Introduction
1: Why Do Perfectly Normal People Become Raving Lunatics
Online?
2: Why Do People Cheat, Hack, and Peek at Strategy Guides?
3: Why Are Fanboys and Fangirls So Ready for a Fight?
4: Why Do We Get Nostalgic About Good Old Games?
5: How Do Games Get Us to Keep Score and Compete?
6: How Do Games Get Us to Grind, Complete Side Quests, and Chase
Achievements?
7: How Do Developers Keep Us So Excited About New Loot?
8: How Do Games Make Us Feel Immersed in Imaginary Worlds?
9: Why Do We Go Crazy for Digital Game Sales?
10: How Do Facebook Games and Smartphone Apps Get You With In-Game
Purchases?
11: How Do Games Keep Players Paying?
12: How Do Games Get Players to Market to Each Other?
13: Do We Shape Our In-Game Avatars or Do They Shape Us?
14: Why Do We Like Violent Games So Much? And Should We Be Worried
That We Do?
15: Do Video Games Make You Smarter?
Outroduction: Where Do Psychology and Video Games Go From Here?
Jamie Madigan, PhD, has become an expert on the psychology of video games and seeks to popularize understanding of how various aspects of psychology can be used to understand why games are made how they are and why their players behave as they do. Madigan has written extensively on the subject for various magazines, websites, blogs, and his own site at psychologyofgames.com. He has also consulted with game development companies and talked at conferences about how game developers can incorporate psychology principles into game design and how players can understand how it affects their play. Finally, he has appeared as an expert on the psychology of video games in dozens of print, radio, and web outlets such as The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, BBC Radio 5, the BBC, The Guardian, and more. He is a lifelong gamer and lives in St. Louis, Missouri.
This is a smart, thorough, and funny journey into the world of
video games. Madigan, a psychologist, takes a scholarly approach,
incorporating notable studies from the past, such as Philip
Zimbardo’s experiment of having subjects supposedly administer
painful electric shocks, related here to the 'reduced social
accountability' observed in online game play. He bolsters the
scientific subject matter with humor and a personable and
accessible tone, especially when sharing his own experience as a
gamer. His theories about mental focus don’t seem particularly
specific to video games, but rather are relevant to most forms of
electronic and social media. . . .This is also a considerately
conceived discussion, with handy bullet points at the end of each
chapter. Madigan’s work . . . [is] enough to get the attention of
intellectually curious gamers.
*Publishers Weekly*
Psychologist Jamie Madigan covers a wide range of topics associated
with game consumption, design, and development, yet he manages to
address each in detail. In contrast to those primarily interested
in the emotions of gaming, Madigan lets the data do the talking and
provides reasoned, balanced commentary around the data based on his
long experience as a game player, analyst, and consultant. He
explores recent phenomena such as the success of free-to-play and
in-app purchases, using commercial game examples to make the book
both comprehensible and useful to nonplayers. He also treats topics
such as cheating, pay to play, trolling, and the effects of video
game violence, dealing with them in a refreshingly frank and
open-minded way. The bibliography alone makes this book a useful
resource for students and faculty in academic game programs. Each
chapter concludes with a list of central points. Madigan makes an
excellent case for the role of psychology in video games, not only
as a means of improving games but also as an area in which human
nature is on display in many forms and can be fruitfully observed
and studied. A great book.
Summing Up: Essential. All readers.
*CHOICE*
I love a book that has a great opening sentence. Getting
Gamers opens with 'The history of video games started in a small
Norwegian village during the 1680's when a precocious young
fisherman names Billy 'SadPanda42' Jackson created Call of Duty 3
out of sticks and moxie.' That, my friends, is a great
opening sentence. Not only can Madigan write a good opener, he gets
better as he goes. He takes complex concepts such as
'deindividuation' or 'spacial presence' and make them easily
understandable. More than just understandable, but relatable.
