Nick Dyer-Witheford is an author, and associate professor at the University of Western Ontario in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies.[1] His area of study primarily focuses on the rise of technology and the internet, as well as their continuous impact on modern society. He has written six books, along with seventeen other publications.
Games of Empire: Global Capitalism and Video Games
“Games of Empire: Global Capitalism and Video Games,” is Dyer-Witheford's third book, published in 2009 and cowritten with Greg de Peuter. In it they talk about how the history of video games has shown how capitalism has shaped the means of how the video game industry works. It serves as an analytical approach to areas such as control, industry and expenditure over the short life of video games.[7] Dyer-Witheford and Peuter use a marxian lens to examine the concept of games as a contributor to a substantial part of financial systems.[19]
Critical reception
The book received mixed reviews from its readers. Dr.Joseph Rebello, assistant professor of economics at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said "Reactions, both positive and negative, to this work have been strong. This is not the place to rehash existing debates, but a reader uncomfortable with the very concepts of empire and multitude will probably not be entirely convinced by the book's arguments concerning imperial and multitudinous games. That being said, the book offers plenty of insight to anyone interested in the political economy of video games (or that of popular media).[19] Media lawyer Alex Wade, deemed it "Readable and accessible" and said "its critical approach was a vital counterpoint to the sclerotic ludology/narratology debate that dominated games studies discourse in the early years of the 21st century.[20]
Nick Dyer-Witheford won the Gertrude J. Robinson Book Prize in 2016 by the Canadian Communication Association. He was given the award for his book, Cyber Proletariat: Global Labour in the Digital Vortex. The prize is named after Professor Gertrude J. Robinson for all she had done for the field of communications across the globe.[21]
