Mary Junck Research Colloquium
UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Nov. 8, 2012

Nicholas Bowman
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication Studies
West Virginia University

"To Play, or to Be? The Psychology of Video Games"

Abstract: The unquestioned popularity of video games as a pre-eminent source of entertainment has brought with it a renewed focus on the medium from the political and scholarly arenas. Games are an robust economic force, yet research tends to focus on their content as being "good" or "bad" rather than the experiences of the players themselves, which leaves our understanding of the phenomenology of the video game experience incomplete (at best) and inaccurate (at worst). To this end, Dr. Bowman's presentation will briefly review the current state of gaming research before suggesting ways in which scholars can pursue gaming research that compliments rather than replicates what has already been gleaned from more media effects-oriented studies, citing four exemplar studies.