Psychology of Video Games Podcast

Jamie Madigan•www.psychologyofgames.com

Leisure

Video Games

Examining how psychology explains why video games are made how they are and why gamers behave as we do.

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Episodes

010 - 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 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 ...

Dec 16, 2015•1 hr 1 min

009 - 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 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 ...

Nov 16, 2015•1 hr 12 min

008 - 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 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 Cre...

Oct 12, 2015•52 min

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

Sep 14, 2015•50 min

006 - 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 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 Experien...

Aug 17, 2015•52 min

005 - 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, 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 en...

Jul 15, 2015•1 hr 1 min

004 - 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 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 qu...

Jun 15, 2015•1 hr 2 min

003 - 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 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 ...

May 18, 2015•49 min

002 - 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 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 compute...

Apr 14, 2015•52 min

001 - 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 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 ...

Mar 13, 2015•45 min

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