re/Action evolved out of the need for change. Critical, experimental writing suffers in a media landscape based on traditional publishing models, and diverse readerships only find hostile environments without proper inclusivity policies. This publication aims to celebrate the amazing writing often turned away from the mainstream sites and left unpaid. We want to capture the conversations that need to happen and create a safe space for all to participate.

How will we be different? Here are some of our major tenets:

Good writing deserves to get paid a fair rate. The typical case is critical work outside of the consumer press is paid very little, if anything at all. Writers that the community finds valuable are often, at most, offered $.02 per word rates for 1000-2000 word articles. Meaning, they would have to write over 30 of these pieces a month to even consider breaking the US poverty line. We want to change this- good, interesting writers shouldn’t be treated this way, and it’ll take a unique publication to do this. Once funded, you can be assured re/Action writers are paid $200 per 1000+ word piece, easily ten times the usual amount they would be receiving at another site.

Inclusivity isn’t an ideal, it’s mandatory. re/Action strives for both a diverse writer base and readership that can interact in a safe space. We aim to attract varied talent with policies that encourage the representation of many different identities; our founding body of writers is diverse and they are free to speak about any issue without mind to a target demographic. Discriminatory, marginalizing language will not be tolerated on any level, and voice will be given to talent who are good, no matter what they want to talk about and who they are. Money will never dictate what a writer or reader will have access to. Public conversation will be moderated heavily to ensure everyone is treated equally and with respect.

Dedication to alternative writing. We’re not going to be another site doing the same thing just ‘better.’ re/Action wants to provide the content often left off mainstream sites, such as sharp cultural criticism of games and illuminating editorials. This publication invites all sorts of analysis and storytelling in many different forms, all stylized by the writer producing it. Our philosophy at re/Action is to cultivate a strong enough voice for readers to recognize without looking to the byline.

It’s all about having a conversation. It is often hard to have a productive conversation over social media and underneath hot topic articles. Instead, we close off public comments and encourage the writers to respond to each other’s work- we are called re/Action after all! This lets an extended conversation grow with the people the readers want to hear from. Also, public comments and letter to the writers will be curated onto the site to keep an active relationship with the community.

Now, you ask, how can we do such wonderful things? Through a grassroots effort, re/Action is run and funded by members of the game criticism community and those else interested. Crowd-funding details forthcoming!

 

re/Action Staff

Mattie Brice / @xMattieBrice
Editor in Chief

Andrea Shubert / @andrea2s1
Managing Editor

Stephen Winson / @StephenWinson
Technical Editor