Michael Iantorno♨️🕹️

@michaeliantorno.com

1234 Followers 1028 Following

📚[Incoming] Assistant Professor of Creative and Cultural Industries at University College Dublin. 🎮[Currently] Mitacs Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Waterloo. 🕹️Studying videogame history and creative industry labour.

And AI generated woman sits on a Line 6 amplifier in a kitchen.
(AI generated) Keanu Reeves spooning a coil of metal fencing in a backyard.
A spreadsheet titled "03 Survey Data [Sentiments to Numbers]"
A group of game scholars pose around an OWL (a webcam microphone thingy), praising it as they would an idol.
A three panel Simpsons meme. IN the first panel, a group of children are looking at Bart in the classroom and are saying: "Say the line, Bart." In the second panel, Bart, who looks depressed, says "Videgaomes are a multi-billion-dollar industry." In the third panel, the entire classroom erupts in cheers.
Pink text that reads "serious game arcade 2026" overlaid on top of a photo of a panel discussion.
A collection of old console components, a CRT, and other random faff sits on a large wooden table in a makerspace.
An excerpt from an interview transcript. "Michael Iantorno 45:41. Again. I'm just apricot."
A doctored Tears of the Kingdom logo that reads "Minecraft: Hyrule Edition."
Donald Trump at a pressa conference, sitting in front of a gallon of whole milk.
A TSR 1988 Books & Games Catalogue, featuring a red cover with cutaway text
An AI generated image of "elephant in the room: no more feat taxes". In addition to a stylizedlogo, it shows a party of adventures sitting around a table as an elephant walks in behind them.
A meme titled "This is every mushroom foraging guide." It shows two seemingly identical mushrooms with vastly different text. The frist one reads "Brown cap. Brown top with white stalk; great to eat! everyone loves them; Found in the forest." The second reads "Dumb Idiot's False Brown Cap. Brown top with white stalk. Found in the forest. It will kill you if you eat even one bite. You will bleed out your ass until you fucking die, and you will have deserved it for being a shitty..."
A screenshot from a cooking video showing sardine mush I'm a frying pan. The caption reads "all right, if the great depression had a color, this would be it."
An excerpt from the gaming magazine Total!, showing a photograph of a large TV at a convention that is playing Star Fox 2. The text reads "Yes, in only four months you too could be piloting the all-new, morphing Arwing Nk2 fighter. It'll be a blast."
Blue text reading "HELP! I can't hear the music!", extracted from the Hampster Dance website.
A gray cat sits in from of a zine titled "Old Games Zine 2026." She does not look happy to be photographed.
Two dudes of the same NES PCB. Green plastic circuit boards with labeled slots for various parts
A scan of a Biker Mice from Mars comic. Three edgy, anthropomorphised mice are riding motorcycles and waving guns in front of a downtown cityscape.
A freshly baked focaccia, covered with sage leaves and green olives, sitting on a cooling rack and a red place mat.
A screenshot from Earthbound that reads "You guys can't envision the final collapse of capitalism? Incredible!". It takes place in a gray lounge with several people.
A Discord message, from Michael Iantorno, that reads "SO THIS MICHAEL GUY" and is timestamped 4:13
An introductory powerpoint slide. The title reads: "That's My Jam! Understanding the Value of Game Jams." There is an illustration featuring several people mking digital games together, and an SCMS logo with the text "video game studies SIG"
The infamous underwater level from the TMNT NES game. Michelangelo swims between pink reeds
A title page from a dissertation with the header "the super nintendo emulation system" and featuring a large screenshot of ZSNES, an emulator
Art for the game Battletoads, featuring a collection of anthropomorphic toads fighting pig monsters on an alien planet. Radical!
A screen capture from the kids cartoon, The Mighty Ducks, in which burly anthropomorphic ducks are dressed in hockey uniforms.
A blue cabinet sits in the sun next to a grumpy gray cat.
A promotional picture of the power Rangers, showing all five with their hands on their waists in front of white and green lightning
A screen capture from the 1980s ninja turtles cartoon. Leonardo points his sword forward while the other turles stand in the background, ready to fight
A lamp sits next to a plant on a shelf. The photograph is two toned and pixelated, like one taken by a game boy camera
A calico cat sits atop a map, next to a bunch of gaming accessories (books, notebooks, etc) on a table.
