Psychology of Video Games Podcast

It's frequently argued that playing games like Dungeons & Dragons can help you develop social skills like, cooperation, teamwork, and interpersonal communication. Get in there, use the game as scaffolding to practice those skills in a low-risk environment, and be a better you!

And while these arguments make sense and are sometimes paired with anecdotal evidence, research in a controlled study are hard to come by for a variety of reasons. In this episode of the podcast, I'll talk with a researcher who has set out to create and empirically test a program for using D&D to help...

Toxicity in video games has been a long-standing and long-studied problem. In this episode, I talk to someone who has not only studied toxic behavior among gamers, but specifically looked at how players deal with it --or don't deal with it-- and what game companies can do to help gamers when they see or experience it.

Audio Credits:
“Robot Motivation” by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Many games put forth some kind of value that they hope will be communicated to players, be they ones that see obvious (like the value of empathy) or subtle (like experiencing life under capitalism). When the insertion of these values into game development is deliberate, what do we know about how it happens and what effects it has on players?

Support me on Patreon: https://patreon.com/pog

Audio Credits:
“Robot Motivation” by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0"Chill Wave" by Kevin Macleod

We have some decent theories for understanding the appeal of many different types of video games. But one thing I've always struggled to explain is why people love really difficult games (like Dark Souls) or really easy games (like Cookie Clicker). In this episode I'll explore one theory about uncertainty reduction that helps explain why we find ANY kind of game engaging.

Support me on Patreon: https://patreon.com/pog

Audio Credits:
“Robot Motivation” by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0"Chill Wave" by Kevin Macleod

My publisher is running a Kickstarter to offer discounted, early copies of my new book on the Psychology of Dungeons & Dragons. To help you decide if you want to back it (I think you should, but I'm arguably biased), this episode contains excerpts from multiple chapters and some of my own inside commentary.The book will be available for sale widely later this year, but this is a great chance to get an early copy for 25% off. Print, audiobook, or ebook. You can also bundle in any of the other four books in the Geek Psychology series, so worth a l...

Have you ever become attached to a place in a video game? A virtual environment that you've obviously never visited in the flesh but which you start to think of it like a real place?  Maybe the dwarven capitol of Ironforge in World of Warcraft? The spaceship The Normandy in Mass Effect? Link and Zelda's land of Hyrule? Maybe you you have become so familiar with those virtual places through repeated navigation and interaction that you attach importance and character to it like you do your childhood home, the first place you ever had a part-time job, or the neighborhood t...

Many of us have considered ourselves "passionate" about one thing or another, including video games or even specific game series or franchises. But what does this mean and is it always a good thing? When can passion become a detriment to our lives and our psychological well-being? These are the kinds of questions I'll discuss with this episode's guest expert.Audio Credits:“Robot Motivation” by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

In this episode, I'll explore some research on whether or not video games can make you smarter or help you develop certain cognitive skills.Audio Credits:
“Robot Motivation” by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

In this episode, I talk with an expert on how video games elicit nostalgia and what it means for players and consumers.

Audio Credits:
“Robot Motivation” by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

What do research and theory say about how our avatars in video games and virtual reality may shape our behaviors --and how they don't?

Audio Credits:
“Robot Motivation” by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

In this episode I talk with an expert on diagnosing and treating ADHD in children. We'll talk about the challenges video games present to people with ADHD and some strategies for dealing with problems it may present.

Audio Credits:
“Robot Motivation” by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0"Bumbly March" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In-game purchases are a staple of modern game design, especially in the free-to-play and live service categories. This isn't necessarily bad as a business model, but there are some psychological effects that these games either intentionally or accidentally employ that may make us spend more than we intend to.

Audio Credits:


“Robot Motivation” by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Sometimes we have to sell people on the merits of games like Dungeons & Dragons. People like parents, principals, teachers, or even our own significant others Usually this comes in the form of telling them all the great benefits playing brings --learning math, reading, communication, teamwork, social skills, and more. D&D is also often specifically praised for its ability to help neurodivergent people develop needed skills, or to provide "therapeutic" experiences for anyone.

But can it? Does it? If so, what can game masters and other players do to make it happen?

Audio Credits:
“Robot Mo...

Is technology or game design more important for determining whether we feel immersed and present in the world of a video game? What kinds of things will make us forget about the screen between us and that world, the controller in our hands, and the other things around us so that we start to feel like we're actually inhabiting the virtual world of the game?

