021 - 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 ArticleCan Video Games Make You Smarter? (Rebroadcast)
In this rebroadcast of an earlier episode I talk to Dr. C. Shawn Green about whether or not video games can make us smarter or improve certain mental and perceptual skills. And not just those brain...
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 Article001 - Video Game Frustration, Aggression, and Rage Quitting
Text. Pfft. Text is dead, am I right? Voice without video, THAT'S the future. Given that, I've decided to dip into the world of podcasting and have recorded my first episode. I talked to Dr. Andrew...
View Article002 - Big Data and Becoming a Video Game Psychologist
Ever wondered how one gets into the field of video game psychology? Is there even such a field, really? In many ways Dr. Nick Yee is the answer to both those questions. He has a background in...
View Article003 - Psychological Flow
Ever just get "in the zone" with a video game? Like it just clicks with you and it's challenging enough to hold your interest but not too difficult as to get frustrating? This is a mental state called...
View Article004 - Toxic Behavior in Video Games
I think most of us have been there: we join an online multiplayer game and suddenly someone is screaming all kinds of nasty things at us, telling us to die in a fire, or spamming us with some hateful...
View Article005 - Psychology and Game AI
Playing with and against other humans is great in many ways (and not so great in others) but the fact is that gamers spend a lot of time interacting with computer-controlled agents. Enemies,...
View Article006 - Psychology and UX
User Experience ("UX" for short) is one of those disciplines in the gaming industry often tied to psychology. And given how it's interested in understanding and quantifying the experiences of the...
View Article007 - Video Game Debates and Research
I talk to Rachel Kowert and Throston Quandt about their new book on the the many debates surrounding video games as the scientific study of games. Kowert & Quandt's book, "The Video Game Debate"...
View Article008 - Envy and Microtransactions
I talk to researcher Niels van de Ven about how envy can drive us to make in-game purchases and microtransactions, as well as what effect such purchases have on what we think of other players. What...
View Article009 - How Games Differ From Other Media
In this episode I talk to Dr. Nick Bowman about how video games differ from other media in terms of the demands they place on players and thus how our approaches to studying them should differ. It...
View Article010 - Can Games Make You Smarter?
In this episode I talk to Dr. C. Shawn Green about whether or not video games can make us smarter or improve certain mental and perceptual skills. And not just those brain training games --we're...
View Article011 - How do video games affect our physical and mental health?
I admit it: I'm turning into my parents. When I was a kid I played a lot of games, and they had concerns about how it was affecting my physical and mental health. My mom and dad thought it would wreck...
View Article012 - Video Game violence
Does controlling or experiencing violence in video games cause violence, aggression, or other acts of malice outside of the game? This is the main question that I discuss with my guest this episode,...
View Article013 - Stress, Games, and Recovery
Ever used video games to blow off some steam and recover from a hard day at work or school? Psychologists who study stress and how we recover from it have noted that certain activities are better than...
View Article014: Why Do YOU Play Games?
Hey. I've got a question for you: Why do you play games? That's going to be the topic of discussion in this episode of the podcast, with my guest Dr. Nick Yee from Quantic Foundry. He's going to share...
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