September 2025

Play Story Press is excited to release The Psychgeist of Pop Culture: The Elder Scrolls, edited by Amelia Herbst, PhD. Hail and well met! Do you have what it takes to be the Dragonborn? The Elder Scrolls is an award-winning high fantasy video game series that has allowed players to explore the dynamic continent of Tamriel for over 30 years. Players are thrust into the role of the hero while having the agency to forge their destiny- whether it is fighting dragons, exploring lost civilizations, or joining nefarious factions. The Psychgeist of Pop Culture: The Elder Scrolls dives into the...

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Play Story Press is excited to release The Psychgeist of Pop Culture: The Last of Us, edited by Adrienne Domasin, PhD. The Psychgeist of Pop Culture: The Last of Us explores the psychological themes at the heart of The Last of Us franchise. Authors from media, culture, and fandom studies explore how trauma, grief, morality, survival, and revenge shape the story’s characters and influence their choices. This book examines these themes across both video games (The Last of Us and The Last of Us 2) and HBO television adaptation, focusing on their unique approaches to telling the same emotionally resonant...

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BIPOC Game Studies and Play Story Press are excited to release Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Game Studies Conference, edited by Lindsay Grace, Stephen Jacobs, Akil Fletcher, and Krystal Cooper. The inaugural Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Game Studies Conference was held from September 12–14, 2025, at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York. The event brought together scholars, designers, and industry leaders to share research, showcase games, and discuss the future of game studies through the lens of BIPOC experiences. Each day featured keynote talks from influential figures such as Stanley Pierre-Louis,...

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Play Story Press is excited to release The Cultural Gutter, by Carol Borden, Ian Driscoll, Jim Munroe, James Schellenberg, Chris Szego. Science fiction, fantasy, comics, romance, genre movies, games all drain into the Cultural Gutter, a website dedicated to thoughtful articles about disreputable art—media and genres that are a little embarrassing. Irredeemable. Worthy of Note, but rolling like errant pennies back into the gutter. The Cultural Gutter is dangerous because we have a philosophy. We try to balance enthusiasm with clear-eyed, honest engagement with the material and with our readers. This book expands on our mission with 10 articles each...

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