A couple weeks from now, on January 26, 2026, we’ll be launching the full version of our new gaming website, Mothership, which aims to analyze games specifically through the lens of gender and identity. Stepping into the shoes of another person or thing, inhabiting a body other than your own, is an inextricable part of the experience of playing a game. We here at Mothership — a queer and women-owned independent video game publication co-founded by Polygon veterans Maddy Myers and Zoë Hannah — have always understood that this is what games are about.
You’ll read writing from a diverse roster of contributors at Mothership. You’ll find reviews, criticism, and opinion stories, as well as articles about how games are made and marketed. You’ll get investigative reporting on the people who make games in an era when “DEI” is on the wane. You’ll read historical deep dives on the games and creators that paved the way, especially those that didn’t get due credit way back then.
We believe this type of writing is not only necessary but all too rare. We know that games journalists and critics who’ve covered the intersection between gaming and gender, bodies, and identity have faced serious backlash in the past, and the contributors here at Mothership have faced it ourselves, too. With your help, we’ll build a sustainable business that can afford rigorous editing processes, sensitivity readers, and legal counsel when necessary for high-risk investigations of high-profile games studios and figures. That last category is the work that’s priciest and yet — we think you’ll agree — the most important possible work to fund in this space.