Notwithstanding the amount of work I have to do as an academic, I happen to have another life on the weekends, where I am a weekend gamer.

Playing games is of course nothing new – even animals do it – and in many ways, games are important as they prepare us for the rigours of life. Perhaps the most obvious difference in the way that we play today and how we played in the past is the fact that today’s games are often played on computers or phone devices.

As a historian and political analyst, I am attracted more to games that are realistic, strategic and historical in nature. A couple of years ago, I was playing one of those international games where players would be online simultaneously all over the world, and you could spend your evening battling with other players from Europe, Africa or Asia.

… The writer is Associate Professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.