Dr. Woolley can be found at www.askdrmatt.com, and he answers every email sent to him.
Mike: Can you tell us a little bit about your background as a psychologist?
Dr. Matt: Yeah definitely. I graduated with a bachelors degree in psychology from BYU back in ‘97. Then I took a year off and worked as a psych tech; basically a nurses assistant, at the state hospital in Provo (Utah)... That was a fun year, it was interesting, (in a) in-patient psychiatric unit. Then I went to Wichita State University in Kansas for my PHD. ...There aren’t many combined PhD programs in the country where there’s two emphasises; this one was originally a Clinical PhD; which is the type of psychologist most people think of, and what I do now. And Community Psychologists who (work) on kind of a community organizational level, working on policies and change and healthy behaviors... When I got there I didn’t really enjoy the community part like I thought I would; my main interest at that time was just to be a regular tenure track professor, who didn’t really see a lot of patients... mostly just taught and did research. So I de-emphasized... so that’s a five year program, the fifth year was a clinical internship at University of Kansas Medical School though, (where I) mostly did neuropsych testing. So I kind of had ... more training in neuropsychological testing and personality testing, like Rorschach testing and all that sort of stuff, then I did therapy, back in those days, and so I did all my dissertation research on personality disorders. I really enjoyed that, and we were out there until ‘03. In ‘03 i ended up taking ... a residency back here at the University of Utah... and we ended up back here at UNI, the (University) Neuropsychiatric Institute, (did my) post-doc residency and it was great, really enjoyed it. Had an opportunity the next year to join the faculty, but in the Department of Psychiatry, ... currently as an assistant professor... I’m about a 80/20 guy. Which means that 80% of my time I do clinical work, seeing patients, either therapy or testing, and 20% of my time is teaching.
I have only one research project going on right now, which is very, very slow. It’s ECT with adolescents, “shock therapy”. I do the memory testing component of that, I don’t do any of the administration of it, because that’s an MD procedure. That rarely happens so we get a couple patients a year, so it’s pretty chill. I can tell people I’m doing research and it requires no effort. And then I do supervision for residents, and stuff like that, so that’s that. I also do a private practice in town a couple days a week (in town). That’s more of a, just pure therapy situation, but yeah, that’s the psychology background. So I’ve been on faculty at the (University of Utah) since ‘04...
Mike: I personally actually heard about you, on the radio, on the Chunga radio show, on 101.9 “The End”... You’re on there once a week usually, right?
Dr. Matt: Right, Currently I’m on there Wednesday mornings, about 7:30, depending on when they get around to it, and it’s a lot of fun. We started ... about 2 ½ years, so it would have been (about) January, ‘08... had a first show there, I know a guy who knew Cort, who used to be on the show. Chunga was complaining about getting depressed in the winter, and so they said “well maybe you should go on the air and talk about it”, and I thought “Oh that’d be fun”, since then I’ve really enjoyed going on the show, we’ve talked about different topics, (and) take calls. I think because of that, the University of Utah has a... public relations department, obviously, so every once in a while I get little interviews for the news... that sort of stuff, so that’s kind of fun.
...We started up again in August, since the Chunga shows been resurrected.
Dr. Matt: Yeah definitely. I graduated with a bachelors degree in psychology from BYU back in ‘97. Then I took a year off and worked as a psych tech; basically a nurses assistant, at the state hospital in Provo (Utah)... That was a fun year, it was interesting, (in a) in-patient psychiatric unit. Then I went to Wichita State University in Kansas for my PHD. ...There aren’t many combined PhD programs in the country where there’s two emphasises; this one was originally a Clinical PhD; which is the type of psychologist most people think of, and what I do now. And Community Psychologists who (work) on kind of a community organizational level, working on policies and change and healthy behaviors... When I got there I didn’t really enjoy the community part like I thought I would; my main interest at that time was just to be a regular tenure track professor, who didn’t really see a lot of patients... mostly just taught and did research. So I de-emphasized... so that’s a five year program, the fifth year was a clinical internship at University of Kansas Medical School though, (where I) mostly did neuropsych testing. So I kind of had ... more training in neuropsychological testing and personality testing, like Rorschach testing and all that sort of stuff, then I did therapy, back in those days, and so I did all my dissertation research on personality disorders. I really enjoyed that, and we were out there until ‘03. In ‘03 i ended up taking ... a residency back here at the University of Utah... and we ended up back here at UNI, the (University) Neuropsychiatric Institute, (did my) post-doc residency and it was great, really enjoyed it. Had an opportunity the next year to join the faculty, but in the Department of Psychiatry, ... currently as an assistant professor... I’m about a 80/20 guy. Which means that 80% of my time I do clinical work, seeing patients, either therapy or testing, and 20% of my time is teaching.
