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

Chapters in this book

1. Front Matter i
2. Contents v
3. Illustrations vii
4. Acknowledgments ix
5. Paradox Lost: Faith and Possibility in the “Information Age” 3
6. Theoretical Trajectories 27
7. Media Analysis in the High-Intensity Marketplace: The Three Circuits of Interactivity 30
8. An Ideal Commodity? The Interactive Game in Post-Fordist/Postmodern/Promotional Capitalism 60
9. Histories: The Making of a New Medium 79
10. Origins of an Industry: Cold Warriors, Hackers, and Suits, 1960–1984 84
11. Electronic Frontiers: Branding the “Nintendo Generation,” 1985–1990 109
12. Mortal Kombats: Console Wars and Computer Revolutions, 1990–1995 128
13. Age of Empires: Sony and Microsoft, 1995–2001 151
14. The New Cyber-City: The Interactive Game Industry in the New Millennium 169
15. Critical Perspectives 193
16. Workers and Warez: Labour and Piracy in the Global Game Market 197
17. Pocket Monsters: Marketing in the Perpetual Upgrade Marketplace 218
18. Designing Militarized Masculinity: Violence, Gender, and the Bias of Game Experience 246
19. Sim Capital 269
20. Coda Paradox Regained 294
21. Notes 299
22. Bibliography 331
23. Index 357