A word from our managing editor, Patrick:

I’m biased. As a fan of game writing, Canadian game conferences, and open access journals, I am really excited for this year’s Canadian Game Studies Association (CGSA) conference. Having only attended once before in 2019, I’m a bit of a greenhorn, but in just that one time, I found the conference to be friendly and welcoming while also being devoted to social justice and accessibility. It’s thanks to the efforts of those involved with CGSA, Loading…, the conference itself, and those presenting that we have just a great game studies community, not only in Canada but internationally as well. 

I’ve been pouring over the schedule, and there are so many amazing panels and presenters this year (I’m really looking forward to Kishonna Gray’s opening keynote, “Solidarity and Social Justice: Why Game Studies needs to catch up”). Here at FPS, we wanted to highlight the members of our community (be it contributors, alumni, or staff) who will be presenting at the conference. Without these people, FPS would not be around. We depend on contributors and staff (and many unpaid labour hours on both sides) to provide an open and accessible publication for all interested in critical writing on games. 

Thank you to all who’ve been involved over the years, and I look forward to adding more and/or different names in the future.

A word from our EiC, Sabrina:

I have a confession to make: I’ve never had the opportunity to attend a real conference. Last year was supposed to be my first time, but then the world decided to go belly up for a little while. This year, however, I get to attend my first “real” conference virtually. While I may have missed out on the excitement of physically going to a conference, I must say, I can’t imagine feeling any more excited than I already do. And since we’re being honest here, I am kind of happy that things have worked out this way, because I can attend so many more sessions now! I am incredibly honoured to be both a presenter and an attendee at CGSA this year, and I’m even more honoured to be able to see some of our staff, alumni, and contributors present their outstanding work. FPS has been near and dear to my heart for so many years, even before I came on as staff (when I was a little undergrad, taking a course in Games and Narrative, reading some FPS essays). Without the incredible people that have all helped make FPS what it is today, I don’t know if my graduate experience would be as fruitful. So with that said, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. Thank you, alumni, for paving the way; thank you, staff, for doing everything you all do; thank you, contributors, for your outstanding work and giving us the privilege of housing it; and thank you, CGSA organizers, for bringing us all together. Can’t wait to see you all there!

 

Curious who’s attending from the FPS community? Just look at the list below to see the sheer amount of incredible people connected to FPS who will be at this amazing conference!

Contributors

Session A
Andrea Braithwaite  – Nancy Drew and the Case of the Frustrated Fan Base (Rm. 2)
Nancy Drew and the Case of the Neoliberal College

Stephanie Jennings – Re-Centering Autoethnography as a Fundamental Game Studies Methodology (Rm. 3)
Felicity, Framing, Feedback Loops

Session B
Matthew Wysocki – Brush Your Horse to be Forgiven: Morality as System in Red Dead Online (Rm. 3)
Gotta Scan ‘Em All and Beyond Elliot Page

Session C
Agata Waszkiewicz – Uncomfortable and Fragmented: Explaining Microaggressions Through Meta Games (Rm. 2)
A Multimodal Approach to Video Games and the Player (Book Review)

Session D
Samuel Poirier-Poulin – Beefcakes, Ambiguous Masculinities, and Pornographic Bodies in Coming Out on Top (Rm. 1)
“You Ever Have That Feeling Where You’re Not Sure If You’re Awake or Still Dreaming?” (Book Review)

Session E
Adan Jerreat-Poole – Virtual Reality, Disability, and Futurity: Cripping Technologies in Half-Life Alyx (Rm. 1)
Mad/Crip Games and Play

Jason Wallin – Better living through chems: Fallout’s post-apocalyptic pharmacy (Rm. 1)
“Fix my post-apocalypse”

Lindsay Meaning – Imperial Justifications: Nationalism and Nation Building in Popular Board Games (Rm. 2)
Dimensions of Identity in Games (Book Review)

Session G
Johanna Weststar, Victoria O’Meara, and Chandell Gossem [with Amanda Coles and Clare Redden] – Not on the same page: Gendered attributions of the ‘gender problem’ in the digital game industry (Rm. 2)
The Blame Game

Mark Filipowich – Past Eco-Colonialism, Surviving Empire and Environmental Catastrophe in the Works (Rm. 3)
Safiya Umoja Noble’s Algorithms of Oppression (Book Review)

Session H

Yifat Shaik – “Humour as subversion of military rhetoric in video games” (Rm. 1)
Emergent Narratives in Survivor, Subversion Humour & Games, and Different Games: An Introduction From the Organizers

Session I
Mark R Johnson – Behind the Streams: The Hidden Labour of Game Live Streaming (Rm. 2)
High-stakes gamblers, game design, and the meaning of cheating and Warning Forever

Session J
Gregory Blomquist – “She who has the information, has the power…”: Exploring Transmedial Play and Agency through Overwatch’s Sombra ARG (Rm. 1)
“The Cavalry’s Here!”

Christopher Patterson – Visual Novels and Making Queer Asian Worlds (Rm. 1)
Heart Projector, Interview: Mike Ren Yi, and Interview: Melos Han Tani

Session K
Kateryna Barnes – “There is no innocent gaming”: Fallout: New Vegas and the Migrant Crisis (Rm. 1)
Agniq Suaŋŋaktuq and Kisima Inŋitchuŋa (Never Alone)

Markus Russin – Forms of Nostalgia in Videogame Experiences (Rm. 3)
For All the Broken Vessels

 

FPS ALUM
Rob Parker – Ethics, Anxiety, and Long-Play Real-Time Strategy Games (Session B, Rm. 3) and Randomized Writing Prompts and Game-Based Learning (Session F, Rm. 1)

Jason Hawreliak – The Semiotics of Representation: A Multimodal Approach to Examining Diversity in Videogames (Session C, Rm. 3)

betsy brey – Building a Story: Architectural Narrative in Skyrim (Session D, Rm. 2)

Steve Wilcox – Hello, Worlds: Gameplay as Viable Interpretation (Session F, Rm. 2)

Sarah Stang – Queer Harpies and Vicious Dryads: Abject Female Monstrosity in Skyrim (Session I, Rm. 1)

 

Current Staff

Sabrina Sgandurra – Rewriting Nuclear Gandhi: Dismantling Colonial Rhetoric in Civilization VI (Session D, Rm. 3)

Alex Chalk – Producing RPG “Actual Play”: A Network Perspective (Session F, Rm. 2)

Nicholas Hobin – Confronting Awful Animals (Session K, Rm. 1)

Andrew Bailey – Living Worlds and Infinite Games: The Posthuman Aesthetics of Ian Cheng’s Game Art (Session K, Rm. 2)

Patrick Dolan – Possessed by Pixels: Hauntology, Dissensus, and Retro-Style Indie Games (Session K, Rm. 2)

 

Faculty Advisors

Gerald Voorhees – Secrets, Stealth and Survival: What is the silent child in video games trying to say? (Session H, Rm. 1)

 

Please let us know if we have made any mistakes or missed someone.
See you at the conference!