Phillip Penix-Tadsen, “Cultural Code: Video Games and Latin America” (MIT Press, 2016)

Symbols have meanings that change depending upon the cultural context. But how do we discuss symbols, their meanings, and their cultural contexts without an adequate vocabulary? Phillip Penix-Tadsen, assistant professor of Spanish at the University of Delaware and author of the new book Cultural Code: Video Games and Latin America (MIT Press, 2016), offers insight in to how culture is signified in video games, with a particular emphasis on Latin America. In Cultural Code, Penix-Tadsen examines how Latin America is represented in some of the most popular of games, as well as how Latin American developers, themselves, represent their various countries. In so doing, Penix-Tadsen investigates the emergence of video games as cultural currency, and advances a vocabulary for describing how culture is integrated in to all aspects of gaming.

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