Digital play : the interaction of technology, culture and marketing / Stephen Kline, Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kline, Stephen.

Contributor:

Dyer-Witheford, Nick, 1951-

De Peuter, Greig.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Video games--Social aspects.

Video games.

Video games--Economic aspects.

Genre:

Video games.

Physical Description:

x, 368 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Montréal ; Ithaca : McGill-Queen's University Press, [2003]

Summary:

A uniquely critical study of video gaming that blends perspectives from political economy, cultural studies, and communications theory. Digital Play offers a uniquely critical analysis of interactive media. Inspired by the work of Raymond Williams, the book traces the development of video gaming from its humble origins in hacker circles to its current status as a $20 billion global cultural industry. Stephen Kline, Nick Dyer-Witheford, and Greig de Peuter systematically debunk cyber-guru optimism about globally networked digital communications by analysing the management practices of the corporations that design and market video games to youthful audiences. They reveal that the ascent of this new communications industry has been anything but smooth and inevitable. From Atari to Microsoft, Space Invaders to The Sims, the authors uncover the successive crises that forced game makers, faced with constant instabilities in the global entertainment sector, to become increasingly innovative.

Contents:

1 Paradox Lost: Faith and Possibility in the "Information Age" 3

Part 1 Theoretical Trajectories 27

2 Media Analysis in the High-Intensity Marketplace: The Three Circuits of Interactivity 30

3 An Ideal Commodity? The Interactive Game in Post-Fordist/Postmodern/Promotional Capitalism 60

Part 2 Histories: The Making of a New Medium 79

4 Origins of an Industry: Cold Warriors, Hackers, and Suits, 1960-1984 84

5 Electronic Frontiers: Branding the "Nintendo Generation," 1985-1990 109

6 Mortal Kombats: Console Wars and Computer Revolutions, 1990-1995 128

7 Age of Empires: Sony and Microsoft, 1995-2001 151

8 The New Cyber-City: The Interactive Game Industry in the New Millennium 169

Part 3 Critical Perspectives 193

9 Workers and Warez: Labour and Piracy in the Global Game Market 197

10 Pocket Monsters: Marketing in the Perpetual Upgrade Marketplace 218

11 Designing Militarized Masculinity: Violence, Gender, and the Bias of Game Experience 246

12 Sim Capital 269

Coda: Paradox Regained 294.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0773525432

0773525912

OCLC:

52143781