Videogames are among the defining artforms of our age. They are variously adored and reviled, but their influence is felt everywhere. Every game is its own little universe – and hundreds of millions of us now spend part of our time living in those universes. But what does it mean to play them? What does it feel like to be a member of the generation that grew up with them? Where do they take us, and what needs do they serve? In this short memoir, Sam Leith tells the story of his life through his relationship with games. It’s a story of games-playing. But it’s also the story of an anxious child trying to find a way of being in the world, a twenty-something negotiating the unfamiliar terrain of heartbreak, and an adult emerging from a turbulent time into marriage and fatherhood. It’s a story of love, fear, substance abuse and – well – mechanical emus. Sam Leith is a freelance writer based in London. His books include The Coincidence Engine and You Talkin' To Me?: Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama.