015: Simulation Sickness and Virtual Reality Game Design
In this episode I talk with Ben Lewis Evans, a psychologist and UX researcher at Epic Games, about simulation sickness and virtual reality. We talk about what causes it and what limitations hardware...
View Article016 - Online Relationships and Friendships
In this episode I talk with Rachel Kowert about friendships and other relationships formed in online games. Can these kinds of friendships substitute for offline relationships? Are they better or worse...
View Article017 - Psychology and the Gamification of Learning
In this episode I talk with Karl Kapp about what video gams have in common with effective classrooms, training, or other learning environments and why an over reliance on "points, badges, and...
View Article018 - Biofeedback and Video Games
I talk to Lennart Nacke from the University of Waterloo about the research he has done around psychophysiology --the physiological basis of psychological phenomena. We discuss how various physiological...
View Article019 - Habit Forming Games
Habits --behaviors we do without thinking about them-- are very powerful forces in our lives. And many products like mobile games are designed specifically to create and maintain habits. In this...
View Article020 - 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...
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