Stephen Kline

            This week in LIS 201, we read Stephen Kline’s article, “The New Cyber-City: The Interactive Game Industry in the New Millennium.” This article was taken from the book Digital Play: The Interaction of Technology, Culture, and Marketing, which was published in 2003.  Stephen Kline did not only write the book, Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter who also studied media analysis also wrote it. The commended book was published by McGill-Queen’s University Press and has only received great reviews. The authors are noted for “undertaking this major history of the video game in our contemporary global economy” according to Dowler of York University. He has also written two other books titled Globesity, Food, Marketing, and Family Lifestyles and Out of the Garden: Toys, TV, and Children’s Culture in the Age of Marketing.

            Stephen Kline graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has specialized in media analysis since his time at the London School of Economics and continues to teach it as a professor at Simon Fraser University. Here, he is also the director of media analysis and the director of the research department in this field. Because of these opportunities, he is known as an expert when it comes to all different types of medias and how they impact society. All of his recent publications have focused on children’s media and video game audiences, media literacy, the media’s relationship to sedentary lifestyle, and parenting strategies.

            Kline’s view on “gaming” is an interesting one judging by the article. While most people believe that video games are just a good past time, or some will even go far enough to say that they are a “waste” of time, Kline argues that there is more too video games than just being an entertainment outlet. Video games are moving from the console medium, to incorporating movies, Internet, etc. Its main focus is on profit and because of this, unethical and immoral choices are made. An example of this would be the violent video games that young kids buy and play. Many of its games are created from military training software, making it all the more realistic. MIME NET, military industry media entertainment network is just one of these types of software. MIME NET creates stimulators for people to go into to feel like they’re actually in combat when obviously they really aren’t.

            Other professors studying media analysis did many of the critiques to this article.  This makes me feel confident that the information the Kline writes about is all accurate and truthful. One of the reviews said, “Digital Play is one of the few books currently available that provides an insightful look into the social, cultural, and economic relationships between game players, and the engaging game texts, technologies, and market forces of the information age,” which I think ties it all together. One thing that I would like to note is that this article was published in 2003. I am confident that the video game industry has changed drastically since then so I would be curious to see what Kline would say about the industry now versus then.