I have only one research project going on right now, which is very, very slow. It’s ECT with adolescents, “shock therapy”. I do the memory testing component of that, I don’t do any of the administration of it, because that’s an MD procedure. That rarely happens so we get a couple patients a year, so it’s pretty chill. I can tell people I’m doing research and it requires no effort. And then I do supervision for residents, and stuff like that, so that’s that. I also do a private practice in town a couple days a week (in town). That’s more of a, just pure therapy situation, but yeah, that’s the psychology background. So I’ve been on faculty at the (University of Utah) since ‘04...
Mike: I personally actually heard about you, on the radio, on the Chunga radio show, on 101.9 “The End”... You’re on there once a week usually, right?
Dr. Matt: Right, Currently I’m on there Wednesday mornings, about 7:30, depending on when they get around to it, and it’s a lot of fun. We started ... about 2 ½ years, so it would have been (about) January, ‘08... had a first show there, I know a guy who knew Cort, who used to be on the show. Chunga was complaining about getting depressed in the winter, and so they said “well maybe you should go on the air and talk about it”, and I thought “Oh that’d be fun”, since then I’ve really enjoyed going on the show, we’ve talked about different topics, (and) take calls. I think because of that, the University of Utah has a... public relations department, obviously, so every once in a while I get little interviews for the news... that sort of stuff, so that’s kind of fun.
...We started up again in August, since the Chunga shows been resurrected.
Mike: I want to let the readers know the reason I got into contact with you was A) I love listening to you on the Chunga Show, but B) ...a few weeks ago you brought up the topic of video games and entertainment and how they can be a positive influence, and not necessarily a negative influence. The media is always ...bringing out stories about how video games are really negative, and this was the first time that I heard anywhere that, you know what, entertainment, movies, books, video games, (can actually be) good for you. Can you kind of explain to our readers, for those who may have not heard that particular show, what you were talking about?
Dr. Matt: Sure. Well first of all it probably comes from a lot of sitting down and talking with adolescents, about their problems, their lives. Spend an hour sitting talking with somebody and you get to know their perspectives from a more intimate level... If you talk to teenagers, people who are big consumers of entertainment; whether it’s TV, movies, music, video games, they have a really different experience from it. And I think, for myself, kind of drawing on my own experience as an adolescent, music was really, really important to me, not so much video games. I’m not a video gamer now, I’ll play once in a while, of course ... but it doesn’t hold my interest a lot. But I remember music and probably for me, the biggest one, has always been movies. Movies have always been really, really important to me, especially as an adolescent. If you go back and you read research (by)…the middle psychoanalysts (from the) ‘30’s, ‘40’s, ‘50’s, (they) talked a lot about Jungian psychology, and archetypal images, in literature primarily ... There’s been some work on that since, but a lot of things have been demonized. So talking with adolescents now, you realize it’s not just time-killing that they’re doing, they’re actually working out a lot of thoughts, feelings, overcoming things.
Alfred Adler is a psychoanalyst who ... kind of coined the term “inferiority and superiority complexes”; and he talked about how our process in life is primarily a process of, overcoming inferiorities. Striving for superiority is what we’re doing; and you see that a lot of these adolescents are taking on (that role) in video games. So I got interested in it, talking with them more and more.
