This month Collin is joined by Aleks from our essays department as well as special guests Ruby (Codex Entry) and Spencer as they explore the very nature of art and entertainment as the concepts apply to the medium of video games. That is to say, do games need to be "fun" to be "good"? With a special focus on Ice Pick Lodge's cult classic Pathologic, the conversation juxtaposes the subject at hand against the mediums of theatre and visual art and explores the value of unpleasantness when a...

This month Collin, Sabrina and our two guests have a blast talking about the ins and outs of dating, virtual relationships, and human sociality in video games. A can't miss episode if there ever was one, tune in for an exploration of how games have (or haven't) succeeded in digitizing one of the most integral parts of the human condition. In fact, we had so much fun, we'll be streaming Dream Daddy over on the First Person Scholar with our guests from this month as an extension of discussion!...

The apocalypse is something we often perceive as a cataclysmic event or phenomena representing the harbinger of the end- the utter extinguishment of life as a society has come to know it. But, how true is this assumption? This month, we discuss the popularity of post-apocalyptic settings in video games, our biases and assumptions about them, and how, ultimately, they can often yield something greater than the sum of their parts.

This month Collin is joined by Sabrina Sgandurra and Dakota Pinheiro to discuss how we approach power in video games when we're given the uncanny ability to wield a God hand. Will we bless our flock? Or set the whole sand box ablaze- just for the fun of it? Tune in to hear our thoughts on how things seem to play out more often than not.

Welcome to the 58th episode of the First Person Podcast. This Halloween we will be looking at the horror game titles that were adapted into movies and vice versa. I am joined today by Dr. James Rendell from the University of South Wales and streamer and occasional cosplayer, Rosemarie Sarno, aka Rosie Stormborn. Together we will be analyzing the differing creative decisions used in movie and gaming media when it comes to some of our classic horror narratives.

Welcome to the 57th episode of the First Person Podcast. We are back with another academic semester and since we have been running with the theme of nostalgia lately, it’s about time that we take a look at how far the video game narratives have come. We will be examining the story of some of my favourite titles: Gears of War, God of War, and Halo to see their progression from a generic hack and slash or war game to a more substantial impact on our gaming culture.

Welcome to the 56th episode of the First Person Podcast. This month will examine the relationship between capitalism and nostalgia. We’ll be looking at ways the gaming market today appeals to our warm and fuzzy memories to move units, where we sit regarding gaming nostalgia, and whether this is a bad thing or totally fine. Joining us today are myself, Patrick Dolan, and fellow FPSers Aleks, and Dakota, who are all here in remembrance of the recently deceased, Intellivision Amico.

Hello, and welcome to the 55th episode of the First Person Podcast! I’m Alex Chalk, resident labour guy and editor for Commentaries, and today I’m filling in for Giuseppe Femia as moderator as I talk with Mariah E. Marsden and Kelley Paige Mason, authors of a fascinating chapter on the commodification of play in AP called “Consumable Play: A Performative Model of Actual Play Networks”.

Welcome to the 54th episode of the First Person Podcast. This month will be examining the social functions of roleplaying games: how the stories and characters we make in RPGs can have a positive and healing impact on ourselves and our community. We look at the benefits that have been acknowledged through roleplaying game studies and the real impacts that RPG media has had on the rhetoric surrounding disparaged communities. Joining us today we have special guests Adrianna Burton, Aaron...

Welcome to the 53rd episode of the First-Person Podcast! We are continuing our conversation from February by discussing video game preservation and the industry. So, if you haven’t seen that one, please do check it out. We once again have special guest Alex Fleck to talk about why video game preservation matters in academia as well as its implications on gamer culture. Fresh from the game room, right to the study hall, please welcome our First-Person Scholars.

Welcome to the 52nd episode of the First-Person Podcast! This month, we are going to be talking about video game preservation and the industry. We have brought on special guest Alex Fleck to talk about his work in this relatively new academic realm. From archiving to modding to emulation, FPS will be exploring the intricacies of maintaining some of your favourite titles.

