Sacred Symbols+, Episode 144: The Psychology of Gaming (Video)

Such an awesome episode. Literally the best games centric Patreon out there.

Greg Shapiro

This episode was so great. Thanks for bringing him on Colin.

Kbr Sports

What. Great interview god It felt so much like fireside chats…

Devilman84

Loved this interview. Would be interesting to hear from people who work on the monetisation aspects of these games. Also, speaking of the elderly, you should check out this 70 year old lady who loves JRPG's and the Vita. https://www.youtube.com/c/Food4Dogs

Sam Lee

Thanks for listening. =)

Colin Moriarty

Such a thought provoking conversation and what an interesting guest! One of my favourite episodes, would love to hear more from this guy. Thank you. 🙏

Thanks. That's much appreciated.

Colin Moriarty

Thank you!

Colin Moriarty

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Colin Moriarty

Thanks for listening.

Colin Moriarty

I don’t reply much to these podcasts/videos but I just wanted to say this one was top notch. I mean, I love all the sacred symbols episodes but this one just may be my favorite. Great job, guys.

Jordan Knepp

I think these scholarly discussions on games are really some of your best and would love more of them. Fantastic episode and keep up the great work. Thanks as always for consistently great podcasts.

Guys, we can make our own opinions about games. We don’t need to listen to three guys tell us.

Great episode. Really enjoyed the look at all angles of psychology in gaming (good, bad, and in between).

Giovanni D'Amico

Thank you!

Colin Moriarty

<3

Colin Moriarty

Thanks for listening!

Colin Moriarty

Thanks for your support.

Colin Moriarty

Maybe I'll write again one day. =)

Colin Moriarty

I thoroughly enjoyed this episode. Great insights. Thank you.

Sean Ellsworth

I’m a licensed clinical social worker myself. Currently working within the substance use realm. Great episode! Jacob, if you could link some of those studies, I would appreciate it.

Ben

Great episode gents. Jacob, I’m a licensed marriage and family therapist. Feel free to reach out if you ever want to chat about the field!

Eric Bolella

Hey Colin, just wanted to say I really loved this conversation. It has me reexamining a lot of the games I play and why I enjoy them. As many have said, please make this free as it’s important for people to reflect on why they play the games they do. I hope you find more people to talk to about monetization in games whether it’s people who research the topic or those who even develop those systems in games. It would be really interesting as it’s a topic not covered too much. Thanks for all the LSM crew does!

OCEL0T

Incredibly thought-provoking conversation. Thank you for creating a vehicle where these conversations can be held. My only wish is elongating the discussion tenfold - there were so many items that were lightly touched on that could all account for an individual 30 minute conversation. A "mental health in relation to video games" series... I need longform essay Colin back

Jordan Falduto

Thank you!

Colin Moriarty

Very great discussion. Thanks for the content as always Colin. Oh, and also Jacob!

Johnny Lamotte

Thanks for taking the time.

Colin Moriarty

Hey everyone! Thanks for listening. If your have any questions, comments, or insight of your own, feel free to respond below! Also, thanks to Colin and the gang for having me on, it was a blast.

Jacob

Game Pass is something that we did not talk about, but something I have looked into quite a bit. I feel like when people talk about the sustainability of Game Pass, they compare it to Netflix. This misses the point entirely I feel as games on Game Pass feature microtransactions and other forms of monetization not present in movies or tv shows. You see it with Halo Infinite going F2P, but Microsoft is banking on Game Pass subs for exclusive items, plus people paying for Battlepasses. RDR2 was on Game Pass for months, but Rockstar is still making money from Red Dead Online, so why not? The more people you can get into your ecosystem, the more likely they are to spend money in the games they are playing on your service.

Jacob

This was a really interesting episode in the middle of Halo Infinite MP progression systems complaints. Microsoft is no different than Epic or Ubisoft or Activision or EA when it comes to designing a microtransaction system. They have some really smart people that work for them. They likely designed their drip feed progression system to sell more XP boosts and to sell more store based cosmetics. And ultimately, it's not designed for the people screaming the loudest because they are missing out. It's for the people that will absolutely not choose out to miss out. Who spent $200 to max out the battlepass on day 1; those who will probably still spend thousands for additional store cosmetics. It does bring up an interesting question that keeps coming up for me. As video game publishers look forward 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, are they seeing the changing demographic away from hardcore, traditional gamers to the casual gamers where every game is free and they just expect games to be monetitized through microtransactions? Is that why Ubisoft is betting so big on moving almost every franchise to F2P models? I love Xbox Game Pass, but I think the writing is on the wall that they will continue to layer in additional ways of monetitization. Either cosmetics or planned annual DLCs that aren't included in XPG or every game getting premium early access.

Raymond Stuart

Germany did ban loot boxes for sale to minors https://screenrant.com/loot-boxes-banned-games-minors-germany/

Raymond Stuart

Thank you for all the content you guys release.

Cameron Lee

Thank you. <3

Colin Moriarty

As someone who studied in social services, I can say this gentlement is very knowledgeable and made proper association about stress and marketing. SS+ is so interesting, just wow! I would recommand this one to be public, I think it would make people realize a lot about their own habbit and trigger a good introspection for many people :D. The best way to help is talking about it ! (Sorry about my english, I'm a French person xD) EDIT : And proud of it dammit!

TheSilverLabGuy