined: structural, cognitive, pragmatic and stylistic, which, according to Maria Wojtak, make up the genre pattern. The study of the texts showed that there is a genre pattern of this type of text, which distinguishes it from others of the instructional variety. It was proven that despite the ludic aspect inherent in the game (and fundamental to it), the most important purpose of a board game instruction is to explain the rules of the game. All components, whether textual or visual, are subordinated to the functional nature of the text. The instruction serves the player to understand the game mechanisms quickly. For this reason, means of shortening instructions are used, and illustrations are intended to depict the text first and foremost. Distinctions and structure help to find the most important information, and the style is conducive to reading. The speaker usually plays the role of the teacher and the receiver – the layman who wants to learn the game. The author of the instruction often shortens the distance by using second-person forms and the imperative mode.