020 - Year 1 of Psych of Games Articles
I'm working ahead on new podcasts, new articles, and a conference lecture. In the meantime, enjoy the audio versions of 12 Psychology of Games articles all assembled together for your listening...
View Article021 - Achievements, Goals, and Motivation in Games
Achievements, trophies, badges, and similar rewards are ever present in video games. The assumption seems to be that they motivate players to keep playing a game in order to reach some goal or get some...
View Article022 - Research on Addiction and Aggression
Turns out that doing science is hard. And doing science involving people is particularly tricky and comes with all kinds of caveats. And then doing research on humans involving something as diverse and...
View Article023 - Self Determination Theory and Video Games
There's a substantial body of literature that identifies a triforce of motivation: Competence, Autonomy, and Mastery. That is, we're motivated to do something to the extent that we feel like we can...
View Article024 - Electronic Gaming Therapy
Games are good for more than just simple fun. Some psychologists and therapists are using them to help people. In this episode I talk to some people who are using video games as part of therapy for...
View Article025 - A Parent's Guide to Video Games
Dr. Rachel Kowert returns to discuss her new book, A Parent's Guide to Video Games. We discuss her process for writing the book, who she thinks it benefits, and the questions and concerns that parents...
View Article026 - Moral Combat and the War on Video Game Violence
My guests on this episode are Dr. Chris Ferguson and Dr. Patrick Markey, the authors of the new book Moral Combat: Why the War on Violent Video Games is Wrong. We talk about why people tend to blame...
View Article027 - Collecting in Video Games
In this episode we explore what people like to collect virtual objects in video games, why they do it, and what game designers could do to make collections more fun to acquire and use. About this...
View Article028 - Avatar Identification and Video Games
In this episode I talk to Dr. Jesse Fox about her research into how we identify with our video game avatars, how that affects how we play, and how it may affect what we take away from games....
View Article029 - Morality in Video Games
Moral choice in video games is a concept that has been with us for decades now. Many games feature points where you must decide how your character reacts to moral dilemmas or decide which of two evils...
View ArticlePodcast 30: Gaming Addiction
I talk to someone who does research on gaming addiction about the concept in general, how hard it is to research it, and the APA's recent decision to (possibly, at some point in the future) include...
View ArticlePodcast 31: Harassment in Video Games
Harassment of many types has been an issue that gamers and game developers have had to deal with for a long time now. In this episode my guest expert Wai Yen Tang talks about research that he and...
View ArticlePodcast 32: Twelve More Months of Psychology of Video Games
Enjoy the audio versions of 12 months of Psychology of Games articles from the website. (Sung, awkwardly, to the tune of "Twelve Days of Christmas.") Audio Credits“Robot Motivation” by The Polish...
View ArticlePodcast 33: Executive Skill Transference and Play Diets
Modern video games are complicated and require a lot of learning, problem solving, memory, planning, and other things that psychologists might identify as executive functions of the brain. There's a...
View ArticlePodcast 34: Games Design Education and Psychology 101
Many universities and other institutions are offering degrees in video game design and other careers in the gaming industry like art, coding, and user experience design. Some of them are also...
View ArticlePodcast 35: Player Empathy and Drivers of Gameplay
In this episode of the podcast, I talk to one veteran game designer Jason Vandenberghe, who has tackled the issue of understanding what kinds of experiences gamers want with the aid of psychology and...
View ArticlePodcast 36: Psychology, Escape Rooms, and VR
In a way, classic adventure games were the precursors to the escape rooms that are popping up in strip malls and warehouses all over the country. But unlike adventure games, escape rooms take place in...
View ArticlePodcast 37: Cognitive Psychology and User Experiences
Basic psychological phenomena like memory, perception, and emotions have huge implications for the design of products or experiences, from nutritional labels to phone apps to voting registration forms...
View ArticlePodcast 38: Mental Health Professionals and Video Games
It may shock you to hear this, but not everyone is intimately familiar with video games. I know, right? Despite the fact that video games continue to become more mainstream and cut across all kinds of...
View ArticlePodcast 39: Thirty Questions About the Psychology of Video Games
I'm at PAX West participating in panels and making new friends, but that doesn't mean you don't get a new podcast. Enjoy this audio presentation of a lecture I gave about 30 things I wish researchers...
View ArticlePodcast 40: Our Avatar Relationships
Think about the last avatar you controlled in a video game. What did he, she, or it mean to you? Was it just a tool that you used to get from one end of a maze to another? Was it a richly detailed...
View ArticlePodcast 41: How Video Games Prepare You For Success
Video games often get kind of a short shrift when it comes to how valuable they are considered, versus a being a waste of time. Yet an argument can be made that they teach and reinforce valuable skills...
View ArticlePodcast 42: Mobile Game Affinity
Say it's time to download a new game for your phone or tablet. What, out of the billions of choices out there, will you choose? Psychology pretty consistently tells us that when we have too many...
View ArticlePodcast 43: Dungeons, Dragons, & Psychology
I talk in this episode with my guest expert, Megan Connell PsyD, who uses Dungeons & Dragons in group therapy with remarkable results and runs a weekly D&D game with psychology nerds on Twitch....
