The Guardian: ‘In the game, I knew myself as Hannah’ — the trans gamers finding freedom on Roblox

37m people use the gaming platform every day in search of adventure – and for teenagers exploring their gender identity, it is also a place of liberation.

New York Times: Finding Community, and Freedom, on the Virtual Dance Floor

On any given weekend, there are dozens of parties happening on VRChat, a platform where users assume fantastical avatars of their own design.

Financial Times: Why humans play games

Why have humans kept games in their homes for millennia? Tom Faber dives into the reemergence of board games and the surprising history of why we play.

Huck: The new generation of video game creators taking sex seriously

For decades sex in games has been problematic or conspicuously absent. Tom Faber speaks to the queer creators using games to explore desire, pleasure and consent in an original way.

Financial Times: Do video games encourage violent acts?

Recent mass shootings have put gaming back in the spotlight — though many gamers and game-makers say it is an easy target.

Financial Times: Do games have a sex problem?

The new Grand Theft Auto looks set to feature a sincere portrayal of intimate romance. About time, says Tom Faber.

Financial Times: In praise of gaming’s eccentric auteurs

‘To a T’, which casts you as a schoolboy with no elbows, is rare for being the work of a single-minded creator.

Financial Times: Is there life beyond The Sims, 25 years on?

The game has been played by 500mn people it began, but new competitors are threatening to steal its crown.

Financial Times: Will AI be the hero or villain of gaming?

For players it could turn games into living worlds, but many developers believe machine learning is no match for human-crafted experiences.

Financial Times: The view on Dungeons & Dragons from London's new role-play tavern

D&D is thriving, with hit video games, movies, TV series and now a dedicated playing venue for fans.

Financial Times: Is there such a thing as a British video game?

A new wave of indie developers is playing on a quirky sense of national identity, featuring flat caps, badgers and lashings of tea.

Financial Times: Nintendo plays it safe with Switch 2 — but Mario Kart gets a radical makeover

At an excitable testing event, a first look revealed a bigger and more powerful console, with new outings for Donkey Kong and Metroid

Financial Times: How The Last of Us broke the video game adaptation curse — and why Season 2 is more fraught

The zombie survival drama proved that gaming-based TV could be good — even great. Can the sequel reach the same heights?

Financial Times: How Minecraft conquered the world

It’s the best-selling video game of all time and has now spawned a movie — but why is it so popular?

Financial Times: The Roottrees are Dead — and the birth of a new gaming genre

This novel family-tree-based mystery is part of a wave of ‘deduction games’ typical of an ever-evolving medium.

Financial Times: Avowed — a game that shows we are in a golden era for fantasy RPGs

The genre is flourishing with intricate world-building and deeply immersive gameplay.

Financial Times: The dating sims that find love in unlikely places

From domestic appliances to KFC’s Colonel Sanders, gamers’ romantic possibilities are almost limitless.

New York Times: Intergalactic Shantytowns Where Dice Dictate Your Future

By placing the randomness of dice rolls center stage, a sci-fi video game subverts the medium’s conventions.

Financial Times: How to survive gaming’s age of superabundance

Today’s gamers face an exhausting torrent of new releases. It’s time to rethink how and what we play.

Financial Times: Is gaming’s graphical arms race over?

The industry seems to have reached a visual plateau, leaving the way open for games that thrive on fun and creativity.

Financial Times: Infinity Nikki and the rise of playing dress-up

With 20mn copies sold in a week, the game shows the value of taking conventionally feminine themes seriously.

Dazed: The wild rise of NPC streamers

From background characters in video games to centre-stage on TikTok, what's behind our obsession with these avatars of the uncanny?

Financial Times: How Ukrainian developers made the game 'Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl' during war with Russia

From fleeing Kyiv bombings and supporting colleagues on the front, the game’s developers have endured the shadow of war.

Financial Times: Games that offer good clean fun

Titles such as ‘PowerWash Simulator’ deliver the satisfaction of a job well done, with none of the physical exertion.

Financial Times: Silent Hill 2 and the best horror games for Halloween

A remake of the 2001 classic still chills, while Slitterhead offers campy slasher action.

Financial Times: The unexpected return of point-and-click adventures

Titles such as ‘Phoenix Springs’ are bringing the genre to a new generation.

Financial Times: Dance with deer at Manhattan game exhibition Group Hug

Artists’ experiments with video games challenge ideas of form, presentation and playability.

Financial Times: Why small games have a big future

As gamers turn their backs on gargantuan adventures, we could be entering a golden age of modest titles.

Financial Times: UFO 50 game review — ingenious compendium of 1980s classics that never existed

Celebration of a fictional developer serves as a reminder of early games’ brilliant simplicity and rapid advance.