Wardrip-Fruin's twinned research track -- arts and humanities on the one hand and computer science on the other—is reflected in the table of the contents of The New Media Reader, which he co-edited with Nick Montfort. He has also co-edited a series of new media textbooks and anthologies with Pat Harrigan: First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game (2004) as well as Second Person: Role-Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media (2007), Third Person: Authoring and Exploring Vast Narratives (2009), and Expressive Processing (2009), all of which have been influential in the development of new media studies.
In addition to his research in digital media, computer games, and software studies, he is a member of the Board of Directors of the Electronic Literature Organization.