Audio Credits:
“Robot Motivation” by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

What do psychologists and games researchers have to say about the idea of role-playing, when you pretend to take on another person's persona, point of view, thoughts, and state of mind? What effects can role-playing games have on us? Tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons feature this as a central part of the experience, and some video games also ask you to do it.

Audio Credits:



“Robot Motivation” by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0"Heroic Age" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/lice...

What can the psychology of loot drops tell us about the evolution of the Diablo series?

Audio Credits:
“Robot Motivation” by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Can playing a lot of games lead us to become better at explaining why a given character or behavior is moral or immoral?

Audio Credits:
“Robot Motivation” by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

"Sneaky Snitch" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this episode, I'm flying solo and doing a deep dive into what one theory has to say about why we're motivated to play video games, with an emphasis on grinding in particular.

There's a growing trend among therapists who bring people together --often children, but sometimes adults-- to play Dungeons & Dragons and other role-playing games in a therapeutic context. Run by game masters who are qualified mental health professionals, these sessions help people dealing with ADHD, autism, learning disorders, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and many other diagnoses. Using their expertise both in the game and in providing therapy, these dungeon masters set goals, guide players into encounters that help them reach those goals, and then pause so that the group can reflect, ponder the application of what they've experienced to life...

I talk about some of the psychology behind sales, especially digital sales that have no physical items or storefronts involved. What are some of the things that digital storefronts do --either intentionally or not-- that you should know about so that you can approach sales on your own terms?

Could we develop a training regime for esports teams? It happens all the time in other kinds of sports. Coaches assign certain types of weight training and drills to soccer players, baseball players, football players, and any other kind of professional or even collegiate athlete you can think of. Could we do the same thing with esports athletes? What's the current state of research on training professional game players in esports?

I share a lecture I recently gave on the psychology behind nostalgia, that bittersweet remembrance of times past. We'll explore why nostalgia has led to so many remakes, remasters, and reboots of old gaming franchises. And why that's not necessarily a bad thing.

How can watching people play Critical Role or playing D&D yourself lead to transformative, psychologically meaningful experiences? And is that a thing you want?

Why are fans so ready to get in fights over their preferred game properties or gaming consoles ?

Could a commercial VR game you're playing be used for therapy? What should therapists and their patients know about VR and related technologies being used in therapy?

What's the psychology behind when and why people cheat? What can we apply from that research to cheating in video games? Find out in this lecture I recently gave on the topic.

My guests and I talk about how platforms like Twitch are changing how researchers think about parasocial relationships. Is it only one-sided when there's audience interaction?

Why do gamers sometimes engage in toxic behavior and what psychology can developers leverage to curb it?

My guest and I discuss how a physician can specialize in caring for the mental and physical health of professional gamers. Lindsey Migliore, MD is one of the foremost experts In esports medicine, trusted by the leading esports organizations and industry leaders. Through her work as GamerDoc, she applies scientific principles to the field of competitive gaming to definitively improve performance and expand the life span of the esports athlete. Her handbook of esports medicine, the first of its kind, was published in 2021 by Springer Medical. She is currently the Director of Player Performance at Evil Geniuses.

What's the psychology behind what makes video games engaging? Why will people invest their whole time, vigor, and attention to some games and not others?

My guest expert Dr. Shane Tilton and I discuss memes and how communities like gamers create and communicate through them.

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 controller? In this episode, I talk with my guest expert about these kinds of "game transfer phenomena" and their implications.

My guest expert and I talk about the psychology behind geek fandom conventions, how people behave at cons, and how Covid has changed them.

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.

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 Motivation” by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 http://freemusicarchive.org/music/The_Polish_Ambassador/Diplomatic_Immunity/05_Robot_Motivation

Satisfactory Dev Highlight Music by Sleeper's Delight https://soundcloud.com/sleepersdelight/satisfactory-dev-highlight-music

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 subtypes, how its music enhances our enjoyment, how we develop attachments to characters, and how the game makes use of fundamental psychological drives.

Audio Credits:

“Robot Motivation” by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
Gymnopedie No. 1 by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3837-gymnopedie-no-1 License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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 games help people and make our lives better. They create scaffolds on which we can build social support. They motivate us to improve. They get us into healthy mindsets around problem-solving, developing new skills, and cooperating with others. And a lot more. In this episode, I talk with my guest expert Dr. Ryan Kelly about the overlap between video games and positive psychology.

