Getting Gamers

The Psychology of Video Games and Their Impact on the People who Play Them

De: Jamie Madigan

Narrado por: Stephen Bel Davies

Getting Gamers will show that rather than being a waste of time, video games can help us develop skills, make friends, succeed at work, form good habits, and be happy. Taking the time to learn what's happening in our heads as we play and shop allows us to approach games and gaming communities on our own terms and get more out of them.

With sales in the tens of billions of dollars each year, just about everybody is playing some kind of video game whether it's on a console, a computer, a web browser, or a phone. Much of the medium's success is built on careful (though sometimes unwitting) adherence to basic principles of psychology. This is something that's becoming even more important as games become more social, interactive, and sophisticated. This book offers something unique to the millions of people who play or design games: how to use an understanding of psychology to be a better part of their gaming communities, to avoid being manipulated when they shop and play, and to get the most enjoyment out of playing games. With examples from the games themselves, Jamie Madigan offers a fuller understanding of the impact of games on our psychology and the influence of psychology on our games.

©2016 Harold James Madigan (P)2019 Tantor

Amazing! You need this one

Amazing audible, I am an old school gamer and neuroscientist, and I love it. This book has great examples and is very easy to ear for no native English speakers.

This Book is Amazing

If you like video games or want to better understand people who do, and if you like psychology, you will love this book.

I have read a lot of "Psychology of ___" books, and most are either (a) kinda complicated or (b) trying to shove all kinds of psychology ideas in while loosely tying them to the topic. This one is neither.

Every topic is clear and shows another facet of how video games are designed to interact with your brain, AND every topic is easy to understand for someone with zero psychology training (such as me).

Great topic for this narrator and writer pairing.

The book is fun, curious, and informed, and the narrator delivers the writer's voice so well! An easy listen with lots of "huh!" and "aha!" moments for me.

very interesting and eye opening.

The content was engaging, narrator was..meh. actually made me consider getting the hard copy

Great look into why we play

A deep look into the reasons people play games and why monetization has been changing.

Amazing

Very good way for game designers to improve their game creating abilities, planing and implementing

Best gaming book I've listened to

I was recently christened as a product manager for a company that pivoted to gaming. In a panic, I grabbed as many books as I could through Audible, Kindle, and physical paperback. Honestly, most of them re crap. This was the one diamond packed full of useful information to help me become somewhat competent

Nice overview of the gaming related science.

This book was exactly what I was looking for. I was very interested in science related to gaming and was looking for a book that married an examination of the scientific literature with something that was fun and digestible. This book did it. I'm a psychologist but was interested in this topic more for leisure and didn't want to scour the literature on this topic for my own research. I think this a great book for anyone interested in learning more about gaming and some of the associated science (as well as the everyday applicability of psychological science). Thanks to the author for writing this and highlighting gaming psychology in a nuanced and generally thoughtful manner.

Deep analysis with tongue in cheek humor

A book about nerd stuff, written for nerds, by a nerd, in possibly the most nerdy fashion. Jamie approaches the topic with numbers, statistics, analysis and humor, and makes it all work for the audience.

good book, bad reader

the book is actually very good, it has a lot of information that game designers can use and develop from, also it is very entertaining to see how we think about video games as a whole

this is just a slight nitlick but the reader is very bad at selling enthusiasim and sarcasm, most of the jokes come out dry because the reader is not a gamer to begin with

but overall a good book to listen to and a great time