We are excited to announce the founding of Play Story Press™, an open community publishing consortium of/by/for the field and our community. It is a diamond open-access academic publishing initiative in which contributors retain all of their intellectual property. We work with our contributors in as timely a manner as possible so that we can share ideas that have impact and significance in our society. The common tie for all these is a focus on issues related to stories and play as they are applied across various fields. The concepts of story and play are broad and diverse—from entertainment and narrative to media studies and social studies, games and technology to health and enjoyment, education and learning to design and development, and more.
Play Story Press is a culmination of 20 years of open-access publishing and collaborating with the community. Our founders started ETC Press in 2005 as an experimental open-access academic publishing imprint, and the success we had was a direct result of all the quality work that was written by our community. Inspired by this, Play Story Press is an evolution to become even more focused on the community and field. The consortium comprises an exceptional group of partner organizations that will work together, shaping and supporting Play Story Press for the field and community. The following groups are committed to this endeavor (and we’re actively in discussions with more potential partners):
- Analog Game Studies
- Association for Computing Machinery
- Association for Research in Digital Interactive Narratives
- Broke the Game
- Connected Learning Alliance
- Digital Games Research Association
- Digital Storytelling Lab
- Game Arts International Network
- Game Genius
- Games for Change
- Games+Learning+Society
- Higher Education Video Game Alliance
- International Game Developers Association
- iThrive Games / History Co:Lab
- Joan Ganz Cooney Center
- Knowledge Commons
- Learning Games Network
- Meaningful Play
- Professors at Play
- Remake Learning
- Serious Play Conference
- Society for the Advancement of the Science of Digital Games
- Thriving in Games Group (formerly Fair Play Alliance)
Play Story Press™ is an independent non-profit organization powered with input and involvement from the consortium, our contributors, and the community at large. This continues our innovations in publishing, and we invite people to participate. Together, we can explore and create the future of open academic publishing, sharing and spreading ideas and knowledge that can help change the world for the better.
Photo credit: Erwan Hesry on Unsplash