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 triggering this feeling, but not always. I talk with my guest expert this episode about how game designers can incorporate --or not-- loss aversion into their game design. In fact, he wrote a book about it!

Audio Credits:

“Robot Motivation” by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
Despair Creation by Max Lija, Othercide OST (http...

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 exactly why people troll in video games and in general.

Links:

https://twitter.com/christinelcookl
https://socialinteractionlab.com/
Audio Credits:

“Robot Motivation” by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
Hitman by Kevin MacLeod. Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3880-hitman License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Children Laughing Sound by Mike...

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 streamers? Why do some streamers get more donations than others? Is it because they're super hot? Do they do a good job of making lonely people feel included? Do they do something to make their audience members feel like they're just two friends hanging out online? Put another way: If you were a Twitch streamer, what lessons could you draw from the research that has been done about...

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 there were someone offering aid in our quest to get through life healthy, happy, well prepared? Well, I'm going to talk to someone from one such organization that has adopted the mission to do just that.

“Robot Motivation” by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
One Sly Move by Kevin MacLeod. Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5759-blippy-trance Lice...

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 of League of Legends and Valorant, about what she does, how she got where she is, and what advice she has for those interested in charting a similar course.

“Robot Motivation” by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
Blippy Trance by Kevin MacLeod. Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5759-blippy-trance License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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 his adventures in using basic knowledge of economics to wreak havoc (and have fun) in a massively multiplayer online game. And what kinds of issues designers of these kinds of games have to take into consideration.

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 understanding the differences between the mental models of League of Legends players at different levels of expertise and accomplishment. Can understanding how these mental models are structured and developed help players become better and suggest ways that game designers can facilitate such development?

How therapeutic Dungeons & Dragons sessions are reaching people who need help in an engaging way.

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?

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 what they called "adversarial collaboration" to run a study and find out. One didn't think they would find an effect from playing as Mrs. Croft. The other did. Find out who was right.

Are friendships and other relationships formed in online games substitutes for offline relationships? Are they better?

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 being distracted by video games and other technology when you don't want to be. It's all in his new book, Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life, available now.

Nir discusses the psychology behind distraction and its opposite, which he calls "traction." Along with this, we talk about specific strategies for getting more traction and when it's okay to...

Psychology of Games Summer Book Club begins with an interview with Dr. Pete Etchells, author of the newly released Lost in a Good Game.

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 games.

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 emotional experiences. It can be used to great effect and probably plays a big part in more games than you realize.

But leveraging empathy in games has its own risks and pitfalls. Designers who do so need to be aware of these so that they can successfully create the outcomes they want and so that players aren't abused or exposed to undue distress.
<...

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 is the full interview with Representative Chris Lee, and the other is with Ed White, who has provided testimony during hearings on the topic.

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 researcher, who are both very interested in the answers to those questions.

How do game developers make virtual items as collectible as physical objects?

I talk with Dr. Anthony Bean and several of his collaborators on a book about psychology and the Legend of Zelda.

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 so difficult to do it well. We also talk about the use of actual games to assess people's skills and abilities. Is it possible to create, for example, a game that measures people' general mental ability?

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. We also discuss what lessons psychology has for helping other people at the table --possibly including yourself-- and how to find and get along with a new gaming group.

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 choices we look for strategies and heuristics for making those decisions easier. And what's more, much of this might happen with little to no conscious thought. Our brains have evolved to become really good at applying these kinds of decision-making rules and we tend to apply them automatically or let them be guided by gut instinct and emotion. In short, we develop an affinity...

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 that psychologists have found to be important for success in work and life in general. Games can teach you how to persist through obstacles, for example, or how to cooperate with people towards a common goal. They can drive learning and creative thinking.

These are the kinds of topics I will discuss with this week's guest expert, Jonathan D. Harrison.<...

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 character that might have been pulled from any given movie, television show, or novel? Or was it something that you created, tweaked, and customized from whole cloth –well, digital whole cloth– to look just how you wanted and behave exactly as you thought appropriate?

Among different kinds of media, video games are unique in how they...

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 would study (or study more) about the psychology of video games. And why it would be great if they did.

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 demographic groups, some aspects of games and gaming culture continue to be misunderstood or, worse yet, maligned. In this episode my guest and I are going to examine yet another group that may need some evidence-based information about video games: mental health therapists and similar professionals. That is, those working with kids, adults, and families who may not only be incorporating video games and p...

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 to video games. And people who study those kinds of user experiences need to be aware of some of the very basic ways that squishy human brains can be expected to operate as they set out to test and measure how people interact with their products and make sense of their media. If they don't take those things into account, they lose one of their most important guideposts to improving user experiences...

