Michael Iantorno PhD Candidate, Game Designer, and Writer

CategoryNews

Nordicom Review – All in a Day’s Work: Working-Class Heroes as Videogame Protagonists

A journal article that I co-wrote with Courtney Blamey, Lyne Dwyer, and Mia Consalvo was recently published in the Nordicom Review! It is titled All in a Day’s Work: Working-Class Heroes as Videogame Protagonists, and analyses depictions of various working-class occupations in videogames (full abstract below). “Class depictions in videogames are prevalent, yet understudied. In this article...

Book Review – Coding Democracy

My book review for Maureen Webb’s Coding Democracy: How Hackers Are Disrupting Power, Surveillance, and Authoritarianism just went up on the New Media & Society website! I encourage you to read the entire review, but here’s a short excerpt that sums up my thoughts on the title. “Coding Democracy does not attempt to end the debate of what constitutes a hacker, but rather...

Ephemeral Games and Ambiguous Rights at Pause Button

Pause Button is an online publication about technology and culture published by the Milieux Institute at Concordia University in Montreal. The digital magazine aspires to produce high quality writing about technology and culture in a Canadian context, taking advantage of the connections and resources available within Milieux’s various research clusters. For their fifth issue, Who’s...

Montreal Bound

It’s time for a brief geographical update. After spending the majority of my thirty(ish) years living Toronto, I will be packing up my cats this summer and relocating to Montreal. I have accepted an offer from Concordia’s Media Studies (MA) program, where I will be doing a mix of course and project work with a focus on interactive documentary. I will be studying topics such as game...

The World Is Square?

This place isn’t called The World Is Square anymore. I know that is a bit of a blunt opening, but I thought I’d just get that main point across right off the top. From now on www.theworldissquare.com, www.hyperbound.net, and www.mikeiantorno.com will all redirect to this website, which will have the root domain www.michaeliantorno.com. Simple! For many years, I accumulated a weird...

PK Hack Starmen.net Podcast

The Starmen.net Podcast is a bi-weekly production run by one of the internet’s largest fan websites. Featuring guests from all across the Starmen.net community, it provides insights into the wide world of EarthBound fandom. I was recently invited onto the podcast to chat about my game hacking adventures, and to help judge the latest fanart submissions from the Starmen.net community. I also...

SummerBound Twitch Stream: Wednesday June 24

Update: Due to some unforeseen circumstances, I will be streaming on Wednesday June 24 instead of Monday June 22. On Monday June 24 at 9:00pm (EST), I will be collaborating with Starmen.net to participate in the super fun SummerBound celebration. “But what exactly IS SummerBound?” you may ask, with a puzzled expression on your face. It is, in fact, a month long celebration of...

Local Nerd Quoted In Campus Newspaper

A few months ago I was contacted by a Ryerson journalism student to contribute to a feature story about LARPing, and the stigmas attached to the oft-maligned hobby. Admittedly, I don’t quite remember all the topics we covered, but I do recall chatting about LARP’s relationship with role-playing and table-top games, as well as some general “nerd culture” issues.  While...

Michael Iantorno PhD Candidate, Game Designer, and Writer