Basically I've been educated (on games), primarily, by adolescents who play games. Their experience with it has been, kind of this storytelling aspect. I mentioned earlier, before we started the interview, that my main interest in entertainment is really storytelling, which goes back to that idea of Alfred Adler, Jungian psychology, Joseph Campbells book (“The Power of Myth”), and stuff like that. The idea is that stories that are important ... (are) projected from needs from human beings. So we put a lot of classic images in there; things like “the hero”, “the wise old man”, ... “the loyal friend”. These characters pop up in all different types of literature. They also pop up in movies, science-fiction... fantasy is probably the most obvious place they show up.
I get pretty excited in just looking at any ... movie (where) you can find those characters. Sometimes they’re a little less obvious than others. If you look at “Lord of the Rings”, you know Tolkien definitely drew heavily on archetypes, and mythological storytelling; George Lucas, you know if you listen to interviews, knew what he was doing from the beginning. He wanted to tell a modern day mythology, and (drew on) those sorts of images. But then if you look at things like video games, video games have really morphed into storytelling. Kind of like you’re playing a movie. ... You can pick characters, develop your avatar, so-to-speak, not just how they look, but their behaviors and the things that they’re overcoming ... There’s obviously lots of different formats of video games, it’s a pretty broad statement, but (holds for) non-arcade based type games, that have a story or character. Especially … massive multiplayer online ... games. One that my son really likes to play is Lego Universe, because you can build and create. … You’re actually demonstrating control over an environment (vicariously). You’re able to do this in this, entertainment medium, but you’re actually working out important emotions and experiences for you as an individual. So it becomes a developmental experience for kids.
I think last time we were talking about it, (to Mike)... I was pretty clear I’m not talking about in excess. Anything taken in excess ... can be problematic, obviously. So I’m not talking about the kid who plays “World of Warcraft” 23.5 hours a day, (who) has a “Homer Simpson” chair and never leaves. … I’m talking about people that play within reason. A lot of parents are kind of shocked when, especially depending on their particular kid, if they say that he should only play video games on the weekend, (that) I often encourage them to allow (playing games during the week) to be a reward; (if) they’re being responsible, getting up, going to school, getting their homework done. That they’re (often) actually getting something valuable... out of playing games. Some games are too adult themed for kids, and I’m not supporting that (ten year olds) ought to be raping and pillaging online. … You have to use common sense, but they’re a lot of value I think.
Ryan: Kind of based on that, “not to excess” I think there’s been a lot of controversy on, “Warcraft” and ... video game addiction. I’ve read of a lot of people denying that it’s an addictive problem. I’ve also read that some psychotherapists, and I don’t know if they’re in the minority, have argued that, video games, gambling, even sexual addictions are not true addictions. What are your opinions on that?
Dr. Matt: I think that you have to look at the neurology... When people try to make a distinction between “true addiction” and “not true addiction”, they’re usually trying to draw a distinction between neurology and behavior, and assuming that there’s a difference. In my opinion every behavior ... we have has a neurological, mirror, a component. … Sometimes the word addiction rubs people the wrong way. So if we were to change the conversation for a second and say compulsive behavior, behavior that you are compelled to do for some reason. ...If you look into addiction literature... there’s use, abuse, dependency, and then there’s addiction. It’s kind of in that order, and even a dependency on a particular substance can cause a lot of problems for a persons life. So if we talk about behaviors then, that you’re dependent on, and you’re compelled to do, behaviors that become kind of self-soothing; you can find a neurological, and physiological component. … Like if I were to sit down and read a favorite book, or watch a favorite movie, and I feel relaxed, I’m like “ah, I just want to sit down and watch (“Star Wars”)”. … You know something like that, then you’re actually having endorphins and other chemicals in your brain being released, that help you relax. So there is a physiological component. Some people are more prone towards addictions than others. … Not to beat around the bush, I absolutely think what we consider behavioral addictions are true addictions. They’re different, and in a way potentially more addicting, because they’re less obvious. For example if you’re addicted to heroine, and I can keep you away from heroine long enough, as miserable as you may be, eventually you’re going to get over that physiological part. It’s actually the behavioral part that draws people back into substance abuse, you know cigarette smoking, alcoholism, a lot of that’s socially driven behavior. It’s hard to avoid that part of it. With gambling, pornography, some things like video games, entertainment addictions, yeah I think they are. Most of the time ... it’s not at a full addiction level. That can happen, (though) I think most of the time it’s at more of a dependency level; a compulsive level. But yeah, there’s a physiological component, and some people tend to have a harder time with that than others. If you sit down and play video games are you at higher risk for becoming addicted? In my opinion, no. But if you sit down and do a little bit of heroine, yeah you are. I mean there are differences.
