Getting Gamers - by Jamie Madigan (Paperback)

About the Book

A psychologist and life-long fan of video games helps you understand what psychology has to say about why video games and mobile game apps are designed the way they are, why players behave as they do, and the psychological tricks used to market and sell them.

Book Synopsis

A psychologist and life-long fan of video games helps you understand what psychology has to say about why video games and mobile game apps are designed the way they are, why players behave as they do, and the psychological tricks used to market and sell them.

Review Quotes

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.

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.

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.

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.

Jamie takes us as deep into the minds of gamers as is possible without a scalpel. It's a fascinating and essential read.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

About the Author

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.