During my teen years, I spent many joyful evenings and nights immersed in online games. Halo, Call of Duty, Assassins Creed, amongst many others. I loved the worlds which games plunged me into, but more than that, I loved meeting people from all over the world while playing online—games were my passport to uncover distant lands, but I never expected to make a lifelong friend from across the other side of the world. One evening, my school friend and I were waiting in the lobby of the multiplayer version of Splinter Cell Double Agent. Incessantly chatting away, our little on-screen avatars were lighting up like a firework display every time we muttered or giggled. New characters were swiftly popping up on–screen; the poor souls bombarded by our school-boy cacophony. But, one of the new arrivals found our incoherent ramblings to be hilarious. After listening in for a while, he introduced himself to us; we were soon playing along in the undercover world with our new American spy …