ABOUT QUESTS
Greetings, weary traveler. The Internet is a dangerous place, awash with cruel cynics and thieves of your time and attention. Come in from the cold, and find a Quest to rejuvenate your spirit.
Now that we’re settled, I should introduce myself: I’m Josh Wilbur, a writer based out of Charleston, South Carolina. My work has appeared at The Atlantic, Slate, The Guardian, and Wired. I’m interested in technology, history, and science-fiction, but, mostly, I’m obsessed with games.
Sports, video games, board games, word puzzles, roleplaying adventures. I’ll turn anything and everything into a game, including this very Substack—
I love how games restructure reality around themselves. How rules confine players and force them to work together and be creative. How challenges are posed—score a goal, save the princess, defeat the boss—and then gloriously met.
Games are like pocket universes of meaning. They tell us exactly what to do in a world that rarely does.
I’m writing Quests because I want reading on the internet to be more like that. More rewarding. More collaborative. And more fun.
Every Thursday, I'll publish an essay about a particular quest and the people who have accepted it as their own: artists, scientists, technologists, explorers, revolutionaries, and iconoclasts of all stripes. Some will be on lifelong missions with major real-world stakes, like curing disease, expanding access to healthcare and technology, or reforming political and religious institutions. Others might be on the hunt for something quirkier or more minor in scale, yet still meaningful to them and clearly defined.
In any case, I’ll tell you about their quest, and why they’re on it.
Then I’ll explain how you — yes, you anonymous stranger, drifting out there in the Internet mist — can get involved.
Accept a Quest, and you’ll have an opportunity to join with other like-minded adventurers. Resources and tools will be provided to help you on your journey. Follow in the footsteps of others who have battled for the cause.
Complete objectives toward a Quest, and earn reputation. Get to know other readers and learn from their stories: their victories and defeats, the allies they’ve met and the roadblocks they’ve faced along the way. Move the needle of progress (even if just slightly) and have fun doing it.
Quests are like essays with action items, profiles with a follow-through feature, op-eds with homework…you get the idea.
I love platforms like Substack and legacy publications like The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic. There’s no shortage of amazing writing at our fingertips, but too often I feel like I’m stuck on a merry-go-round with other news junkies, thoughtful people reading other thoughtful people, shouting comments and watching the world go by in a blur.
It’s time to shrink down the universe of our concerns and act as more than passive observers.
With Quests, I hope to draw boxes around the world’s most fascinating challenges and provide you with the means (and hopefully) the motivation to do something about them. We’ll make a game out of it. I hope you’ll play along.
Please check out the Quest Log and consider subscribing. Grab your sword and a cup of coffee. Let’s roleplay the people we want to be—together.
Maps, icons, and banner art by artist Nick Little
