First Personal Scholar Publishes New Special Issue

First Person Scholar (FPS), a middle-state publication supported and published by the Games Institute, has released its latest special issue titled “Gaming Paratexts.” This issue examines how paratexts (interview materials, pop figures, magazines, wikis, websites, videos, game walkthroughs, guides, etc.) are culturally important in co-creating meaning and impact around a game. The following articles highlighted explored this topic in various ways and can all be accessed through the FPS website. Happy reading!

• “Listening, Watching, Gaming: The Ambient Paratext” by Dr. Chris Hall, (University of the Ozarks), examines the growing phenomenon of video game soundscapes on Youtube.
• “TRPG wiki writing: Creating a Paratext” by Joseph Arnaud (Canterbury College) looks at tabletop role playing game wikis as a form of paratext similar to game rulebooks.
• “Queer Games and Straight Play?: Queer Representation and Enacting Dominant Sexualities Through Game Playthroughs” by Luke Hernandez (University of Texas at Dallas) dives into Youtube playthroughs as paratext focusing on heronormative playthroughs of queer games by straight Youtubers.
• “The Stanley Paratexts: Poaching, Nostalgia, and Malleability” by Miriam Scuderi (Johannes Gutenberg Universität of Mainz) showcases the many ways that the Ultra Deluxe edition of the Stanley Parable incorporates paratext (such as steam reviews of the original game) into the text itself.
• “Descending Deeper Still: Revisiting Spec Ops: The Line A Decade Later” by Chris Martin (University of Waterloo) looks at the paratext of title screens, loading screens, and cutscene transitions in Spec Ops: The Line.
• “Is It ‘A Profound Waste of Time’ to Like a Video Game Magazine?: A Conversation with Caspian Whistler” by Luis Aguasvivas  (PopMatters) outlines the fluctuating paratextual role of game magazines in our culture focusing on A Profound Waste of Time, one of the few video game magazines publishing physically in a time when most games journalism is entirely online.