An In-Depth Psychology of Games

Gamasutra has a lengthy article discussing many aspects of The Psychology of Video Games. The article discusses why we play, why games are made the way they are, and tips for designing for members of our species. From the article: "We are all familiar with the feeling we have when we are completely caught up in a great game. The state where we are completely focused on playing, and all other things become irrelevant. This article is about that feeling - why we get it when we play games, and how we can design games that give us more of it."

Comments

I <3 Maslow's Hierarchy

[bersl2]

goddamnit! preview next time!

Re:It's all about the brainwaves

[FirienFirien]

Sheesh. Looks like it's entirely possible to get immersed in explanation, too. Stuff I know, meet textbox. Not sure there was a keyboard involved. (Yeah, I used to do multiple focus-sports, still do a couple, and continue to do a lot of gaming. Half of the previous post was speaking from experience as well as the stuff I could remember from the article. I find it fairly easy to focus my surroundings out).