May 2025

Play Story Press is excited to announce the upcoming release of Gathering of Gamers: Dungeons & Dragons and other Games through Gen Con, by Matt Shoemaker. Gen Con is the largest and oldest continuously running convention that is focused on analog games. It has been an important fixture in the development of modern tabletop games not just for role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, but also boardgames, collectible card games, miniature games, live action role-playing games, and others. Each year over 70,000 people make a pilgrimage to Indianapolis, Indiana to celebrate and play these games. Gathering of Gamers explores the...

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Play Story Press is excited to release The Psychgeist of Pop Culture: Dragon Age, edited by Christine Tomlinson, PhD. Have you ever wanted to be the hero? Save the world with an unlikely team of misfits? Spark and inspire change? The Dragon Age video game series allows players to play as a hero and a leader to fight monsters, overcome challenges, and shape a story, leaving a mark on a digital world and the hearts of the virtual people within it. Beginning in 2009, the video games, novels, and graphic novels that explore the game’s world, Thedas, have given role-playing...

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Play Story Press is excited to release Teacher Craft: How Teachers Learn to Use Minecraft in their Classrooms, by Seann Dikkers. Teacher Craft is about how teachers learn to use new digital media. Teacher learning is central to reform and change across subject areas and age levels, but how much do we really know about how teachers learn to try new lessons in classrooms? Minecraft is currently the game of choice for millions of youth and also for these seventeen teachers who claim it has transformed their classrooms. Its rapid adoption also provides a unique window of opportunity to look...

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Play Story Press is excited to release the first four volumes of Analog Game Studies along with the GENeration Analog 2021 Proceedings. Analog Game Studies GENeration Analog 2021

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Play Story Press is excited to release The Pleasure of Playing Less, by Sultan A. Alharthi, Phoebe O. Toups Dugas, Olaa Alsaedi, Theresa Jean Tanenbaum and Jessica Hammer In this book, we explore the pleasure of playing less through a collective experience of playing the Kittens Game -- a self-described “Dark Souls of incremental gaming”. We draw on techniques of close reading and hermeneutics to ground our analysis and supplement our individual reflections on how these games incentivize players to play less and plan more. The Pleasure of Playing Less: A Study of Incremental Games Through the Lens of Kittens

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We’re excited to share that the School of Communication at the University of Miami has joined the Play Story Press™ Society as a founding member. With a focus on the study and practice of communication as foundational to every human endeavor, their generous philanthropic contribution supports the open design and dissemination of knowledge that has a positive impact. We’re powered by input and involvement from our consortium, our contributors, and the community at large. We invite people to participate so that we can explore and create a better future together. Thanks to the UM School of Communication for their support!

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Play Story Press is excited to release two Psychgeist of Pop Culture books. The Psychgeist of Pop Culture: The Witcher, edited by Rachel Kowert, PhD In a world where mean are monsters and monsters are men - who is the real monster? The Psychgeist of Pop Culture: The Witcher delves into the psychology of the characters and stories of this popular franchise. From the original book collection to best-selling video game series, to the hugely popular Netflix show, The Witcher is a transmedia experience that has captivated hearts and minds across the globe. In this series of edited essays, we...

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Play Story Press Play is excited to release the Meaningful 2024 Proceedings. Meaningful Play is a conference about theory, research, and game design innovations, principles and practices. Meaningful Play brings scholars, industry professionals and games practitioners together to understand and improve upon games to entertain, inform, educate, and persuade in meaningful ways. Meaningful Play Proceedings

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