Psychology of Video Games Podcast

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/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"Unwritten Return" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1500037"Carnival Intrigue" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/http://incompetech.com/wordpress/2015/04/carnival-intrigue/

The podcast explores how video games differ from other media in terms of the demands they place on players. They discuss new approaches to studying video games and understanding the role of the player. The podcast also delves into the cognitive, emotional, and social demands of gaming, as well as the impact of video games on behavior and relationships. They touch on the social dynamics of games, players befriending their avatars, and research opportunities. Additionally, they discuss ways to support the podcast and mention two sponsors.

Researchers discuss envy's role in microtransactions and in-game purchases. They explore the impact of envy on player behavior and perceptions of gamers who use microtransactions. The podcast delves into the negative aspects of envy and discusses perceptions of cosmetic items. The speakers suggest ways to manipulate envy for improved user experience and highlight the need for more research on the psychological aspects of gaming.

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 have the experiences that its game designers envision, and in this podcast she explains how an understanding of psychology, knowledge of research methods, and experience in data management help her do that. She also shares some advice for anyone interested in getting into this line of work.Thanks also to Caryn Vainio, who set the stage for what UX is and why it matters. Check out her portfolio and website.Info on this week's guests:Celia Hodent's websitefollow her on TwitterAudio Credits:Robot Motivation by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0Hep Cats by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribut

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 act human, you have to know something about how our fleshy meat brains work. You have to know a thing or two about human psychology. Humans don't always act rationally. They take social information like reputation into account when dealing with people. They use mental shortcuts in their decision making that produce weird results. Their perception of a scene can be affected by their attentional resources and the contextual baggage their puny minds bring with them. Can you teach a computer to emulate all that?My guest on this episode of the podcast thinks so. His name is David Mark and he's an expert on developing AI for video games. Mark has also made it a point of studying psychology and applying its lessons to creating AI that seems human if you're willing to suspend a bit of disbelief.Audio Credits:Robot Motivation by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0Winner Winner! by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Exploring toxic behavior in video games, the podcast discusses the reasons behind it, the efforts of the player behavior team at Riot Games, and the impact of various strategies. It also explores experiments on group influence and discusses recent AAA gaming experiences.

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 to do, giving them clear feedback, and a few other things. But recently some researchers have begun to take an interest in how group dynamics and collaborative (or competitive) situations within groups affects flow. Do the rules change when groups are involved?  This, along with psychological flow in general, will be the topic of this podcast episode, along with our expert Dr. Linda Kaye, a Senior Lecturer in the department of Psychology at Edge Hill University in the United Kingdom. She has studied flow in games and started probing into the topic of group flow.My Patron supporters got this podcast days early. Support me on Patron to get early access next time. Info on this week's guest:Info on Dr. Linda KayeHer Researchgate pageAudio creditsMusic: Robot Motivation The Polish Ambassador licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0Buy the Flower OST on

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 many ways he is a great example of how one can merge the worlds of psychology and video games. In this podcast episode Yee will explain how he turned that combination of interests into a job with big time game publisher Ubisoft, where he and longtime research partner Nic Ducheneaut applied social science theory and research methods to game design. Now they are setting out on their own venture to do the same for others in the gaming industry, and Yee will tell us all about it. Yee and I also talk extensively about how gaming companies are using data to track every little thing players are doing and how that information can be used to make games better. More to the point, we talk about privacy, ethics, and what role psychologists can (and should) play in this era of big data. How often are their skills and aptidutes are being put to good use in the gaming industry? Just how much does the training psychologists receive contribute to big game data analytics?Hope you all enjoy this one. Again, please leave a review and rating on the iTunes page or your other podcast service of choice. This is the biggest thing you can do right now to help me out.Info on this week's guest:Info on Dr. Yee and his public

The podcast explores the psychology of video games, focusing on frustration, aggression, and rage quitting. It discusses the impact of violent content and gameplay difficulty on player emotions and aggressive behavior. The importance of providing feedback for competence and performance is also highlighted. The concept of rage quitting is explored, including reasons behind it and suggestions for addressing the issue. The episode wraps up with information on the guest's online presence and gratitude to listeners.