Mike: Here's a simple question: what’s the first video game you ever played?
Dr. Matt: Oh easy, I remember my grandma got us an Atari system when I was a kid. I knew kid named Rhett, and Rhett had the, when Atari came out what was the other system? (Ryan: Coleco?) I think it was Coleco, yeah... Maybe he had Coleco, anyway he was kind of a jerk and wouldn’t let us play it, (laughing), so we’d go over to his house and Rhett (always) wanted us to sit and watch him play, whatever, it was some skiing game. And I was like "this is retarded", and it was that Christmas my grandma bought us an Atari and it came with whatever it came with, (and) “Space Invaders”; the original “Space Invaders”. We also had “Pong”, we had the little paddle with the dial, but “Space Invaders” was the first game I ever played. I remember hooking it up to the TV and everything.
Mike: What were your initial thoughts? Like what was your first thought when you plugged it in and started playing?
Dr. Matt: Well this was, (the) early eighties, so I was just kind of amazed that you could move something and it would move it on the screen. So I was pretty entranced with the technology. I thought that was cool, ... my brother and I, used to sit and play and have competitions, and it was a lot of fun; I really enjoyed it. But probably the first impression I had was “Wow! I can do that, that’s so cool!”. We had a cabinet TV, you know the old school, where you roll it out, ... we were not a hi-tech family at the time. I think my grandpa, (on the) other side of the family, had also gotten us a Texas Instruments computer about that time. (Ryan: Ti-99?), I don’t know, but all I remember is it just sat on the table, we didn’t really know what to do with it. So we weren’t a hi-tech family, but I was the one who figured out how to hook up the Atari and that was good times.
Mike: So you talk about (how) you’re a more of a casual gamer (Dr. Matt: definitely), you like to play games, but you don’t necessarily play them all the time.
Dr. Matt: Yeah, there was a time when cabinet games (aka arcade games) were all the rage in the early to mid-eighties, right? I remember, after we moved to Morgan, there were like two places in town, there were“Steph’s Drive-In” and the Chevron station, I think, ... and they had some cabinet games. So I remember we’d ... go through my dads like suit pockets, finding quarters, and then we’d go down, and we played a lot of those (arcade) games; quite a bit, and (also) if we were anywhere else. I loved playing arcade games when I was probably Jr. High age to High school age, played them a lot. As I’ve gotten older I’m not drawn to video games a lot. I will say that I really, really appreciate the technology, it’s amazing to me, we have a kinect, and that’s a lot of fun, we’ll play that. ... Personally one of my hobbies is shooting, I like to shoot guns. We also got like an (Nintendo) back in the day and we had “Duck Hunting” (probably “Duck Hunt”) that was another at-home video game I played a ton of. (Also) games like the “Modern Warfare” games (Mike: Call of Duty?),Call of Duty games, we have some of those and they’re fun, yeah I like them, yeah but definitely casual.
Mike: ... Personally I play certain games because I like to experience things that I wouldn’t be able to experience in real life. (Dr. Matt: Like shooting Nazi-zombies...), Yeah, that, and I don’t think I’ll ever experience being able to fly a helicopter personally, or things like that. (Dr. Matt: Kind of that vicarious experience, you’re detached, but you can still have that experience). Yeah, so the question is, the games that you do play, why do you think that you’re drawn to them, to play them?
