The Offworld Collection

The Offworld Collection is an anthology of some of the most diverse and insightful writing about video games ever written, a sophisticated but accessible look at a digital landscape where all voices are welcome and small, simple experiences can reflect our humanity. This is the ebook version of the collection; the print version is available here.

It collects the best essays and journalism from the website Offworld, which relaunched under editors Leigh Alexander and Laura Hudson as a space that actively welcomed perspectives ignored by mainstream game culture, and focused on the writing and game design work of women, people of color and other marginalized folks.

With work from:

Leigh Alexander, Anna Anthropy, Aevee Bee, Katherine Cross, Tanya DePass, Sidney Fussell, Laura Hudson, Gita Jackson, Shareef Jackson, Juliet Kahn, Soha Kareem, Aroon Karuna, Merritt Kopas, Riley MacLeod, Annie Mok, Maddy Myers, Maxwell Neely-Cohen, Kim Nguyen, Sarah Nyberg, Liz Ryerson, Katriel Paige, Catt Small, Daniel Starkey, Zoe Quinn, and Christina Xu.

The features are as diverse as the contributors, with essays on Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying through Native storytelling, the mysticism of fortune-telling apps, the alternative masculinities of stealth games, the growing world of women's pinball, the lingo of gaming culture in China, how making video games is like hip hop, and much more.

We hope that this collection can introduce more people to the full breadth of what technology and play can mean in the hands of diverse creators and audiences. If you've ever thought that video games couldn't be for you or about you—this book is for you.

(Although we've priced the ebook affordably in hopes that most people can access to it, if you feel moved to throw in a couple extra bucks we certainly wouldn't object!)