Our State in Middle-state

A Letter from the Editor-in-Chief

Betsy Brey
First Person Scholar begins its 2017-2018 publication cycle.

To all our folxs and friends:

Hi, all! Another year, another new team here at First Person Scholar, and I’m honored to introduce myself as our next Editor-in-Chief. My name is Betsy Brey, and after two years as the Essay Section Head, I’m shifting gears to serve our team, readers, and publication in a new way. I don’t mean to distract from the awesome essay we have this week, but I also wanted to introduce myself and our team this year and update y’all on FPS behind the scenes. Continue Reading →

From the Outgoing Editor-in-Chief

So Long and Thanks For All The Content

Alexandra Orlando

It’s that time of year at First Person Scholar where we give ourselves a little break for the month of August and come back (hopefully) refreshed and renewed for another year of that hot video game content.

I’d also like to take this time to officially announce that I am stepping down as editor-in-chief to make way for a new team. I’d like to take the opportunity in this short post to reflect on my time with the publication and thank a ton of people who have been a part of this journey. Continue Reading →

Joysticks & Killing Joy

A Game Scholar’s Take on Sara Ahmed’s Living a Feminist Life

Adan Jerreat-Poole

Content Notification: gendered violence, sexism, racism

I imagine an academy filled with feminist killjoys, showing off our scars and canes and mohawks and afros and ponytails, wearing dresses and t-shirts and crop tops and bowties and hijabs. We may or may not have vaginas— that doesn’t matter— and we identify as queer, bi, lesbian, straight, two-spirited, genderqueer, butch, femme, non-binary. We have depression, anxiety, PTSD, myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), and chronic pain. We play Candy Crush, Resident Evil, Mario Kart, Settlers of Catan, solitaire, and LARP. We keep talking and playing and writing and we can’t be shut up or shut out. We are here. Continue Reading →

Nancy Drew and the Case of the Neoliberal College

Andrea Braithwaite

A disillusioned professor desperate for tangible research results. An ambitious new Ph.D. angling for a tenure-track position. Research assistants performing rote and menial tasks. Contract staff bound by restrictive agreements. Research teams dependent on the benevolence of corporate sponsors. College students angry that their campus is increasingly devoted to commercial enterprise. Continue Reading →

The Paratext of Video Games

Steven Harvie 3 Comments

A compelling but often overlooked part of video games is what we call the ‘paratext.’ The term was coined in literary studies to discuss the pieces of information which appear outside of the text (the main body of writing), but which nonetheless participate in and influence our reception of the text. For instance, the paratext of a novel would be the novel’s title, the author’s name, the synopsis on the back cover, chapter titles, publication details, or the cover art. It appears marginal to the experience of the text, but actually provides a significant network of ideas around which our approach to the text is shaped. Continue Reading →

What We Do in the Darkness

Exploring the Trauma of Town of Light's Renée

Katherine Cross 2 Comments

Content/Trigger Warning: Discussion of trauma and sexual assault.

Darkness is often synonymous with fear; where things go bump in the night, where monsters live. But what could make someone fear the light?

For Renée T., the protagonist of the LKA’s The Town of Light, the light bathed her with hellish attention, turning her inside-out. The game’s title, which initially strikes one as pious and placid, is actually a description of terror. The town is a mental asylum where young Renée is confined, in an Italian village at the height of the Second World War. Women couldn’t vote in Italy; lobotomies were all the rage; ‘hysteria’ was a diagnosis. Continue Reading →