Sentence:  While some may be willing to grant that the determinative forces noted in the preceding text―hardware, operating systems, programming languages, industry watchdogs, and so on―are key to computer game development, others may argue that, despite this fact, such forces are only peripheral and <WSD>mediumic</WSD>, and not authorial. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Relating to a medium of communication.