Psychology of Video Games Podcast

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 R...

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...

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 FeedPreviou...

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 Tha...

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 herePo...

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 ki...

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-...

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 3.0...

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 Mac...

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 Cr...

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 s...

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...

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 s...

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-v...

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-v...

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-game...

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...

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...

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...

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 se...

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...

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 r...