Daryl Talks Games

If you run into a thunderstorm in a game, you might begin to think about how you should adjust your play-style. Maybe you should find shelter, or avoid using metal weapons. On a surface level, this is all we think about when we run into adverse weather in a game. But one of the things we don’t often consider is the effect in-game weather has on mood. In this episode of Psych of Play, we’ll talk about Seasonal Affective Disorder, and a recent study that suggests bad weather can actually play a key role in regulating emotion and mental health. In-game weather may be more powerful to us than we previously realized.

My wife is not big into video games, but I can always convince her to play a few levels of Pode with me. Pode’s puzzles are challenging, its story charming, and its visuals stunning. But all that aside, there is something about it that really relaxes you and, if you’re like my wife, may help your OCD. So on this episode of Psych of Play, were doing to look into the main mechanic of Pode and how it gives you a clever way to avoid something called the Zeigarnik effect.

Tetris 99 is wildly addictive and loads of fun. For Tetris players new and old, it provides a new challenge unlike any Tetris we’ve ever seen before. The level of multitasking needed to master it is frustratingly difficult to attain, yet so tantalizing within our grasp. In this episode of of Psych of Play we’ll take a look at the cognition behind multitasking, and why it makes Tetris 99 such a frantic yet refreshing experience.

Twilight Princess has one of my favorite moments in gaming history. It’s not an overblown exciting sequence or anything that revolutionizes the gameplay, it's a quiet, melancholy, grim scene. A small segment of gameplay that isn’t “tough” to beat, but is remarkably memorable because of the feelings it conveys. Today on Psych of Play, we’ll take a look at Midna’s Desperate Hour, and how that sadness affects your gameplay through the lens of Hedonistic Discounting Theory.

Very few feelings cut so deep and are as robust as failure. Nothing makes you want to quit more that getting rejected, losing after you've given your all, or making a tremendous mistake that costs you big time. But I think losing is necessary, and with the right perspective, we can learn to love it and learn from it. #GFTH❤

Have you ever been playing a game and something happens that reverses your controls? Moving up makes you move down, moving left makes you move left, and you’re suddenly thoroughly confused? Or has your screen ever flipped upside down on you or blocked your view of the action? If so, you’ve come across something called an interface screw. These create some of the strangest feelings you’ll experience in a game. And today on Psych of Play, we’re going to take a look at how these mechanics make you feel absolutely silly.

To me, Celeste's Core C-Side is the most iconic level in the game. It recaps some of the biggest mechanics from your journey through Celeste in one long menacing sequence and the finale of the stage is both a nail biter and a controller smasher. So for my first Mario Maker level ever, I thought it would be the perfect way to hop in and immediately learn a lot about making courses by challenging myself big time. Here's what I learned, I hope you enjoy! And be Sure to play the stage if you have Mario Maker 2!

Mario, the Kart. The game series of a generation. Almost everyone has picked up a controller and thrown shells at their buddies whilst riding go-karts through a volcano, but have you truly played Mario Kart?

Have you ever found yourself torn on a decision? If so it’s entirely possible that the reason for that was loss aversion, the human tendency to value avoiding a loss much higher than acquiring a gain. And dead cells is a game full of decisions that really exploit that desire to “play it safe” by teasing you with opportunity. But there is more to the story than that, which is what we’ll be exploring on this episode of Psych of Play!

Everyone loves a good challenge, but some folks are willing to go above and beyond their normal level of patience to beat games with extreme levels of difficulty. Celeste, Sekiro, Cuphead among others are games designed to push players to their limits. And when those limits are hit, a choice is presented. Persevere? Or Quit? For those that persevere, something special happens cognitively, and that’s what we’re here to discuss on this episode of Psych of Play.

One of the first videos I made on this channel was called “Why You’re Bad at Exams, but Great at Video Games”. I talked about the generation effect and how video games use this well to teach you how they work, but how school doesn’t always do that. So in this video (which is long overdue) I’ll be doing a followup to that video and how to implement the generation effect into your studying. After this, you should be able to prepare to take down exams as well as you prepare to take down bosses!

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