Before dial-up internet forever changed one-to-many communication, video game fans, like science fiction fans before them, shared their views on games by exchanging copies of handmade publications––fanzines. Video game fanzines are sometimes crude, sometimes incisive, but always idiosyncratic, the products of unmistakably individual minds. In this talk, librarian Michael Hughes will discuss the history of game fandom's print culture, including its little-remembered origins in "Joystick Jolter", a newsletter from New Jersey. He'll also discuss why fanzines matter, not just for their informational content but, in the words of Sherry Turkle, as “companions to our emotional lives or as provocations to thought”. Michael Hughes is an instruction librarian and associate professor at Trinity University. His research interests include game cultures, player-generated content, and media fandom generally. Michael's writing can be found in scholarly journals, including First Monday and portal: Libraries and the Academy, and at VGMO: Video Game Music Online. This is either his first time at MAGFest or he's having a wonderful dream at home in San Antonio. If the latter, don't wake him.

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