View ArticlePodcast 44: Gamification and Game Based Assessments
I talk with Dr. Richard Landers, an expert researcher on gamification and game-based assessments. We discuss some of the psychology behind why gamification does (and does not) work, as well as why it's...
View ArticlePodcast 45: Psychology of The Legend of Zelda
I talk with Dr. Anthony Bean and several of his collaborators on a book about psychology and the Legend of Zelda.
View ArticlePodcast 46: Collecting Virtual Items
How do game developers make virtual items as collectible as physical objects?
View ArticlePodcast 47: Loot Boxes and Gambling
What is the relationship between loot boxes and problematic gambling? Should loot boxes be considered a form of gambling? In this episode I talk with Chris Lee, a politician, and David Zendle, a...
View ArticlePodcast 48: Loot Boxes Part 2
Special ALL HAWAII EDITION! To give me a little breathing room after finishing up my book manuscript, here are two complete interviews I did while researching the recent loot box podcast episode. One...
View ArticlePodcast 49: Empathy
Empathy --the ability to understand and share the emotions of others-- is a powerful tool for those wanting to create games where the goal is to get players to think differently and have powerful...
View ArticlePodcast 50 - Moral Choices in Games vs. Other Media
My guest experts and I discuss how moral choices in video games are different from other media and what makes them so difficult. We also discuss some of our favorite and most compelling choices from...
View ArticlePodcast 51: Lost in a Good Game
Psychology of Games Summer Book Club begins with an interview with Dr. Pete Etchells, author of the newly released Lost in a Good Game.
View ArticlePodcast 52 - Being Indistractable
Welcome to part two of this two part miniseries on Psychology of Games summer reading. In this episode I talk with author and consultant Nir Eyal about how to use psychology and other methods to avoid...
View ArticlePodcast 53 - Online Relationships (Rebroadcast)
Are friendships and other relationships formed in online games substitutes for offline relationships? Are they better?
View ArticlePodcast 54 - Sexualization in Games
Should you expect playing as a sexually objectified avatar like Lara Croft to impact women's attitudes towards their own bodies or to create other harmful attitudes? My guests this episode engaged in...
View ArticlePodcast 55 - Psychology of Level Design
What are some of the ways that video game level designers look to psychology for helping players can navigate, move through, and make sense of their virtual worlds?
View ArticleEpisode 56 - Game to Grow
How therapeutic Dungeons & Dragons sessions are reaching people who need help in an engaging way.
View ArticleEpisode 57 - Mental Models in League of Legends
Mental models are representations that help people understand and predict systems or situations such as a match in a competitive game. My guest expert this episode reports on his research into...
View ArticleEpisode 58 - The Economics of Online Games
Just as video games can provide great examples of concepts from psychology, they can also illustrate concepts from neighboring fields. Like economics! In this episode, my guest expert walks us through...
View ArticleEpisode 59: What is a Games Researcher?
People with psychology degrees fill a lot of roles in the gaming industry, including researchers working within a game development company. I talk to one such researcher who works at Riot Games, maker...
View ArticleEpisode 60: Take This (dot org)
I mean, wouldn't it be nice if there were organizations out there that were dedicated to helping people in the gaming communities cope, be healthy, and get the help they need? Wouldn't it be great if...
View ArticleEpisode 61: Twitch Donations
What kind of relationships exist between Twitch streamers and their audience members? How is it different from other kinds of online relationships? And why do people offer monetary support to...
View ArticleEpisode 62 - The Psychology of Trolling
Why do people troll other players in video games? Do they get something out of it or are they just "broken"? A lot of us like to think the latter, but some researchers are starting to investigate...
View ArticleEpisode 63 - Loss Aversion
Loss aversion refers to the fact that we feel more pain from a loss than we do pleasure from an equivalent gain. Losses are worse than gains are good. Most of the time game designers want to avoid...
View ArticleEpisode 64 - How Can Video Games Make Us Happy?
Video games sometimes have an image problem. Honestly some days it feels like one black eye after another. But, let's not lose sight of the good stuff. There's plenty of evidence to suggest that video...
View Article65 - Psych of Final Fantasy
I talk with authors of the new book Surpassing The Limit Break: The Psychology of Final Fantasy. About, well, THAT. Topics like the psychology behind Final Fantasy's storytelling, its use of gender...
View ArticleEpisode 66 - Procedural Rhetoric
When games have a message that they try to convey through systems and gameplay, do players listen? Do they hear what the designers expect? Does anything tend to change as a result?Audio Credits:“Robot...
View ArticlePodcast 67: Esports Performance Consulting
How can psychologists help esports athletes improve, stay healthy, and thrive? I talk to a guest expert with a background in sports psychology and other areas who is doing just that.
View ArticlePodcast 68: Convention Fandom
My guest expert and I talk about the psychology behind geek fandom conventions, how people behave at cons, and how Covid has changed them.
View ArticlePodcast 69: Game Transfer Phenomenon
Ever seen or heard something from a video game while you weren't playing? Ever had an urge to climb a building or select from a dialogue wheel hours after you pushed away from the keyboard or...
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