Betsy Brey

Betsy Brey (BA and MA, University of Minnesota Duluth) is a PhD candidate in the Department of English Language and Literature. Her research focuses on the intersections of narratological structure and gameplay. In particular, she's interested in how players understand and interpret narrative forms in role-playing games and metagames. Her work is inspired by intersectional feminism, knowledge mobilization, and accessible scholarship. She is the Editor-in-Chief for FirstPersonScholar. Her research and projects have been supported through the ReFig grant, the IMMERSe research network, a Mitacs partnership, and The Games Institute and her writing has been featured in The Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric, as well as in several book chapters on player control, storytelling, and agency in games. You can find her on Twitter @BetsyBrey.

Sample Projects

First Person Scholar

First Person Scholar (FPS) is an online game studies periodical created and maintained by graduate students at the University of Waterloo through The Games Institute. FPS aims to occupy the niche between academic blogs and journals in establishing an informed, sustained conversation. Their articles are relatively short, thought-provoking pieces that are intended to stimulate debate on games and games scholarship. 

Sample Publications and Presentations

Wysocki, Matthew, and Betsy Brey. "’All That’s Left Is the Choosing’: BioShock Infinite and the Constants and Variables of Control." The Play Versus Story Divide in Game Studies: Critical Essays. Ed. Matthew W. Kapell. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, in press for 2015/2016.

To see her other publications, please see this website.