We are thrilled to welcome you to First Person Scholar’s first issue in its new form!
Our new format will take the place of our weekly publishing schedule from before, and replace it with a term-based publishing schedule (Fall, Winter, and Spring/Summer). These issues may be published around a theme, or may be geared to a specific group of contributors. We thought that this new publishing schedule will give our readers a bit of a more tailored experience, and our contributors the option to gear their work towards their interests, identities, and passions. Further, it gives us the time and space to do the best or work is a sustainable way
I’ll be honest: this wasn’t intended as a themed entry. We just wanted to get the fantastic articles that our contributors have been working on out in front of the eyes of all of you. Some of these pieces have been in the editing process for a while, and their authors have allowed us the time to get our team up and running after a challenging couple of years. Thank you for your patience and all your work.
That being said, the themes of Rifts, Memories, and/or Community seemed to run through each of the articles. Rifts and community can be seen in Adams’ essay on colonialism in Rebel Inc. or op de Beke’s commentary on grieving amoung ECO players. Community and memories play significant roles in Vero’s commentary on TTRPGs and mental health and Chiappa’s account of The Lion’s Den‘s representation of old Vienna. We also see all three themes working together in Sellier’s discussion of SINoALICE’s characters and identity crises or the scorned tomes and feared practitioners of Broderick’s analysis of magic books in games.
This title also resonates with FPS today. After the numerous rifts we’ve experienced since 2020, we remember how the publication used to be and look forward to a different and more sustainable format. Whether it was the work of our awesome team and collaborators, the encouragement of our readers and listeners, and the support of the Games Institute (Neil, Agata, Pam, and the rest), we wouldn’t be here today without our fantastic community.
In this issue:
Commentaries
Griefing the Climate Apocalypse in ECO
Laura op de Beke
Rural Ontario, 1937: Coping With Mental Illness Through Tabletop Role-Playing Games
Eric Vero
Essays
REBEL INC., COLONIALISM SIMULATOR
Alex Adams
Places of Wonder, Objects of Power: The Magical Dangers of Libraries and Books in Fantasy Video Games
Kylie Broderick
The Lion’s Song and Old Vienna as a Meeting Point Between Urban and Gaming Memory Culture
Giorgio Chiappa
SINoALICE and the question of authorship
Hélène Sellier