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The Psychology of Loot Boxes and Microtransactions
Electronic Arts have spent the past week fighting off a cavalcade of negative press following details of their microtransaction model for Star Wars Battlefront II. Current estimates of total content acquisition come to…
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The Psychology of Difficult Video Games
There was a time when the only loud voice that resulted from playing a difficult video game was your own. However, thanks to the journalist cycle, that’s all changed. The ‘journalist cycle’ refers…
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The Longitudinal Study of Gaming and Sexism
The Daily Telegraph published an article arguing that sexy video game characters harm children and promote sexist ideas of women (NSFW warning). This argument was made without any evidence into the effects of…
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Gaming’s Dubious Relationship with Violence
It’s time once again to break down some video game research. Today’s recently published paper explores the relationship between violent video game consumption and violent behaviour. However, it does not do so in a…
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Online Gaming Protects Against Poor Mental Wellbeing
While doing PhD work, I came across a paper titled ‘Video gaming in a hyperconnected world: A cross-sectional study of heavy gaming, problematic gaming symptoms, and online socializing in adolescents’. After seeing my…