Special thanks to each of the editors with whom I have worked and from whom I have inevitably learned so much.
In particular: Nicholas Thompson, Matt Buchanan, Jay Caspian Kang, Alan Burdick, and Anthony Lydgate of The New Yorker. Bobby Baird of Harper’s Magazine. Keith Stuart of The Guardian. Tony Mott, Joao Sanchez, Margaret Robertson, and Alex Wiltshire of Edge. Tom Bramwell, Oli Welsh, Ellie Gibson, and Martin Robinson of Eurogamer, Stephen Totilo of Kotaku, Chris Suellentrop of The New York Times and Matter, Kris Graft and Simon Carless of Gamasutra, Will Knight of MIT Technology Review, Greg J. Smith of HOLO, and Helen Lewis of The New Statesman.
Thanks to Tom Bissell, for reading the manuscript before anyone else, for giving me an example to follow and the encouragement and belief to keep going.
Thank you, Christian Donlan, Brian Taylor, Kieron Gillen, Robert Howells, Will Porter, Ste Curran, Ann Scantlebury, Ed Hawkins, and Tom Fenwick for your friendship, camaraderie, and advice. To Owain Bennallack for ‘chronoslip’ and for your shrewdness and encouragement.
To Steven Poole for showing us all how it should be done with such grace and elegance through the years.
To Jane Finigan, for her ever-present support and guidance, and to the team at Serpent’s Tail, who have worked so hard to make and chaperone this book. In particular, thank you to Nick Sheerin and Michael Bhaskar.
Thank you to my brother, with whom I first shared a joystick; to my grandmother, who bought me my first Game Boy; to my mother for her care; and to my father for his lyricism. To my wife, who can still lose a day with Animal Crossing, and to my children, who each week reveal new reasons to appreciate the unique power of video games, and new reasons to be wary.