Hello!
I am Marijam Didžgalvytė [mʌrɪja:m][dɪdʒgʌlvi:tɛ] (don’t worry, just Marijam Did is perfectly fine!), and I’m a Lithuanian-Tatar games industry critic dissecting the intersection between videogames and IRL politics.
My work has been published by the Guardian, VICE, GamesIndustry.biz, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung and others. In the past I was a Lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London, and am currently a Senior Marketing Executive at a Bafta-winning videogames studio. I’m the author of “Everything To Play For: How Videogames Are Changing The World” published by Verso Books in 2024. The book has received multiple awards and translations and I’m very proud of it - you’re probably here because you’ve heard of the book!
In the past, I served as the Chair of Communications Committee for Game Workers Unite International - an organisation that assisted the global push for unionisation in the videogames industry; she also co-founded GWU UK - the first legal trade union that has come out of the movement. My expertise lies in researching historical materialism and Fine Art criticism and applying them to the developments in the gaming sphere.
Get in touch in case you think we could collaborate together in one way or another!
Out NOW with Verso Books.
Lithuanian Translation here, Spanish here, Traditional Chinese here, French here, 4 more languages in the making!
Women in Games Need to Talk about Class
Gamification: Symptom of Capitalist Realism or a Tool for Coping?
The PEA is Engaging in Union Busting or Why 2017 Is the Year to Get Serious About Industrial Organising in Esports
A Call for Time-based Economics
Radical Critique of ‘Papers, Please’
5 Reasons Why Judgement Towards Pokémon GO! Should STOP!
Self-organisation in Videogames
The Teething Pains of a Game Workers Union
Organiser of Tetris Tournaments As Political Benefits
Digital Intervention for Tate Modern
My art as part of Disobedient Objects Exhibit at Victoria & Albert Museum
Jury Member for Lithuanian Game Awards, since 2019
Judge for GameOn III Nordic Game Discovery Contest
Judge for Central & Eastern European Game Awards
Clapton Community Esports Club Social
Helped with Shalev Moran's excellent talk on Games Industry Events
Fine Art Practice Featured as part of the Goldsmiths collection
'Marx at the Arcade' in Trafalgar Square Waterstones
Curator of Technology and The Worker issue for Notes from Below