What We Do

The bank of academics and neuropsychologists at Cyberpsychologist allow us to really understand the behaviour of the player and influence it by including the benefits of game playing and the effects on the brain and therefore behaviour by building and testing these benefits into the development and design process. This ensures high levels of engagement and game satisfaction for the player and enables developers and designers to scientifically apply tactics into the build to literally stimulate the brain of the gamers.

Research has shown that playing video games increases productivity and creativity and that in fact brain research has shown that playing video games can trigger more areas of the brain than reading. For developers, understanding this is crucial for successful game development - for example leveraging the game to increase opportunities for the right kind of challenge, achievement and reward can light up the reward centre of the brain enabling dopamine to be released - a chemical that frankly makes the player feel great and enables reward driven learning to get to the next level of the game.

Other research we have studied and applied to game design involves advising on solutions that tap into the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for processing sensory information and memory by building in the right gaming tactics. Game players will encode the gaming experience in their memory on a deeper level that can have tremendous effects on desire for continuation to play as well as brand and game loyalty. The orbital frontal cortex is another area in the brain that has decision making and logical ability, and even in some of the shorter mobile F2P games this area of the brain can be tapped into increasing engagement for the player.

Whether the game is a multiplayer or not, by enabling the right kind of relatedness in gameplay (even if that's with an NPC) developers can tap into the hypothalamus releasing oxytocin, a very powerful bonding chemical that will unify gamers creating social reasons to play games. We are also keen to advise around designing games to really tap into the dorsal cingulated cortex which causes the gamer to really think, as this area of the brain is responsible for cognition, this can enable the gamer to feel competent and stay and play the game because of the triggers for high level cognition.

We use tried and tested interview techniques and psychometric tools as well as other lab measurements to really understand the gamer experience, as well as bringing game developer and designer teams an understanding of some of the basics of psychology as another tool for creating great gaming experiences.

With access to a unique global database of contacts and research papers that we have built up over the last 6 years around the subject of Cyberpsychology, there isn’t much in terms of psychology and neuropsychology around video games that we are not aware of. We can develop bespoke research solutions around player behaviour designed for a variety of platforms and genres; we can even develop proprietary based psychological research tools that allow developers to use time and time again in-house across games and genres, offering very tangible ROI. All backed up robust research and delivered by qualified academics to really understand the psychology of the game and up the ante of the player experience. Drop us a line or call us to see how psychology can be the game changer in terms of the design and development process.