OPINION: Next month I’ll be packing up my bags and heading off to Gamescom. The yearly festival is organized to ‘celebrate the games’, but there’s also an unwritten subtext. With the rekindled friendships, fan gatherings and community meet-ups, it’s as much about celebrating the gamer.

It doesn’t matter who you are or what you play; for a week, the Koelnmesse in the heart of Cologne, Germany is our Woodstock. We come together not just to recognize gaming greatness, but to watch our heroes play in eSports tournaments, to cheer on the cosplayers. To bathe ourselves in everything that is great about gaming culture, in all its forms.