The Psychology of Video Games. A Psychologist's Perspective on Video Games, Gamers, and the Gaming Industry

This book dispels popular myths and misconceptions about the harm of video games. In fact, they help develop skills, achieve success at work, and form good habits. Explore what happens in our heads when we buy games and play them,... and start approaching them on your own terms, gaining benefits from them and enjoying them.

• Is it true that video games make us smarter?
• Why do people enjoy violent games and why is it okay?
• How do games sell each other and make us spend in-app?
• How do games train us to chase achievements and rejoice in loot?

Understand how games and gaming marketing influence players and how people can establish a healthy approach to them.
Learn to use psychology to create engaging games that satisfy players' needs without beginning to exploit them.
Find out why certain approaches to marketing, community development, social media, and pricing work—or don’t work—in the gaming industry.

«In Russia, a generation of gamers has grown up and is already influencing a large part of the business, culture, education, politics, and other sectors. The social and cultural impact of video games is so great that it cannot be ignored. Therefore, it is important to understand from a psychological and behavioral point of view how more opportunities for social interaction and the formation of future generations are created through gaming experience.» — Vasily Ovchinnikov, Head of the Organization for the Development of the Video Game Industry, Candidate of Sociological Sciences