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 physical space with tangible objects. But just like with video games, people who design escape rooms and other kinds of live, narrative experiences can benefit from an understanding of human psychology. What kinds of boundaries do typical human perception and information processing place on how an escape room can be designed? How can the well worn mental shortcuts that people use to make decisions and u...

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 psychological theories. He aims to avoid false consensus and advocate for what he calls "player empathy." That is, using a framework of personality and motivation psychology to break out of our false consensus and talk about what kinds of gaming experiences that players may want and how to give it to them. 

Jason Vandenberghe's blog

GDC 2012 Talk 

GDC 2013 Talk 
Duration: 01:17:14

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 incorporating courses on psychology because it helps make better games. I talk about this trend with this week's guest expert, Vanessa Hemovich.

 

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 lot going on between our ears whenever we play.

And wouldn't it be great if some of those mental gymnastics helped us with dealing with more mundane but probably more important tasks outside of games. Stuff like school, work, and interacting with other people? Can you connect game-based learning and practice of these skills with "real life" skills? Might this be especially useful for certain people, like kids...

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 Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0Several tracks from Incomptech licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 :
Mining by MoonlightMoon Lounge Omicron PrimeDeucesDaybreakOne Sly MoveSeveral video game songs:
Guile's Theme from the Street Fighter 2 sountrackDiablo 3 main themeOverwatch main themeDark Souls 3

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 others have done on what leads to harassment in video games and other online spaces, as well as things we might try to curb it. He also talks about the path he took to marry academia and video games.

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 Internet Gaming Disorder as a real mental disorder in the handbook psychiatrists use to diagnose someone.

Audio Credits:
"Robot Motivation" by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 "Sneaky Snitch," "Over Under," and "Netherworld" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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 is the lesser. And even games without much choice usually have characters that we pass moral judgment on when we decide if their actions are defensible or not. 

Media psychologists have studied those judgments and choices in the context of other types of media, and they're starting to look at them in the unique context of video games. What effects does t...

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. Specifically, we review a paper entitled "Playing for Love In a Romantic Video Game: Avatar Identification, Parasocial Relationships, and Chinese Women's Romantic Beliefs" and another study looking at how customizing avatars' appearances can make them more or less persuasive.

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 week's guest:
The Play & Interactive Experiences for Learning Lab

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 violent video games for all kinds of things, the state of the research, morality and games, and some of the reasons why games are actually good for you.

About the podcast:
Previous episodesBuy the Moral Combat book on Amazon

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 tend to have about the mental wellbeing of their kids ...ON VIDEO GAMES.Audio Credits: "Robot Motivation" by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.

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 kids and families and they explain why games are so uniquely useful in their line of work.Audio Credits: "Robot Motivation" by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

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 get better at it, that we feel like we have meaningful choices in how to do it, and that it makes us matter to other people. In this episode of the podcast I talk with researcher and consultant Scott Rigby about how this Self Determination Theory applies to video game design and a lot of other stuff we gamers encounter every day.

About the podcast:
S...

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 personal as video game experiences is even more tricky. 

In this episode of the podcast I talk about all that with my guest, Malte Elson, a behavioral psychologist working at Ruhr University Bochum in Germany. He has spent a lot of time thinking about researching video games and has a lot of thoughts about the state of research on things like video game violence and v...

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 reward, but is that always so? In this episode I talk with Michael Hanus about when these kinds of things work and when they don't.

About the podcast:
Subscribe in iTunes herePodcast RSS FeedPrevious episodes
Audio Credits:
"Robot Motivation" by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0"Bicycle" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By...

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 pleasure. 

About the podcast:
Subscribe in iTunes herePodcast RSS FeedPrevious episodes


Audio Credits
"Robot Motivation" by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0Smarter Than You - Ambient music captured from the appPay to Win - Shiny Tech from Incomptech licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0Shenmu 3 - Shenmu OSTBatman - Batman Arkham Knight OSTWii U - Pixeland from Incomptech licensed und...

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 episode I talk to Nir Eyal about how habits are formed, how they're broken, and a variety of other related topics. Oh yeah, and we talk a lot about Pokemon Go.

About the podcast:
Subscribe in iTunes herePodcast RSS FeedPrevious episodes
Audio Credits:
"Robot Motivation" by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0Pokemon Go main theme The Birds (1963) movie trailer

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 processes like breathing, heart rate, eye movement, and more can be used by video games to create new experiences. And what we can expect from this kind of technology in the future. It's actually kind of surprising how far along this stuff is. 