Dr. Matt: ... To answer your question directly, probably it’s to spend time with my kids. That’s the number one reason if I’m really honest. It’s something that’s really important to them, they really like it. I ... have three boys, (ages) 8, 11, and 13. They really enjoy video games, and it’s a way for me to have fun with them, so we play all sorts of different games together.
Dr. Matt: Sure. Well first of all it probably comes from a lot of sitting down and talking with adolescents, about their problems, their lives. Spend an hour sitting talking with somebody and you get to know their perspectives from a more intimate level... If you talk to teenagers, people who are big consumers of entertainment; whether it’s TV, movies, music, video games, they have a really different experience from it. And I think, for myself, kind of drawing on my own experience as an adolescent, music was really, really important to me, not so much video games. I’m not a video gamer now, I’ll play once in a while, of course ... but it doesn’t hold my interest a lot. But I remember music and probably for me, the biggest one, has always been movies. Movies have always been really, really important to me, especially as an adolescent. If you go back and you read research (by)…the middle psychoanalysts (from the) ‘30’s, ‘40’s, ‘50’s, (they) talked a lot about Jungian psychology, and archetypal images, in literature primarily ... There’s been some work on that since, but a lot of things have been demonized. So talking with adolescents now, you realize it’s not just time-killing that they’re doing, they’re actually working out a lot of thoughts, feelings, overcoming things.
Alfred Adler is a psychoanalyst who ... kind of coined the term “inferiority and superiority complexes”; and he talked about how our process in life is primarily a process of, overcoming inferiorities. Striving for superiority is what we’re doing; and you see that a lot of these adolescents are taking on (that role) in video games. So I got interested in it, talking with them more and more.
Basically I've been educated (on games), primarily, by adolescents who play games. Their experience with it has been, kind of this storytelling aspect. I mentioned earlier, before we started the interview, that my main interest in entertainment is really storytelling, which goes back to that idea of Alfred Adler, Jungian psychology, Joseph Campbells book (“The Power of Myth”), and stuff like that. The idea is that stories that are important ... (are) projected from needs from human beings. So we put a lot of classic images in there; things like “the hero”, “the wise old man”, ... “the loyal friend”. These characters pop up in all different types of literature. They also pop up in movies, science-fiction... fantasy is probably the most obvious place they show up.
I get pretty excited in just looking at any ... movie (where) you can find those characters. Sometimes they’re a little less obvious than others. If you look at “Lord of the Rings”, you know Tolkien definitely drew heavily on archetypes, and mythological storytelling; George Lucas, you know if you listen to interviews, knew what he was doing from the beginning. He wanted to tell a modern day mythology, and (drew on) those sorts of images. But then if you look at things like video games, video games have really morphed into storytelling. Kind of like you’re playing a movie. ... You can pick characters, develop your avatar, so-to-speak, not just how they look, but their behaviors and the things that they’re overcoming ... There’s obviously lots of different formats of video games, it’s a pretty broad statement, but (holds for) non-arcade based type games, that have a story or character. Especially … massive multiplayer online ... games. One that my son really likes to play is Lego Universe, because you can build and create. … You’re actually demonstrating control over an environment (vicariously). You’re able to do this in this, entertainment medium, but you’re actually working out important emotions and experiences for you as an individual. So it becomes a developmental experience for kids.
I think last time we were talking about it, (to Mike)... I was pretty clear I’m not talking about in excess. Anything taken in excess ... can be problematic, obviously. So I’m not talking about the kid who plays “World of Warcraft” 23.5 hours a day, (who) has a “Homer Simpson” chair and never leaves. … I’m talking about people that play within reason. A lot of parents are kind of shocked when, especially depending on their particular kid, if they say that he should only play video games on the weekend, (that) I often encourage them to allow (playing games during the week) to be a reward; (if) they’re being responsible, getting up, going to school, getting their homework done. That they’re (often) actually getting something valuable... out of playing games. Some games are too adult themed for kids, and I’m not supporting that (ten year olds) ought to be raping and pillaging online. … You have to use common sense, but they’re a lot of value I think.
