Many of the games that are most successful at getting players to keep coming back feature loot-based systems with new equipment, components, or other upgrades. Some players will grit their teeth and endlessly repeat the same section of a game in the hopes of randomly getting a rare reward. But it’s not the loot that keeps us clicking away. It’s the loot drop. This lecture explores the psychology behind loot-based games.
Learning Objectives
1. Identify the systems, psychology, and game mechanics at play in games that appeal to players through finding rare loot in problematic gaming populations.
2. Identify the role of random reward schedules in teaching and motivating new behaviors in problematic gaming populations.
3. Navigate the social aspects of loot-hunting in video games, such as being able to see and be jealous of others’ loot as to motivate clients to improve within problematic gaming populations.
Course Instructor:
Jamie Madigan Ph.D. has become an expert on the psychology of video games and seeks to popularize an understanding of how various aspects of psychology can be used to understand why games are made how they are and why their players behave as they do. Dr. Madigan has written extensively on the subject for magazines, websites, his own site at http://www.psychologyofgames.com, and in two books: Getting Gamers: The Psychology of Video Games and Their Impact on the People Who Play Them and The Engagement Game: Why Your WorkPlace Culture Should Look More Like A Video Game. He has also appeared as an expert on the psychology of video games in outlets such as Good Morning America, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Post, Time Magazine, Wired Magazine, The Atlantic, and others.
Disability Accommodations
It is the responsibility of the Individual to contact Geek Therapeutics to request disability accommodations at Hello@geektherapeutics.com.
Geek Therapeutics is committed to helping each student reach his/her academic potential and to providing every student equal opportunity to participate in and engage with the course. In keeping with this commitment, effort has been made to develop accessible learning materials that provide equal access. Please contact Geek Therapeutics immediately if access to course materials is restricted due to a disability so the issue(s) can be resolved in a timely manner.
Continuing Education Credits:
Psychologists: Geek Therapeutics is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Geek Therapeutics maintains responsibility for this program and its content
Counselors: Geek Therapeutics has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7042. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Geek Therapeutics is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
Social Workers: Geek Therapeutics, #1769, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB)Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. Geek Therapeutics maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 05/19/2022 – 05/19/2025. Social workers completing this course receive 1 continuing education credits.
Play Therapists: Geek Therapeutics has been approved by APT as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, No. 21-649. Programs that do not qualify for APT credit are clearly identified. Geek Therapeutics is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
Other Professions: This activity qualifies for the specified number of hours of instructional content as required by many licensing boards and professional organizations. Save your course outline and certificate of completion, and contact your board or organization for specific requirements. Completion of the course(s) with a post-test score of 80% or better is required to receive continuing education credit; there is no partial credit.
