At Sidequest, we value and center the voices of people of marginalized genders. We started as part of the WWAC, Ms En Scene, and Bleating Heart Press family, and though we’ve since branched out into an independent site, we still hold those values close. Our volunteer staff includes writers of different ethnicities, backgrounds, and genders, and we celebrate what each of them has to say about games and gaming culture.
We call ourselves Sidequest because we’re not aiming to be the main story; we embrace the strange, the unconventional, the texture and flavor that make the world rich and lively. We like the side-stories, the supplemental material and codex entries that enrich our understanding of the fictional spaces we inhabit. We want to look at games sideways, upside-down, and in slow motion, shining a light on the things others might miss.
What you’ll find here is critical deconstructions, personal essays, poetry, comics, and anything else you can imagine on the subject of games. We want to publish verse about the hundredth time you died in Bloodborne, essays on what you learned from your D&D character, or listicles on all your favorite video game mustaches. We want deep-dives, different ways of seeing and playing, and games writing that isn’t always about what the most popular game of the moment is.
Games, to us, are personal. We want to talk about them as individuals and as a community—sometimes on a highbrow level, sometimes on a lowbrow one. Our coverage is as unique and varied as our contributors, and we celebrate the diversity of opinion and individual perspectives people from all walks of life bring to games.
We hope you like what you find here.
Editorial Staff
Zora Gilbert
Zora Gilbert is Sidequest’s newest Assistant Editor & reigning Copy Ogre, cofounder & editor of Margins Publishing, and professional publishing human in New York City. They tweet at @zhgilbert and are very grateful for ampersands.
Pitch Contact: zora@sidequest.zone
Areas of Interest: Tabletop RPGs, collaborative narrative, political critique, unconventional play, the late 90s & early 2000s.
Zainabb Hull
Zainabb Hull is an editor at Sidequest, a freelance writer and videographer, and sort-of artist. They’re also disabled, brown, and queer. They tweet into the void at @ZainabbHull and (occasionally) write a newsletter about feelings and identity.
Pitch Contact: zainabb@sidequest.zone
Areas of Interest: Marginalised identities and gaming, especially disabled, trans, and racialised perspectives; anti-colonialism and colonial legacies in gaming; personal essays; your weirdest takes.
Melissa Brinks
Melissa Brinks is Sidequest’s editor in chief, co-creator of the Fake Geek Girls podcast, author of The Compendium of Magical Beasts, and an aspiring beekeeper. She once won an argument on the internet, and tweets at @MelissaBrinks.
Pitch Contact: melissa@sidequest.zone, editors@sidequest.zone
Areas of Interest: Storytelling, romance, violence, queer themes, pretty much everything
Maddi Butler
Madison Butler is Sidequest’s self-proclaimed jock editor. She co-founded the blog Critsumption and once got really into powerlifting via Fitness Boxing for the Nintendo Switch. She tweets at @madisonrbutler.
Pitch Contact: maddi@sidequest.zone
Areas of Interest: Personal essays, open world RPGs, mystery games, video game food
Recent Comments