Podcast 96 – The Psychology of D&D Book Preview
Hear multiple excerpts and commentary from the audiobook version of my new book, The Psychology of Dungeons & Dragons
Hear multiple excerpts and commentary from the audiobook version of my new book, The Psychology of Dungeons & Dragons
My new book on the psychology of D&D comes out November 25th! See the table of contents, listen to audiobook excerpts, and preorder now.
My new book explains why your workplace should look more like a video game. And it’s out now!
I’ll be on a panel talking about how I turned my passion for psychology and games into …all this. *gestures broadly at website*
The audio book of Getting Gamers is out, plus how you can appear in my next book
I’m going to PAX West August 31 – September 3rd! I’ll be on panels about gaming disorders and moral choices in games! You should say hello!
30 questions about psychology and video games that I wish academics would answer (or answer better).
Enjoyed the articles and podcasts over the years? Kick a buck or two my way to keep them coming.
Some of my favorite stupid sentences from my book about the psychology of video games.
Getting Gamers: The Psychology of Video Games and Their Impact on the People Who Play Them is a book about how video games use psychology to shape our behavior, manipulate our beliefs, and rig our purchasing decisions.
After 6 years and 151 pieces of content, I’m asking for a little support to move this whole psychology of games thing forward.
Get 3 free talks about psychology and video games from the 2015 Game Developer’s Conference.
I have an article on the psychology behind loot, grinding, and player envy in the new issue of Edge Magazine, #276. Read more for some more details.
I’m almost done with my book, but I need your help if you’re interested in covering it for your publication, providing pre-release comments, or using it in your classroom.
How can information about players’ scores and other accomplishments be framed so as to motivate them to compete and try to do better than other players? Let’s explore 3 psychological phenomena that can help.
Hey, while I work on my own book about the psychology of video games, here are three good reads on the topic to tide you over.
Have you ever wanted to read about this stuff in book format? Good news!
Here’s a list of 50+ academics on Twitter who study or write about the overlap between video games and fields like psychology, communications, sociology, law, and more. Find someone new to follow!
My latest column over at Gamesindustry.biz looks at the question of whether we’d be happier if we had to stick with our choices in games instead of always having the option to respec, respend, and revise without penalty.
For some reason, author David McReady asked me to be his guest on his You Are Not So Smart podcast. As you might guess, we talked about psychology and video games.
Last year I wrote several articles for Edge Magazine about the psychology of various video game topics. Somehow I missed that Edge put these online for viewing, so in case you didn’t catch the print editions I’ve helpfully aggregated them all here in one post. Wait …hang on, I’ve got to check something. Okay, yes.…
Attention, Internet: I have a new article on the psychology of the uncanny valley up on gamesindustry.biz. You know what the uncanny valley is, right? It’s that theory originally from the field of robotics that says if you stick a couple arms and googly eyes on a trash can it looks cute, but if you…
I have a new article up on gamesindustry.biz exploring the psychological appeal of violent shooters via self-determination theory. I draw from work by Scott Rigby, Richard Ryan, and Andrew Przybylski that looks at how this theory of human motivation can explain why violent shooters are so popular. SPOILER: It’s because good shooter design also happens…
Did you find that last article on social comparisons and leader boards interesting? Really? Weird. Well, If you want to read more about social comparison, competition, and video games, you can do so in this month’s Edge Magazine, issue #243. It contains the last of my series of “Psychology of…” articles for them, The Psychology…
Another of my articles on the psychology of video games has been published in Edge Magazine, Issue #232 July 2012. This time I wrote about the nostalgia we feel for good old games and how game developers and marketers capitalize on nostalgia to sell us reboots, sequels, and retro games. I have written about nostalgia…
My latest article on the psychology of video games for Edge Magazine has been published in issue #241. It’s the one with the Crysis 3 cover. In it, I explore a bit about some theories of decision making and genre usage that may clue us in on why we like the genres we like. Why…
I have a new article about the psychology of video game avatars in issue #240 of Edge Magazine. It’s this one: This article was a lot of fun to write. My standard operating procedure is to look at some body of psychological research or theory that has nothing to do with video games, and then…
Good news, everyone! Well, good for me and possibly good for you if you’re inclined to read Edge Magazine. Because my mutterings on the psychology of games are now appearing there. Specifically, I have an article about the psychology of free-to-play games in the latest issue (April, #239) with the cover below. The article is…
Well, I didn’t “do” a podcast as much as I appeared on one. This one on Quartertothree.com, to be exact. It’s a semiregular podcast put on by the folks at that website, where each week a member of their messageboard community sits in as a special guest. I talked about I-O psychology, Skyrim, the new…
By far, one of the most widely linked to and discussed articles I’ve written for this site is this one on immersion in video games. A while back I wrote an expanded version of that article for GamePro magazine where I focused more on new video game technologies, and GamePro.com has recently published it for…
GamePro.com has published my article about the psychology of horror games, so if you didn’t catch it in the print magazine a while back you can now. IF YOU DARE. [UPDATE: Sorry, GamePro is kaput and the linked article is gone. Sorry!] I sent a moderately frightened Bobo the Quote Monkey to fetch something from…
As I mentioned a while back I wrote an article for GamePro magazine about the psychology of shooters and why interacting with game worlds through the barrel of a gun is often so appealing. I got some great input from people doing real research in this area and I like how the article turned out.…
If you can get your hands on the new issue of GamePro magazine (#267, December 2010 with Diablo 3 on the cover), check out my article on the psychology of horror. The timing with Halloween was better a week or so ago when the issue first came out. This is another one of those topics…
A few months ago I wrote an article for GamePro magazine about what effects deindividuation and anonymity had on gamers. For those of you who aren’t subscribers or who didn’t pick up the magazine, GamePro recently published the article on their website for your clicking pleasure. I turned Bobo the Quote Monkey loose on the…
The new issue of GamePro magazine (October 2010, #265) is out and features my article on the psychology of shooters. If you buy the magazine on the store shelf, the cover is the one on the left below. If, however, you’re a subscriber and got yours through the mail, you got the variant cover on…
Back in January 2010 when I launched this site, I laid out the things it could lead to on a continuim from low to high. On the low end was “Nobody likes it, everybody dies.” On the very top of the high end was “Book deal, everyone lives” and close behind that was “Someone hires…
Last Thursday I did a talk at 2010 Login Conference in super nifty downtown Seattle. The title of the talk was “The Psychology of Games: Why We Do What We Do When Playing With Friends (And Screw That Other Guy).” I was pretty proud of myself for getting a talk accepted when it included a…
Have you ever wanted to hear me go on about the psychology of video games without that annoying Internet between us? You HAVE? Are you going to be in Seattle, Washington, USA on May 14th at 2pm? You ARE? Well, you’re in luck, because I’m teaming up with some of the folks at GameSpy Technology…