Ryan: Kind of based on that, “not to excess” I think there’s been a lot of controversy on, “Warcraft” and ... video game addiction. I’ve read of a lot of people denying that it’s an addictive problem. I’ve also read that some psychotherapists, and I don’t know if they’re in the minority, have argued that, video games, gambling, even sexual addictions are not true addictions. What are your opinions on that?
Dr. Matt: I think that you have to look at the neurology... When people try to make a distinction between “true addiction” and “not true addiction”, they’re usually trying to draw a distinction between neurology and behavior, and assuming that there’s a difference. In my opinion every behavior ... we have has a neurological, mirror, a component. … Sometimes the word addiction rubs people the wrong way. So if we were to change the conversation for a second and say compulsive behavior, behavior that you are compelled to do for some reason. ...If you look into addiction literature... there’s use, abuse, dependency, and then there’s addiction. It’s kind of in that order, and even a dependency on a particular substance can cause a lot of problems for a persons life. So if we talk about behaviors then, that you’re dependent on, and you’re compelled to do, behaviors that become kind of self-soothing; you can find a neurological, and physiological component. … Like if I were to sit down and read a favorite book, or watch a favorite movie, and I feel relaxed, I’m like “ah, I just want to sit down and watch (“Star Wars”)”. … You know something like that, then you’re actually having endorphins and other chemicals in your brain being released, that help you relax. So there is a physiological component. Some people are more prone towards addictions than others. … Not to beat around the bush, I absolutely think what we consider behavioral addictions are true addictions. They’re different, and in a way potentially more addicting, because they’re less obvious. For example if you’re addicted to heroine, and I can keep you away from heroine long enough, as miserable as you may be, eventually you’re going to get over that physiological part. It’s actually the behavioral part that draws people back into substance abuse, you know cigarette smoking, alcoholism, a lot of that’s socially driven behavior. It’s hard to avoid that part of it. With gambling, pornography, some things like video games, entertainment addictions, yeah I think they are. Most of the time ... it’s not at a full addiction level. That can happen, (though) I think most of the time it’s at more of a dependency level; a compulsive level. But yeah, there’s a physiological component, and some people tend to have a harder time with that than others. If you sit down and play video games are you at higher risk for becoming addicted? In my opinion, no. But if you sit down and do a little bit of heroine, yeah you are. I mean there are differences.
Mike: Here's a simple question: what’s the first video game you ever played?
Dr. Matt: Oh easy, I remember my grandma got us an Atari system when I was a kid. I knew kid named Rhett, and Rhett had the, when Atari came out what was the other system? (Ryan: Coleco?) I think it was Coleco, yeah... Maybe he had Coleco, anyway he was kind of a jerk and wouldn’t let us play it, (laughing), so we’d go over to his house and Rhett (always) wanted us to sit and watch him play, whatever, it was some skiing game. And I was like "this is retarded", and it was that Christmas my grandma bought us an Atari and it came with whatever it came with, (and) “Space Invaders”; the original “Space Invaders”. We also had “Pong”, we had the little paddle with the dial, but “Space Invaders” was the first game I ever played. I remember hooking it up to the TV and everything.
Mike: What were your initial thoughts? Like what was your first thought when you plugged it in and started playing?
Dr. Matt: Well this was, (the) early eighties, so I was just kind of amazed that you could move something and it would move it on the screen. So I was pretty entranced with the technology. I thought that was cool, ... my brother and I, used to sit and play and have competitions, and it was a lot of fun; I really enjoyed it. But probably the first impression I had was “Wow! I can do that, that’s so cool!”. We had a cabinet TV, you know the old school, where you roll it out, ... we were not a hi-tech family at the time. I think my grandpa, (on the) other side of the family, had also gotten us a Texas Instruments computer about that time. (Ryan: Ti-99?), I don’t know, but all I remember is it just sat on the table, we didn’t really know what to do with it. So we weren’t a hi-tech family, but I was the one who figured out how to hook up the Atari and that was good times.
