Podcast 9: How Do Games Differ From Other Media?

Academics and general rabble rousers have been interested in the effects of media consumption for hundreds of years in some cases. People have expressed concern over reading, playing chess, solving crossword puzzles, watching television, movies, comic books, and just about anything else you can think of. There has even been good research conducted and models developed to understand how people engage with media and what effects it has on them.

Nick BowmanBut what about video games? Are they really different from other types of media or do we need new approaches to studying how people play games and what effects gaming has on people? My guest on this episode of the podcast. Dr. Nicholas Bowman, thinks we do, in large part thanks to how interactive video games are and the fact that a player and a game co-create every gaming gaming experience. It’s why games are not the same as books, television, or movies. In this episode we will discuss the mental, social, physical, and other demands that games place on players and why these unique kinds of pressures require new models of studying and understanding games.

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5 thoughts on “Podcast 9: How Do Games Differ From Other Media?

  1. Studies Nick Bowman mentioned:

    Reinecke, L., Tamborini, R., Grizzard, M., Lewis, R., Eden, A., & Bowman, N. D. (2012). Characterizing mood management as need satisfaction: The effects of intrinsic needs on selective exposure and mood repair. Journal of Communication, 62 (3), 437-453. URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2012.01649.x

    Oliver, M. B., Bowman, N. D., Woolley, J. K., Rogers, R., Sherrick, B. I., & Chung, M.-Y. (2015). Video games as meaningful entertainment experiences. Psychology of Popular Media Culture. URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000066

    Oliver, M. B., & Raney, A. A. (2011). Entertainment as pleasurable and meaningful: Identifying hedonic and eudaimonic motivations for entertainment consumption. Journal of Communication, 61 (5), 984-1004. URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2011.01585.x

    Bowman, N. D., Weber, R., Tamborini, R., & Sherry, J. (2013). Facilitating game play: How others affect performance at and enjoyment of video games. Media Psychology, 16 (1), 39-64. URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2012.742360

    Bowman, N. D., Kowert, R., & Cohen, E. (2015). When the ball stops, the fun stops too: The impact of social inclusion on video game enjoyment. Computers in Human Behavior, 53 , 131-139. URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.06.036

    Banks, J., & Bowman, N. D. (2016). Emotion, anthropomorphism, realism, control: Validation of a merged metric for player–avatar interaction (PAX). Computers in Human Behavior, 54 , 215-223. URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.07.030

    Banks, J. (2015). Of beard physics and worldness: The (Non-)Effect of enhanced anthropomorphism on Player-Avatar relations. Psychology of Popular Media Culture. URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000104

    Rogers, R., Bowman, N. D., & Oliver, M. B. (2015). It’s not the model that doesn’t fit, it’s the controller! the role of cognitive skills in understanding the links between natural mapping, performance, and enjoyment of console video games. Computers in Human Behavior, 49 , 588-596. URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.03.027

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