What makes a gamer? Sally McManus, Jordan Raskopoulos and more on why they play

The stereotypes of young, angry, pale and isolated gamers are wrong. Gamers of all ages play for connection, for relaxation or the intellectual challenge

In our high-vocational stress household, the most volcanic tension usually erupts over control of the PlayStation. I'm still - still - absorbed in the game of Fallout 4 I started a year ago, with thousands of hours spent on perfecting the aesthetics of post-apocalyptic settlement-building. My partner prefers a wordless immersion in the splattery worlds of first-person shooters and war games but we reconcile over rounds of two-player Diablo, fighting demons and hoarding treasure together.

I've come a long way from the handheld Donkey Kong I cherished as a child, or the Pitfall caves I explored on a home PC, or the small parties of teens that gathered to play Sonic the Hedgehog on the loungeroom TV. The demands of fun are more complex now - but the need for fun remains the same.