Article Report - Digital Play by Stephen Kline

Stephen Kline is the author of the book in which this article was taken from.  Kline is a professor within the School of Communications at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia.  Digital Play by Stephen Kline was the book that my article was taken from.  This book is Kline’s most recent book he has written, obtaining many positive reviews about his critique on the history of video games.  The book discusses the transformation of video games and the development in the communications industry.  The article mainly tries to argue how interactive gaming is becoming the most important part of the computer industry.

         Kline begins his argument with the analysis of the major console producing companies of Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo.  He looks at game consoles such as the Xbox and Playstation in comparison to the Personal Computer and states how even PCs are converting to having interactive gaming as one of the most important aspects of it’s use.  He observes that the interactive gaming industry was the initiator for improving processing speed, graphics, and network capacity within consoles to meet the demands of consumers and because the major producers wanted to out produce their competition.  The creation of the games for these consoles was split into three different parts of development, publishing, and distribution.  Many times, companies did not control all three aspects.  To publish a console game, the developers would have to buy rights from the console company to make games for them.  This gives little room for new consoles to enter the market and allows the big three to control what games are produced and who produces them. 

         Not only did these companies try to improve the experience involved with their console, but also they worked at improving the connection of these consoles.  They not only wanted the player to be connected with the console, but these companies wanted to connect different players on separate consoles, creating new communities.  This new connection of consoles became possible with the integration of Internet use on the console.  These new, online communities worsened the already present digital divide in the early 2000’s.  Owning a game console or personal computer was a luxury that lower class citizens could not obtain when these consoles were first being implemented in society.

         Another important aspect of these interactive games was the military involvement.  As the technologies developed, military began to use these interactive games in training for troops.  They could use the lessons from real war and apply them to virtually created scenarios.  This strengthened the combat knowledge for our troops without even sending them into battle.

         This book was written and published in 2003.  Many of the basic ideas that Kline hopes for the future have come true.  He foresaw the online gaming becoming a success, but was skeptical on how much cost these producing companies would have to invest to reach that goal. With the Internet growing in popularity as the book was published, Kline could not have guessed how important online aspects of gaming is today.  Many games that are produced today are strictly used for online purposes, which show how far interactive video games have evolved since their creation.