Mike: So you talk about (how) you’re a more of a casual gamer (Dr. Matt: definitely), you like to play games, but you don’t necessarily play them all the time.
Dr. Matt: Yeah, there was a time when cabinet games (aka arcade games) were all the rage in the early to mid-eighties, right? I remember, after we moved to Morgan, there were like two places in town, there were“Steph’s Drive-In” and the Chevron station, I think, ... and they had some cabinet games. So I remember we’d ... go through my dads like suit pockets, finding quarters, and then we’d go down, and we played a lot of those (arcade) games; quite a bit, and (also) if we were anywhere else. I loved playing arcade games when I was probably Jr. High age to High school age, played them a lot. As I’ve gotten older I’m not drawn to video games a lot. I will say that I really, really appreciate the technology, it’s amazing to me, we have a kinect, and that’s a lot of fun, we’ll play that. ... Personally one of my hobbies is shooting, I like to shoot guns. We also got like an (Nintendo) back in the day and we had “Duck Hunting” (probably “Duck Hunt”) that was another at-home video game I played a ton of. (Also) games like the “Modern Warfare” games (Mike: Call of Duty?),Call of Duty games, we have some of those and they’re fun, yeah I like them, yeah but definitely casual.
Mike: ... Personally I play certain games because I like to experience things that I wouldn’t be able to experience in real life. (Dr. Matt: Like shooting Nazi-zombies...), Yeah, that, and I don’t think I’ll ever experience being able to fly a helicopter personally, or things like that. (Dr. Matt: Kind of that vicarious experience, you’re detached, but you can still have that experience). Yeah, so the question is, the games that you do play, why do you think that you’re drawn to them, to play them?
Dr. Matt: ... To answer your question directly, probably it’s to spend time with my kids. That’s the number one reason if I’m really honest. It’s something that’s really important to them, they really like it. I ... have three boys, (ages) 8, 11, and 13. They really enjoy video games, and it’s a way for me to have fun with them, so we play all sorts of different games together.
I’m interested in the psychology of which games they’re drawn to, because of their developmental ages. That’s often one thing which I’m paying attention to ... Sometimes it’s just because their friends have the game, and that’s "cool", but most of the time it’s a position of power. You’re playing the hero, you’re a young pre-adolescent or adolescent boy and you’re trying to overcome those feelings of inferiority and insecurity that come with that pre-adolescence and adolescence. So I’m interested in seeing how they react to the games when they win, or when they do well, versus when they don’t.
For me personally I like to play games that have (more to do with skill). I like playing games like ... car racing, even games like “Mario Kart”. My kids are like “ah, not Mario Kart again!”, because I just like the racing games and stuff (like that), that’s a lot of fun for me.
One of my favorite (arcade) games was 1942, you guys know that one? I love that one! I think that had to do with... kind of everything for me. It had the flying aspect, like you mentioned, ... it had the skill aspect of dropping bombs, and I’m kind of a world war II geek, so it had that aspect (too). So yeah those are the kind of games (I like). I actually really like some of the skill-kind of arcade games but that’s probably because of my age, I turn forty next month. ... I remember going to the beach as a kid, and you know you’d have the place where you shower off, and then you’d have a little cabana full of “Pacman” games and “Asteroids”, “Space Invaders”, stuff like that. and so I still kind of like that. But “Monkey Ball” even a game like that is fun. I use it mostly as a distraction ... to unwind. So the psychological part that I’m really interested in I probably don’t participate in as much. I (probably) find that story-telling aspect for me more in ... movies, literature, books, things like that. My boys, on the flip side, they definitely engage more in the story-telling aspect (of video games). They have very little interest in the racing games, or the skill-type games. I guess I call them skill-games, I’m sure there’s a more accurate term. You know the “Monkey Ball” games, stuff like that, arcade type games, but I’m interested in that part. Watching them.
This concludes part one of our interview with Dr. Matt, tune in next time for the fascinating conclusion of our interview.
Thanks for reading, until next time - Stay awesome.
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