Kaile Hultner

Kaile attended the University of Central Oklahoma between 2010 and 2014 in pursuit of a journalism degree with a minor in sociology. While there, they were a reporter and columnist for the UCentral Media newspaper, The Vista—the longest continually publishing news source in Oklahoma. After college, they worked as a fellow and then media coordinator for the Center for a Stateless Society, writing op-eds and liaising with media outlets around the country to syndicate the Center’s publications. From 2014 to 2015, and then again with stints in 2021 and 2025, Hultner also wrote for the Oklahoma Gazette as an Arts and Entertainment freelancer.

In 2018, after years of work with C4SS, Hultner set out to do something different. Their interests in the Internet as a cultural site of conflict and passion for radical politics led them to begin writing in earnest about video games and gaming culture, starting with New Normative and leading to the founding of No Escape in April 2019. Since then their work has appeared in gaming outlets big and small, like Polygon, PC Gamer and Bullet Points Monthly. They are currently working on a retrospective essay collection, Escape Velocity, as well as a critical investigation of Final Fantasy XIII called Children of Lightning.

In 2023 Hultner accepted a Junior Curatorial position at Critical Distance, a 501(c)3 organization dedicated to archiving and highlighting excellent writing in games journalism, criticism and the academic field of game studies. In 2026 they were promoted to Social Curator, coinciding with the departure of the org’s Director of Communications, Zoyander Street. Their responsibilities include interfacing with the org’s patrons, publishing weekly and monthly roundups to social media platforms such as Bluesky and Mastodon, and engaging with the org’s community via platforms like Facebook and Discord.