Jonathan Blow is both the video game industry’s most cynical critic and its most ambitious game developer. As he finishes his indescribable game-opus, a trip inside the head of a videogame auteur.

From Tetris to Angry Birds, an examination of “stupid games.”

The beginnings of the best-selling video game, from a chapter of David Kushner’s new book on the subject.

In which the author’s wife attempts to break the world record in Tetris.

On a U.S. soldier burned to the verge of death and the virtual-reality video game doctors used as treatment when he came home.

How the game gets made.

On video game collectors’ “holy grail” — a Nintendo World Championships cartridge:

Wired.com tracked down some of the Nintendo World Championships participants and serious videogame collectors whose lives have touched by these coveted artifacts of a bygone 8-bit era. Here are their stories.

A profile of Tarn and Zach Adams, creators of the computer game Dwarf Fortress:

Dwarf Fortress may not look real, but once you’re hooked, it feels vast, enveloping, alive. To control your world, you toggle between multiple menus of text commands; seemingly simple acts like planting crops and forging weapons require involved choices about soil and season and smelting and ores. A micromanager’s dream, the game gleefully blurs the distinction between painstaking labor and creative thrill.

Duke Nukem 3D made its creators filthy rich. Trying to complete its sequel nearly destroyed them.

On LA Noire and the gaming paradoxes presented by pairing nuanced storytelling with a player’s free will.

A field trip to the video gamey world of the modern trader.

One of the most valuable cars in the world crashes going 200 mph on the Pacific Coast Highway. Its owner claims to be an anti-terrorism officer. In fact, he’s a former executive at a failed software company—and a career criminal. The unraveling of an epic con.