Welcome to the 51st episode of the First-Person Podcast and the annual Best Games episode of 2021! This year we wanted to take this opportunity to introduce the current FPS team, so you will hear some new and old voices. They are going to tell you about their favourite games of this past year and maybe a bit more in the realm of critique. So, without further ado, let’s jump into it.

Welcome to the 50th episode of the First-Person Podcast and the last episode of the year 2021! As this is our 50th episode we wanted to take some time to look at the current state of academia and games studies. A lot has changed over the course of FPS’s life and there have been some wild developments and stagnation in the field. We are joined by Emma Vossen who is as former EIC who works at the Games Institute as a Research Communications Writer and also teaches in the Game Design and...

Welcome to the 49th episode of the First-Person Podcast. After being off for a month we are coming back strong for the beginning of a new semester to look at what has been going down in the videogame industry since we’ve been away. Oh boy! We are joined by Daniel Joseph from Game Workers Unite to have a look into the Activision Blizzard and Ubisoft mess that has been taking the academic spheres by storm. However, many people have already broken down the events for us so we will be looking at...

Welcome to a very special 48th episode of the First-Person Podcast. The world is opening back up and gaming backlogs are clogging up with sweet savings from summer sales. With the regular crew on a well-deserved break, we have some fantastic guests from the FPS community to take over. This month, we’ll be taking a return trip to Disco Elysium in light of it’s recent Final Cut and we have a trio of DE-experts to a tour guide. But don’t be frightened or intimidated, these are fun and friendly...

Welcome to the 47th episode of First-Person Podcast and Happy Pride Month everybody! This episode we are going to be looking at and talking about queer representation in gaming. Whether it be queer theming, queer performativity, or explicitly queer characters, we want to try and open up the conversation a bit more looking at the way gaming media frames queer values and narratives. Join us as we look into both mainstream and indie games and discuss our experience with them.

Dr. Kishonna Gray joins interviewer Pallavi Sodhi to discuss their life as a game studies scholar.

Welcome to the 46th episode of the First-Person Podcast. This month we aren’t going to be talking about the Ludonarrative Dissonance but focusing on the Player-Narrative Dissonance. How do we ourselves legitimize doing something in a video game world that we are morally opposed to in the meatspace?

Welcome to the 45th episode of First-Person Podcast. This is the final part of our three-part series that we are doing to examine how games are introduced to us and played with on YouTube. For part three, we are going to be looking at the Content videos that we see comic youtubers and casual gamers making for us. We can see what’s new on Twitch and where the YouTube community can go from here.

Welcome to the 44th episode of First-Person Podcast. This is part two of our three-part series that we are doing to examine how games are introduced to us and played with on YouTube. For part two, we are going to be looking at the Lore Analysis videos that get worked into the mainstream YouTube feed every so often. And, yes this was my way of working in a reason to talk about Dark Souls.

To commemorate our transition to YouTube, this is part one of a three-part series that we will be doing to examine how games are introduced to us and played with on YouTube. For part one, we are going to be looking at the Parasocial play involved with a lot of retro and modern YouTube content. From Walkthroughs to Let’s Plays, this is the foundation of our YouTube gaming experience.

After the grueling year that has been 2020, we invite you to join us in reminiscing the games that we played over these past 12 months. Come find out what we were busy playing and join us in welcoming our newest cast member, Alex Chalk.

We are ending this year on a more technical note by discussing the button mapping that we see in our modern games. Join Giuseppe, Sabrina, Lia, and Patrick as we discuss the intuitive design of the controls we’ve come to know and hate.

Architecture has an unspoken influence over how we navigate and interpret the games we play. So, we are going to talk about it. Today we are going to be taking a look at how the world of our favourite games has been constructed and how gaming architecture influences the game world, theming, and plot progression. On this episode you are joined by, Giuseppe Femia, the FPS Podcast Producer, Sabrina Sgandurra, our new Editor-in-Chief/Book Reviews Editor, Lia Black, our new Co-Managing...