The gaming industry has always been a place of innovation, invention, and, importantly, good times. A lot of those good times, to many people’s surprise, owe their existence to a slew of fantastic women who not only created some of the world’s most iconic games but created the technology it was played on at all.
In honor of Women’s History Month in March, here are some of the most influential women in the history of gaming.
Mabel Addis (1912–2004) was a brilliant mind who earned herself a Master's degree in education in 1933. Originally a school teacher, Addis used her…
I have been a fan of the Oz series since I was a very little girl; I had 1939’s The Wizard of Oz completely memorized when I was three years old, down to the pacing of each line. I read the books on loan from our local library when I was maybe seven or eight, speeding through all fourteen of them in a matter of a couple of weeks, absolutely fascinated by the strange and sometimes creepy world they presented which was far different from the shining colors of the movie.
Around this time, on Vault Disney in the middle…
As with any other industry, getting into professional writing comes with its own set of expectations, unspoken rules, and inexplicable taboos.
Like your resume in a corporate job market, a writing portfolio is what you show off to potential clients to prove that you can do the job they’re asking for (or that you’re asking them for — but that’s another story). It’s a collection of things that give you credibility and make you look as legitimate and professional as possible.
Writing portfolios include both sample pieces of your writing that can stand on their own and standard resume fair…
I recently wrote a piece for The Gamer about Stream Hatchet’s latest reports on trends in the gaming world. It was an interesting report; streaming has gone up significantly because of the pandemic, with the most popularly watched games being League of Legends, Fortnite, and PUBG Mobile, to no one’s surprise. Twitch still leads as the most-watched platform, but YouTube and Facebook Gaming are following closely behind.
When I auditioned for the very first time, I was a nervous mess of an eighth-grader. We were doing a very small stage production as a class, and I was guaranteed a part of some description, but I had never acted before, and I didn’t like standing in front of my classmates and being judged. At the time, I didn’t have the Internet to lend a hand — I was free-falling into my cold read with nothing but my wits and a lot of stomach butterflies.
Now that I’ve done some professional work, it’s fun to look back and laugh…
In case it wasn’t obvious from my body of written works as well as my frequent reading, I am a huge fan of science fiction. I grew up with Star Trek and Doctor Who and got wildly into The Host and Warm Bodies later on (listen, I’ll count zombie dystopia as science fiction until someone pries it from my cold, dead hands).
Really, I’ll consume as much sci-fi as you put in front of me. I adore watching what writers can do when they’re inspired by their age’s scientific discoveries, seeing what it means to push humanity to and beyond…
It’s hard to believe it’s really been a year since I started writing as a job. I’ve been telling stories forever, and when I published my novel in 2018, I never expected it to spark a full career. But here I am, in 2021, a full-time writer and the author of six published titles with more on the way.
How the hell did I get here? I’ve got to say, it isn’t easy. There’s no “you won’t even feel like it’s work!” feelings for me. Freelancing is definitely work — it’s grueling and annoying at times, and will occasionally make…
Would it surprise you to learn that you are the main character of thousands of stories you’ll never read? That you have had countless romances, fights, deaths, and lives? It’s true; you are one of the most popular characters in the world of fandom, and it’s all because of an interesting quirk in the English language and some intrepid writers’ efforts to blur the lines between fiction and reality.
It’s called self-insert, or reader-insert, fiction, and it’s had two decades to make a name for itself in fandom spaces. But where did it come from? Why do we write it?
…
In an episode of the sixth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation titled “Schisms,” Lieutenant Commander Data shows off his understanding of the human practice of poetic composition by reciting some of his own.
As a poet myself, this absolutely fascinates me. What does an android value enough to express poetically? How does he compose his works? Where does he draw inspiration and take liberties? …
Hello! I’m Cat, author and amateur fandom historian based out of Georgia. I write about literature, theater, gaming, and fandom. Personal work: catwebling.com.