Intriguing game ludologist Matteo Bittanti has posted a version of his essay 'From GunPlay to GunPorn' online at the Videoludica website, and it certainly charts some fun territory.

The academic paper starts with the quote: ""Happiness is a warm gun (Happiness bang, bang, shoot, shoot) Happiness is a warm gun, mama (Happiness bang, bang, shoot, shoot)" from The Beatles, and then notes: "What is a first-person shooter? It is a digital application, originally created for recreational purposes, resulting from the interaction of four major components: computer, film, television, and military technology, with the latter informing the previous three."

The full paper continues: "In this paper, I intend to examine how a recent first person shooter, Criterion's BLACK (2006) articulates these different components", and there's even a related video presentation [WMV link], along with the full PDF version, to explain more, albeit in a fairly ludological fashion.

[And, to make it clear, it was Criterion's Jeremy Chubb who first coined the phrase 'gun porn' when talking about Black - we heard him get all excited about it an EA preview day a few months back. So in this case, it was the game's makers devising the eyebrow-raising 'unique selling phrase', not the media. British people get overexcited by guns, btw.]