Using examples from casual games to intensely committed game
fans, he shows the influence that the psychology behind the games
can exert. . . .As a teacher, these concepts are [fascinating to]
me. . . .[I]t has a wealth of ideas and concepts that teachers and
administrators should be embracing to change the landscape of
education for the better.
*Making The Awesome: A Blog About Life, Education and
Everything*
Cognitive dissonance theory, social comparison theory, social
identity theory, social learning theory, self-determination theory,
self-perception theory, self-categorization theory,
deindividuation, priming, psychological reactance, emotional
contagion, Asch phenomenon, law of diminishing sensitivity, loss
aversion bias, status quo bias, benign versus malicious envy, ego
depletion, variable schedules of reinforcement,
big-fish–little-pond effect, anchoring effect, Dunning-Kruger
effect, and reciprocity effect, Zeigarnik effect. If you took
Psychology 101 in college you no doubt recognize at least a few of
these terms, and if you followed that up with a mid level course in
social psychology you may recognize most of them. Jamie Madigan
defines and uses all of these terms, quite appropriately, in his
delightful book, Getting Gamers.... If you are a video gamer, the
book’s insights may help you appreciate the games all the more;
help you become more rational in your choices of games and manner
of playing them; and make you less likely to fall for gimmicks
designed to part you from your hard-earned, real-world money or
trap you into game routines that are ultimately more tedious than
fun.... If you are a student or would-be student of psychology, you
will find here accurate, fun-to-read descriptions of basic
psychological theories, principles, and research findings, along
with their applications to video games. Although this is a serious,
thoughtful, well-researched book, it is written in a refreshingly
breezy, often humorous style.
*American Journal of Play*
Jamie takes us as deep into the minds of gamers as is possible
without a scalpel. It's a fascinating and essential read.
*Nir Eyal, author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming
Products*
Jamie Madigan’s fascinating exploration of the psychology of gaming
blends provocative research findings with lively anecdotes and
witty prose. It is accessible, insightful, and a must-read for
gamers and game designers.
*Nick Yee, author of The Proteus Paradox: How Online Games and
Virtual Worlds Change Us--And How They Don't*
Madigan repackages research from familiar names in behavioral
psychology such as Dan Ariely, Drazen Prelec, Amos Tversky, and
Daniel Kahneman, into delightful, yet thought-provoking anecdotes
that seek to understand and explain how psychology affects the
world of games. His easy-to-read style and liberally-sprinkled
humorous asides makes what could have been a dry, academic tome
into a page-turner. Whether you are a game developer or game
player, you will likely come away second-guessing pretty much
everything about how and why we play!
*Dave Mark, President and Lead Designer, Intrinsic Algorithm*
For those interested in the interplay between the science of the
mind and the science of game design, there is no better place to
begin than with this book.
*Mike Ambinder, PhD, Experimental Psychologist, Valve
Corporation*
Jamie Madigan has put together something fun, engaging, and
seriously interesting, and not just for people who love games, but
for people who wonder why we can be so weird online or inside our
social media. I guarantee you will come away from this book with
not only a better understanding of human behavior, but with advice
on how to apply the latest research in your own life and
profession. Madigan exposes how game designers have solved so many
of the behavioral problems we see in other domains, and what you
learn about their process will no doubt be useful in yours.
Madigan's lively, quirky approach to the topic is sure to provide
fresh insights, even if you've read a psychology book or two.
Whether it is exploring immersion, grinding, why we cheat, why we
lob insults, or how freemium games subtly guide our hands toward
our wallets, Madigan wonderfully explains in detail the deeper
phenomena at play.
*David McRaney, author of You Are Not So Smart and You Are Now Less
Dumb and host of the You Are Not So Smart Podcast*
For years now, Jamie Madigan has served as the unofficial
psychologist of the games industry. If you want to understand how
human behavior and games interact, this is the book for you.
*Ian Bogost, Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology*
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