Psychology of Video Games Podcast

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_MotivationSatisfactory 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 3.0Gymnopedie 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 (https://www.maxlilja.com/)

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 3.0Hitman by Kevin MacLeod. Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3880-hitman License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Children Laughing Sound by Mike Koenig http://soundbible.com/1848-Children-Laughing.html

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 all this?These are the kinds of questions that I will investigate and answer with the help of this episode's guest expert.