Psychology of Games in 2022

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Hi everyone, 

Just a quick note to let you know about some of my plans for this website and the podcast for the rest of 2022. Last year I got caught up in my day job and some other projects to the point where I wasn’t updating here as much as I used to. For example, I took some time to write and polish a novel called Applied Adventures in Heroics to the point where I could submit it to my literary agent. I don’t think anything will end up coming from it, but I learned a lot, it was fun, and it’s cool I can check that off my life’s to-do list. I also created a proposal for my next nonfiction book, which is a lot like Getting Gamers except that it’s focused on the psychology of tabletop roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons. That one is being shopped around to publishers right now, so if you are such a publisher and want to see it, let me know!

But since the start of the year, I’ve refocused on this website. I’m publishing articles back on the regular schedule, including audio versions that are kind of like micro-podcasts for Patreon supporters. I’ve got a year’s worth of articles written already, and any additional ones I write will go up as above and beyond the regular schedule. 

But one difference is going to be that you’ll see more articles about tabletop games like D&D alongside the video game stuff. This is because I have a lot of leftover bits and bobs about the psychology of D&D from that book I’m working on, and honestly, it’s where my curiosity and interests are leading me right now. I can’t say I’ve mined everything there is to say about psychology and VIDEO games –far from it– but I think there’s a lot of cool stuff to say about the psychology of a more interpersonal, creative, open-ended, and flexible game like D&D. So look for that, and if you like it, please share it with others who you think would enjoy it.

I’m also in the process of lining up guests for the psychology of games podcast and recording episodes of that. I will probably be moving to more of a season approach to that show, as opposed to putting out new episodes every month. The podcast has always had a different format than other content on the site, such that it looked at people doing specific work or research related to video games. This is more restrictive and I feel like I’ve explored a lot of what’s out there already. So instead I’m going to take some time to find some more really interesting guests that we haven’t heard from before. 

I may also intersperse episodes of the podcast that are more like lectures that I’ve been doing for other outlets. Relatedly, I may also start experimenting with video on the site and its much neglected YouTube channel. It’s so neglected I’m not even going to link to it. But it’s 2022, time to start getting into video content, right?

Well, thanks for your ongoing support and I hope to have more of you come back in 2022 to check things out. If you have thoughts on what you’d like to see in terms of the psychology of video games or of tabletop roleplaying games, let me know!

-Jamie

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