Hello, and welcome! I almost didn’t think you’d make it. Glad you could join us.

This is WIRED Games, and I’m Alan Henry. I’ll be your host, working mostly behind the scenes to bring you the best gaming journalism you’ll find anywhere, from a wide range of voices and perspectives.

Of course, WIRED already offers great coverage of video games—as a business, as a force of culture, and as entertainment—but WIRED Games is a place where we can do even more. We’ll bring you investigations and behind-the-scenes looks at the industry, along with profiles of the artists, designers, streamers, and developers who bring your favorite worlds to life. We’ll also feature reviews and impressions of games we think you should play, gear that will improve your gaming experience, and tips and tools to play smarter, not harder, and enjoy the time you spend gaming.

All of that sounds pretty good, right? Yes, but it’s also standard for any gaming publication. What makes WIRED Games different is threefold:

First, we’re not going to waste your time talking about everything. Your time is precious. We’re passionate about gaming, but we’re only going to talk about the games, the hardware, and the news we think are really worth talking about. There are other outlets happy to flood your inbox with every trailer, release, and announcement—and more power to them, but that’s not us. We’re like you: just trying to make the most out of the hours in the day we have. We value our time—and your time—more than that, and we hope you’ll perk up when we have something to say, because we promise, we’ll make it worth reading.

Second, we want to elevate voices traditionally left behind in conversations about gaming. That means we want a diverse and inclusive roster of contributors, experts, sources, and profiles. It also means looking at gaming stories from different perspectives. What does an actual cybersecurity expert have to say about themes of mass surveillance in that upcoming dystopian open-world action game? What’s a marine biologist’s take on trying to survive on an ocean planet? What do streaming and virtual personas mean for an internet where many of us are safer connecting with people behind an adorable avatar than with our actual faces? I can’t wait to talk about all of that with you.

Finally, we’re here for all of you. We’re all gamers now, from the die-hard esports pro and the popular Twitch streamer to you over there playing that recently localized Japanese mobile game, or you who essentially plays only one game, but you’ve invested all of your free time in it. And, yes, you who play from time to time but don’t think of yourself as a “gamer.” We see you too.

So let’s take this ride together. And don’t be a stranger. Sign up for the WIRED Gaming Newsletter (by yours truly, but I promise I won’t talk this much), check out WIRED on Twitch here, and if you have any questions, want to get in touch, or even want to contribute your voice to the section, email us at games@wired.com. We’d love to hear from you.

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