The Space Invaders arcade video game, celebrating its 40th anniversary, is a classic piece of software credited as one of the earliest digital shooting games. As a game designer and teacher of games, I know how meaning is carried from designer to the mechanics of play. As a game studies researcher, I also know how games reveal myth, meaning and culture. An analysis of Pac-Man, for instance, shows how that game embodies many values of its day – including consumerism, drug use and gender politics. The message in Space Invaders is as basic as the graphics: when faced with conflict, players have no option except to blast it away.

The war for your digital home is waging. Apple has finally followed Amazon, Google and Microsoft by launching a smart speaker with a voice-controlled artificial intelligence assistant. Yet even though the "HomePod" is another technological marvel, there's a chance Apple is already losing the battle. The competition isn't just through the sound quality of the speaker – but the other things that users can do with it. The most common requests to AI personal assistants such as Apple's Siri are reportedly to play music, read the weather forecast and set timers or reminders.