Digital Play: The Interaction of Technology, Culture, and Marketing

Kimberly J. Frail is a librarian in the Science and Technology Library
at the University of Alberta.

Public Services Librarian
University of Alberta Libraries
Bibliothèque Saint-Jean

In Digital Play, Kline, Dyer-Witheford, and de Peuter set out to
separate the “technological hyperbole” from technological
determinism. In spite of the technologies available in today’s
“information age,” their exploration of this issue reveals that
there are numerous significant connections with previous periods in
history, such as the failure to account for historical context and
social forces. They challenge those who advocate the marriage of
laissez-faire economics with the information revolution and the notion
that “freemarkets plus information plus information technology equal
health, wealth and social progress.” The ever-expanding interactive
entertainment media industry is used as a test case to challenge the
“digital euphoria” of technological determinism.

In the first section of the book, the authors lay the theoretical
framework that forms the basis of their argument, drawing heavily on the
works of communications trailblazer Raymond Williams to direct their
media study of the interactive game. They also introduce the
three-dimensions model of gaming (technology, culture, and marketing),
which they utilize quite effectively to help illustrate the multiple
facets of their topic.

In the second section, they chronicle the development of interactive
entertainment media, examining the principles of digital design,
technological advances, and marketing techniques in the context of the
historical period and the particular institution in which they were
developed.

In the final section, they delve into the controversy and
contradictions associated with the gaming industry, such as violence and
the marginalization of female gamers. They conclude with an examination
of “The Sims” (a popular role-playing game), to help summarize and
illustrate the fundamental tensions at play within the gaming world.

Digital Play is a sophisticated analysis of the interplay between
technology, economy, and society. It would be appropriate for any
university-level communications or library and information studies
course.