Psychology Of Video Games Podcast

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 the morality on display in games have on how we play games and how we enjoy them? How does our own morality come into play? Even if we're not making choices about our avatar's behavior in a game, does seeing him/her act in moral or immoral ways affect how much we're going to enjoy the game or what we're going to think of it once the credits roll? These are the kinds of questions I'll tackle with the aid of this episode's expert guest, Dr. Matthew Grizzard. 

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:Subscribe in iTunes herePodcast RSS FeedPrevious episodesImmersyve.comAudio Credits:"Robot Motivation" by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0Chill Wave Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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 video game addiction. It's a cool talk that should prepare you to discuss and form your own opinions about these popular topics. About the podcast:Subscribe in iTunes herePodcast RSS FeedPrevious episodesVisit Malte Elson's websiteAudio Credits:"Robot Motivation" by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0"Over Under" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Sneaky

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 episodesAudio 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 Attribution 3.0 License"Over Under" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

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 episodesAudio 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 under Creative Commons:CC BY-NC-SA 3.0Far Cry 4 - Far Cr

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 episodesAudio 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 episodesAudio Credits "Robot Motivation" by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0Phantom From Space 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 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 episodesAudio 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 episodesAudio 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 Licensehttp://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/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 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 Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0."Happy Happy Game Show" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0Richard Bartle on Player Type Theory at CasualConnect 2012

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 here:http://www.psychologyofgames.com/podcast/Subscribe in iTunes here:https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/psychology-video-games-podcast/id976468994Audio Credits“Robot Motivation” by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/http://freemusicarchive.org/music/The_Polish_Ambassador/Diplomatic_Immunity/05_Robot_Motivation"Monkeys Spinning Monkeys" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons: By At