A table covered with gaming things (dice, a dungeon master screen, books, and a map). Atop the table sits a gray cat, who looks menacingly off into the distance.
A screenshot from the television show Street Sharks, showing the four main characters (all mutant human/shark hybrids) leaping out of rubble and pink smoke.
Headline: "Doug Ford blasts the ‘radical left’ at Toronto city hall over estimate on cost of replacing speed cameras." It is followed by a picture of Ontario Premier Doug Ford gesturing to the left while standing at a podium.
PHONY PARTICIPANTS, POROUS PLATFORMS: Building qualitative research projects in the age of AI. In this talk for the University of Waterloo’s academic community, I will provide insights on designing ethical qualitative research projects that mitigate the potentially harmful effects of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. Key topics include filtering out AI bots and bad actors in survey design and distribution; choosing secure online platforms and tools that do not feed content into AI training models; and balancing validation processes with participant burnout. My findings are rooted in my consultant work for Pink Triangle Press’s 2SLGBTQIA+ Screen Sector Workplace Initiative and as the lead researcher for videogame industry white papers with Game Arts International Network.
A photograph of Endless Winters, a simple installation piece involving a CRT, a videogame cartridge, and a super nintendo. A pixelated winter scene on screen contrasts with a real winter scene outside.
An ancient wall painting depicting a colorful parrot on a stone wall
A cropped part of a virtual boy and, showing a boy staring into the device with a red starburst in the background
Richy speaks into a microphone in front of a projector screen at a symposium
A headline that reads "Toronto: Chow 40%, Tory 33%, Bradford 18%"
In an incredibly shitty ai generated picture, a broken guitar lies on a hospital bed hooked up to some IVs. A bro-ish looking dude in the background does medical-ish things. Listen, it looks really bad, I don't know what to tell you.
An illustration of a business man with red hair and glasses, smiling in front of a skyscraper.
A screen capture from the monorail episode of the simpsons, showing Homer and Bart panicking as the (smoking) monorail speeds out of control.
the geordia laforge "yes/no" meme. In panel one where geordi is gesturing "hol up" with his hand, is the word "enshittificaiton." In panel two, where geordi is gesturing "hell yeah" with his hand, are the words "chronic shittiness."
A screenshot from Islanders: New Shores, showing a colourful island full of little houses, farms, and harbours.
A screenshot from Coraline, featuring a slender middle-aged white man looking tired, drinking a coffee, and sitting in front of a computer.
A poster for the the Frames of Reference symposium with the type "RC Expo" and pictures of several artistic pieces.
A series of headlines from the National Post Opinion section. Bryan Brulotte: Carney’s Davos speech is eloquence, not foreign policy. Avi Benlolo: Carney preaches about 'rupture' abroad, without having tended... Colby Cosh: Trump abandoned the Constitution ... but so has the American public... Michael Higgins: Carney wants 'justice' for the world, but what about for Canadians? Chris Selley: Toronto worries its World Cup plans aren't wasteful enough yet... Randall Denley: The senselessness of Carney selling out Ontario, and Doug Ford, over Chinese cars
A headline reads "Universities face a financial crisis. The key to survival is the scholar-entrepreneur.
A screenshot from Telefrancais, featuring a terrifying pineapple puppet on a blue background.
A headline: "Extreme Arctic Cold Could Trigger “Exploding Tree” Risk Across North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Michigan Late This Week". Accompanying the headline is a map, with a pink area highlighted with the text "exploding tree risk."
A slide from an online course that reads: "A. Welcome and Overview. Lobbying 101." Canada's Parliament Hill is in the background.
In a piece of old D&D art, an evil wizard sits on a throne of bones while an imp brings forward an antique bowl with a lid.
A page that says "Discord Research" with the message "Sorry, this survey is not currently active."
An old IBM keyboard on a blue mat.
A potted plant shattered on the ground, with dirt and pottery shards strewn across hardwood.
A calico cat knocks over a potted plant from a window sill, in pursuit of a squirrel climbing the outside of the windows screen
A screenshot from Blasphemous 2, showing the main character hefting a large mace onto an injured helmed giant.
An old IBM computer keyboard sitting on a desk