Pixel Counts vs Death Counts: Videogames, Wargames and Simulation (Mantello, 2009)

Peter Mantello is a video game analyst and media studies lecturer at Ritsumeikan University (can’t find his faculty page), who examines the aesthetics, dynamics and politics of first person shooters. I came across this news article about his latest lecture at the Age. I searched throughout the internet for a video of his latest lecture, which is about the gameplay of FPS perpetuating stereotypes about the enemies of the United States and how it flattens their adversary into simplistic “bots” (IMO).

I couldn’t find what I was looking for, but I found another video from an earlier lecture (in July 2009) that should give us an idea of his work. I’m watching this hour long video as of this writing, almost half-way done… It’s so far removed from psychology lectures, with no discussion on data. It’s like being in a media analysis class talking about symbolism and old movies.

Update (09/10/09): Found the podcast of what I was looking for. His lecture starts around 1:01:00. Other non-gaming podcasts from the symposium can be found here.

Mantello, P. (2009). Pixel Counts vs Death Counts: Videogames, Wargames and Simulation. http://hdl.handle.net/10367/856