My Favourite Game Porter Robinson

The electronic musician behind Virtual Self on the tragedy of lost game worlds and the future of escapism

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Porter Robinson is a prolific electronic artist with an uncompromising yet everchanging sound, from 2014’s ethereal Worlds to the gritty neo-trance of his current project, Virtual Self. Here, he discusses dying MMOs, the experimental future of VR and the musical legacy of Jet Set Radio Future.

When did you first get into games?

My earliest memory would be when I was about four years old. We had an MS-DOS computer in my childhood home and I remember pretty vividly playing a game called Mission To Mars. I had no sense of there being a difference between different videogames at that time. It was also impossible for me to open the game so I always had to call my parents over, and they had to type it in.

You’ve said before that Worlds was inspired by a dying MMO. Why is that?