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Psychology Of Games Overview

Psychology of games

Gambling and games of chance have been very popular with people since centuries now. Since centuries now people have indulged in one or the other type of games of chance and have continued to wager money or anything valuable on the outcome of unpredictable events. Games of chance have always been quite interesting points of study for psychologists for decades now.

The peer pressure, the interaction of players with each other and the informal and formal rules systems which are used in games are often used as study models by many psychologists around the world. The game theory is also very often used to explain the behavior of human beings in other life situations. Games are a part of real life and are special situations which are created by us which are self contained so they make for an interesting model of study for psychologists.

Game experiences

There are several types of experiences that we all go through while playing any type of game. Any game, whether it is gambling or not, can contain one or more types of gaming experiences. Several psychologists have described the gaming experiences as given below:

• Competition

  Competition is a very integral part of any type of game. Competition is present in any activity where the participants use their ability and skills to overcome the challenges which might come their way throughout the game. The pleasure in competition lies in developing your ability and your skills in order to outperform your opponents during the game.

• Chance

  When talking about games of chance, chance is one of the biggest factors in the game. Chance has a big impact on the outcome and the result of the game. Players always feel great pleasure to try and find ways in which they can minimize the impact of chance. Players try to guess the outcome themselves and give them the illusion of being in control of the future. Lottery and slot machines are very popular with people just because of this reason.

• Vertigo

  Vertigo are the activities which alter the state of mind and which disrupt the perception of the world in the normal way. This results in a very pleasurable state of mind. When we are engaged in a very interesting activity like gambling, our perception of time also changes.

• Make believe

  Make believe are the activities which we create ourselves. These situations are alternate realities where we are not bound by the rules of the real world. People get immense pleasure in assuming different characters and abilities which we normally do not have in everyday life. We can even feel as if we really possess the powers which we normally do not have in real life. In poker, players often try to make believe that they are someone else and do extensive role playing in order to fool their opponents.

Games of chance are the activities which we had designed specifically so that we could derive pleasure from them. They are our way of having fun no matter what our situation is in life. They provide an opportunity to people to discover their talents and get rewarded and recognized for it.