AustLit

'Video games and I have lost touch over the last year. It could just be that I've gone back to university and I know that if I pick up a controller whole weeks could disappear. It could also be my growing discomfort around gaming and internet culture. In 2014, the Gamergate controversy whipped up a frenzy of backlash against calls for diverse representation in games; female game developers, journalists and public figures who supported the movement were targeted in massive harassment campaigns. The community has never felt colder. Last month I traded in my Playstation 3, complete with a 600- hour Skyrim save. The finality of it got me thinking - about a time when consoles loomed much larger in my life.'  (Publication abstract)