Do you feel that chill in the air? The crunch of red and yellow leaves as you step out into the rapidly-dimming daylight? Me neither. Climate change has ruined everything, and fall doesn’t start until November now. But! School is nonetheless back in session, so it’s time for Aftermath’s second-ever theme week. We hope you’ll join us for the festivities.
Back To School Week, the second of what he hope will become seasonal theme weeks following Inside Baseball Week earlier this year, is partially about school as it’s depicted in games – I mean, who doesn’t love Persona – but on top of that, we’re expanding the scope to include growth and education more generally, as well as ideas like nostalgia, youth, and hard lessons learned by companies and game developers alike. It’s been a year of sobering realizations for everyone in the video game industry, and we want to provide an unflinching look into how that’s impacted the people responsible for the games and services you love. But also, Chris is really excited to show people all the cool school/office/diary-worthy pens he’s been testing out, so we’re gonna do that too.
We’ve got tons of stories planned, and you’ll be able to find them all here.
Back To School Week also ties into our subscriber goals for this year. In short, we’re a worker-owned, reader-supported operation. We despise the idea of greedy executives and out-of-touch bosses turning what we’ve created into another enshittified shell of a once-good website, and we’ve decided to avoid that at all costs. So far, readers’ contributions have allowed us to start running freelance pieces – some damn good ones, we think – and lay the groundwork for a merch store, which will be open for business very soon. We are immensely thankful. A little over a year ago, we were disparately roving writers, scattered to the winds by cruel circumstance. Now we’re all able to work together again, and we have a functional business that we own. It remains absolutely surreal to think about. We couldn’t have done any of this without our readers. We owe you the world.
But though your support has transformed this Little Site That Could into a Little Site That Can And Is Doing Some Really Cool Shit, we still dream of accomplishing even more: turning Aftermath into a full-time job for everyone on staff, bringing aboard another person or two, launching another podcast, and of course, throwing a big party to which you will all be invited.
So if you’re not already a subscriber, consider sending a few bucks our way so that you, too, can read as many articles as you want, comment on them, and join our Discord community (which absolutely rules, by the way). We also have a tip jar where you can donate any amount you want, if that’s more your speed. Consider it tuition to ensure that the beautiful institution of Aftermath University remains alive and thriving. If you kick in enough, we might even name a hall after you.*
*A hallway, in one of our apartments
