Psychology of Games

Psychology of Games !!

There’s a growing trend among therapists who bring people together –often children, but sometimes adults– to play?Dungeons & Dragons?and other role-playing games in a therapeutic context. Run by game masters who are qualified mental health professionals, these sessions help people dealing with ADHD, autism, learning disorders, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and many other diagnoses. Using their expertise both in the game and in providing therapy, these dungeon masters set goals, guide players into encounters that help them reach those goals, and then pause so that the group can reflect, ponder the application of what they’ve experienced to life outside the game, and grow.

When making games, developers have to make myriads of choices. What score and soundtracks do they use and which effect will it have on the players? What about the graphics? What kind of reward system or social interaction will there be? Psychology helps us to better understand each of these choices, as games can be carefully crafted to suit the preferences of the audience.

The British researcher Richard Bartle identifies four different types of gamers: there are those who want to explore (e.g. No Man’s Sky), those who want to compete and master games (e.g. League of Legends), those who want to fulfill tasks and quests (e.g. World of Warcraft), and those who want to socialize (all multiplayer games). Each game caters to each of these categories to a different degree.

Each individual gamer has a different taste when it comes to these types of games and will choose their games accordingly. Of course, the lines between genres are blurred and every single game features these aspects to a different extent – but categorizing them helps to understand the motivation behind playing games.