Dr. Emily FriedmanDec 31, 2022

And so ends a year that I certainly couldn’t have predicted. For me, 2022 was the year I started writing for the public — including about #ttrpg for @[email protected], source of this hoodie (thanks @[email protected])

In this last thread of the year, some notes on my essays — & what’s to come.

Show threadDr. Emily FriedmanDec 31, 2022

I have tenure, but every year I write up an Annual Report for my chair to review (last year it was 71 p.). I'd just taught my 1st #ttrpg course that fall.

In my Plan for 2022 I said I was going to get work done on my book BEFORE FANFICTION & "write more for public"

Show threadDr. Emily FriedmanDec 31, 2022
My current annual report has to explain how in the course of this year I realized I had a more urgent book project, & that I put my time and attention towards that work.
Show threadDr. Emily FriedmanDec 31, 2022
At the end of 2021, @[email protected], a digital publication designed for folks to "ramble" away from their fields, accepted my first tentative piece intended for a wider readership. I'm grateful to @[email protected] & Sarah Tyndal Kareem for being incisive editors.
Show threadDr. Emily FriedmanDec 31, 2022

That piece came out as part of The Rambling's Valentine's Issue -- fitting, as it is an essay about love: both my fascination with the excitement of a new media form, & its capacity to show moments of real human feeling.

https://the-rambling.com/2022/02/12/ssue-valentine-2022-friedman/

Fantasy Friends - The Rambling

Emily Friedman explores friendship and pleasure in roleplaying games, as viewer and player. An introduction to "actual play" livestreaming on Twitch and YouTube, including the shows produced by Critical Role, HyperRPG, and Dimension20, and its connection to eighteenth-century media experiences. A meditation on the sympathies between the "All Work, No Play" lives of creators of all kinds, including academics. Contains spoilers for the Vox Machina campaign of Critical Role.

The Rambling
Show threadDr. Emily FriedmanDec 31, 2022
It's the kind of piece I expected to, if I was lucky, write more of this past year, for small lit mags or, if I was lucky, some place like LARB. In it, I am still in a bit of academic remove, even though at the end of it there's @[email protected], making a connection across the divide.
Show threadDr. Emily FriedmanDec 31, 2022

But none of the lit-mag style pitches worked out.

Meanwhile, before that piece came out @[email protected] emailed me about contributing to @[email protected] any insights I might have about #CriticalRole -- but spam filters ate it, so we wouldn't actually make a connection for months.

Show threadDr. Emily FriedmanDec 31, 2022

My first piece was commissioned in May & came out in September -- on the changing look of #ttrpg Actual Play. I got to talk to tons of folks, & found "Hi I'm working on a piece for Polygon" combined with my cred as an academic was a useful combo.

https://www.polygon.com/23334732/how-the-first-decade-of-actual-play-has-defined-the-template

The design behind actual play podcasts like Critical Role

We trace the format’s history to figure out why so many actual play podcasts have adopted a familiar format — and why others have moved away from it.

Polygon
Show threadSam de LeveJan 1, 2023

@friede I’m legit emotional that one of my heartsong projects, C6, is name-checked in Polygon.

Dope history! I’m glad we’ve got your academic eyes on this art form, and that your work is also accessible to a broader audience this way 💛

Show threadDr. Emily Friedman
@delevely many thanks! It’s a privilege to think alongside folks as the art form grows, & try to tell history in the making.
Jan 1, 2023 at 5:30pmWeb