About the podcast:
Subscribe in iTunes herePodcast RSS FeedPrevious episodes
Audio Credits
"Robot Motivation" by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY...

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 leaderboards" isn't a good idea.



About the podcast:
Subscribe in iTunes herePodcast RSS FeedPrevious episodes
Audio Credits
"Robot Motivation" by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0Over Under Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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 in some ways?

About the podcast:
Subscribe in iTunes herePodcast RSS FeedPrevious episodes
Audio Credits
"Robot Motivation" by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0Wagon Wheel Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/Over Under Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by...

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 and game designers have to design around in order to avoid it. 



Audio credits:


"Robot Motivation" by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0"Petulant March" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0.Intense VR Game Challenges You to Save a Kitten from a Ledge

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 some research that he and his colleagues have been doing around player types, gaming motivations, and personality types. Maybe you'll learn something about what makes your gamer soul tick. 





Audio Credits
"Robot Motivation" by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0"Bit Quest" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Cre...

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 others for helping us recharge our reserves and getting over stressful events. Now, some psychologists --such as Dr. Emily Collins, my guest on this episode-- are looking at how video games may be super effective at helping us recover from stress. And how some genres or types of games may do it better than others.



More about the podcast h...

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, Christopher J. Ferguson, Ph.D. He is a prolific researcher and commentator on the topic of video game violence, and he shares his thoughts about the state of the research and whether or not we should be worried about letting kids watch violent TV or games.

Plus, we have a side conversation into the topic of misogyny and other stereotyping in video game culture and...

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 my attention span, stunt my social skills, and make me generally unhealthy. As a result, I was made to go outside, play with friends, and get fresh air. Now that I have kids of my own, I can't just stand by and let them play as much as they sometimes want to.

But a lot about video...

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 talking about mainstream action games that most of us play.

More about the podcast here:
http://www.psychologyofgames.com/podcast/

Subscribe in iTunes here:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/psychology-video-games-podcast/id976468994

Audio Credits:

“Robot Motivation” by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/
http://free...

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 turns out that video games ARE special and something new.

More about the podcast here:

http://www.psychologyofgames.com/podcast/



Subscribe in iTunes here:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/psychology-video-games-podcast/id976468994



AUDIO CREDITS:



"Robot Motivation" by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC...

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 happens if you pay to win while I grind it out?



More about the podcast here:

http://www.psychologyofgames.com/podcast/



Subscribe in iTunes here:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/psychology-video-games-podcast/id976468994



AUDIO CREDITS:



"Robot Motivation" by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative...

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"



More about the podcast here:

http://www.psychologyofgames.com/..

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 people who play video games, interact with hardware, and navigate through menus, it's easy to see how an understanding of attention, perception, cognition, mental heuristics, learning, and memory can help UX researchers do their jobs.

In this episode I talk to Celia Hodent, the Director of User Experience at Epic Games and a psychology Ph.D. Hodent and her team help Epic make sure that its customers...

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, shopkeeers, quest givers, teammates, other NPCs --they can all be controlled by a game's artificial intelligence. AI has come a long, long way thanks to advances in the field and increased processing power on our gaming hardware, but some games are still better than others at making us feel that an NPC or enemy bot is acting like a human.

But to make something inhuman...

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 string of letters or another. This sort of toxic behavior is particularly bad in some parts of the gaming scene, and it has always struck me as weird. Why are we so willing to bully, harass, and jeer at people in ways that we would never consider doing in real life?

And perhaps a more interesting question to go...

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 psychological flow, and it's been studied in work, sports, and all kinds of play including video games.

Game developers often design with flow in mind, and getting players to that state is usually seen as the halmark of good game design. It usually involves getting dialing in just the right amount of challenge, making sure players know what they need...

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 psychology and experimental design and he has published several articles in refereed scientific journals. He has also written a book about the psychology behind how video game avatars shape our behaviors. All along the way, Yee has managed to blend these interests in psychology with his expertise in computer science and a love of video games to do some pretty interesting things. In...

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 Przybylski from Oxford University about research that he and his colleagues have done on video game violence, frustration, aggression, and motivation. Specifically around some additional questions and research topics that psychologists should be investigating around aggression and games. We also talk about how game designers and community managers might use this research to make players feel less frustrated and angry in certain...