Prison inmates are told that they're being sent to scope out a new Earth for mankind to move to, but when they "come back" they find out they have just been play-testing a new virtual reality video game. Prison inmates are used to test a new video game which would have them inhabit a virtually real new planet, but they believe they are truly being sent to another solar system. When they realize that they've just been playing a game, there are long-term psychological impacts.

Some time in the distant future, a children's toy inspection agency reviews imported alien toys to make sure they are safe for "Terran" children to use. The inspectors play the three imported games and suspect nefarious intentions from the "Ganymedean" toy makers.

A man becomes the newest host of America’s longest-running, number-one television game show—with a horrific twist.

Two men have been locked underground somewhere in Utah, Montana, or Idaho with instructions to wait for a monitor's signal then each turn a key in a lock simultaneously to fire a "bird" at an unknown target city. They also have guns and instructions to shoot the other if the other behaves strangely.

A father and son duo attempt to navigate through a fictional video game world while they also face struggles in the real world.

A desperate spouse introduces her wife to a game about cat politics in hopes of helping her with her dementia. But when her wife turns out to be a prodigy at the game, she risks losing her forever to the fantastical gaming world.

Finally at peace after decades of war, the telepathic people of Gaant and the people of Enith can coexist, including a Gaantish military officer and an Enithi nurse. The two had become unlikely friends after being one another's prisoners during the war; they'd bonded over chess, and can now finish their game in peace.

After a British teenager gets paid to kill avatars in a popular video game, she uncovers the disturbing real-world consequences of her virtual missions.

As a programmer builds a videogame world, the stars above Earth go out and reality begins to disappear one landscape at a time until nothing is left but a memory of a woman, Sarah.

In civil war-stricken Burundi of 1994, a divorced expatriate posing as a blindfolded chess grandmaster meets another imposter pulling off the same con as him.