Student Name: Curnel Millette

Candidate Number: 1601681167

School: El Dorado East Secondary

Center Number: 160168

Subject: English

Theme: Gaming

Topic: The Psychology of Modern Video Games

Teacher: Miss Natasha Piaralal-Nagassar

Territory: Trinidad

Year Of Examination: 2024

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

PLAN OF INVESTIGATION

REFLECTION 1

REFLECTION 2

REFLECTION 3

GROUP REPORT

OUTLINE OF ORAL PRESENTATION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Psychology of Video Games: Why We Love Them - COGconnected (ORAL
PRESENTATION)
The Psychology of Video Games: Are Video Games Good or Bad For Players? - Celia
Hodent (MEDIA PIECE 1)
The Emotion Bomb Inside Video Games | OpenMind Magazine (MEDIA PIECE 2)
https://youtu.be/MYJBRWT7JGU?si=gK0MPX-bf0sGp5Ax (MEDIA PIECE 3)

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PLAN OF INVESTIGATION
My Theme is Gaming, and my topic is The Psychology of Modern Video Games. I decided to
investigate this topic because I thought it would be interesting to see what the creator of a game
intended for their players to feel. I choose gaming because gaming is a widespread topic. As a
student of English, the benefits of doing this SBA would mean that I would enhance my written
and oral communication skills as well as vocabulary and comprehension skills, but also for
exposure to a different genre of writing. The three media pieces I intend to use include a
scholarly article, a magazine article and a YouTube video. I plan to source my pieces via Google.
The challenges that I may encounter are that there may be problems finding said media pieces
and meeting deadlines. The expected outcomes will result in more information and knowledge
about the topic and enhance research and communication skills.

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REFLECTION 1
The first media piece is a scholarly article that was obtained via the internet from the website:
Celia Hodent. The knowledge gained from the scholarly article titled “The Psychology of
Modern Video Games” was that when designing video games, the approach is to exploit and
understand your/video game. Based on the article, I realized that gameplay is important rather
than just coding features into a game which has changed my thinking concerning this. The
second media piece is a magazine article called “The Emotion Bomb” which was found via the
internet from the website called “The Emotion Bomb Inside Video Games”. From the magazine
article, I learned that the players of the RPG genre of video games can connect to characters on
an emotional level. The magazine article helped me to see that players can connect to a game on
an emotional level due to the storyline and characters. The third media piece is a YouTube video
called “The Psychology of Video Games” which was cited via the internet on YouTube. It was
evident from the YouTube video that different genres of video games appeal to different people
psychologically. For example, sandbox games like Minecraft will appeal to creative and
imaginative people. The YouTube video was insightful because it showed me that different
genres of video games appeal to different people according to their personality.

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REFLECTION 2
The first piece is a scholarly article entitled “The Psychology of Modern Video Games”. It is
written in standard English. The tone of the article is formal, neutral and personal. It’s written in
the first person, the mood created is one of concern and optimism. Metaphors were used to
describe the experiences of players when playing video games, an example is “They are a rich
medium that offers a very diverse pool of experiences”. The piece is argumentative /expository.
The second piece is a magazine article; entitled “The Emotion Bomb Inside Video Games”. The
article is written in standard English, the tone is objective and personal, it’s written in the first
person, the mood is one of concern. The metaphor, “the emotional landscape of The Last of Us”
is used to emphasize the numerous emotions evoked by RPG games, in this case; The Last of Us
2. It’s an expository piece. The third piece is a YouTube video entitled “The Psychology of
Gaming”. It is essay structured as it introduces a speaker, speaking Standard English, the tone is
one of interest, first person narration is used, the mood is joyful, and the personification “even
time itself stands still” is used to highlight the state of non-existent time while playing, felt by
intrigued players of different types of games based on their personality due to different players
who may be interested in different types of games and while playing it feels as if time hasn’t
passed at all.

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REFLECTION 3
I decided to investigate the topic of gaming because I thought it would be interesting to see what
the creators of a game intended for their players to feel. From the media pieces I learnt, how
game developers try to understand how players would react and interact with their players during
the design process. I also learnt that players could connect to games on an emotional level. Only
in some genres of games such as RPG games which contain characters and storylines, players
connect to. Finally, I learnt that different genres of games appeal to different players according to
their personality. I am now much more aware of the topic based on my newfound knowledge
surrounding it from the media pieces used. I am also better able to summarize, sequence and edit
in terms of my writing skills. Individually, I benefited from this SBA in terms of researching
skills, and group wise; I am now able to work together with group members better in terms of
communication. My greatest challenge with this SBA was condensing my media pieces and
group members meeting deadlines.

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GROUP REPORT
This SBA started when our teacher explained to us what the S.B.A was about. From there
everyone divided into groups picking five individuals who would be our group members. We
then decided on a topic based on our theme. The theme which we had chosen was "Gaming".
Afterwards we got into our groups that best suited our topics. We concluded on three media
pieces a YouTube Video entitled" The surprising benefits of gaming, A Scholarly Article entitled
"Video game players wrongly stereotyped as loners, study" and a Magazine Article entitled "The
Emotion Bomb". We came to this conclusion based on whose media piece matched their topic
best.
The You Tube video entitled "The surprising benefits of gaming? was the first media piece we
will be discussing. It talks about the positive aspects of video games. The video speaks about
making our lives healthier and more productive in various ways. We learnt from the YouTube
video the benefits of gaming. The scholarly article entitled "Video game players wrongly
stereotyped as loners, study," was the second media piece. It speaks to the reader by
acknowledged games having a life outside a of, but their friends live far away gaming The
Scholarly Article, taught us that gamers are in fact very social beings. The third and final media
piece we selected was a Magazine Article entitled 'The Emotion Bomb? The reason we selected
this is because it speaks about gamers being connected on an emotional level. The knowledge we
gained is that gamers are emotional on a different level. The first challenge we faced was
difficulty concluding whose media pieces to use. The second challenge was group members
being absent. The third challenge is not meeting the required deadline. Lastly, it was challenging
to communicate among the members of the group. In the end, we learned to work together,
which strengthened our bond and improved communication and understanding between each
other.

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OUTLINE OF ORAL PRESENTATION
Good morning miss, my name is Curnel Millette. I am here today to present for you and discuss
with you an article relating to my theme and is about my topic. My theme is gaming, my topic is
the psychology of modern video games, and I chose these because video games are so popular
and the psychology behind them is often overlooked. My research process that enabled me to
find an article on my topic online was to search my topic on an internet browser or an online
search engine. I experienced no real challenges regarding the investigation, besides summarizing
my sourced material. A summary of the sourced material reads: “Since the release of video
games in the 1970’s, they have developed a great deal. As a result, they have become very
favorable to people of all ages and environments. Video games exhibit challenges that may
encourage players to overcome them as they play for a sense of completion and fulfilment, where
they would earn rewards in return. This is called a reward system, and this is used to keep
players motivated and engaged while playing. It is even more interactive for players to
experience the immersion of a game that adds to the overall experience of the game and provides
a reality unlike the player’s own and, they can play with others together which allows for
opportunities for social interaction in some games. This all lends itself to the fantasy and
tranquility of playing video games both alone and with others”. I personally agree with all the
points discussed in this article, because without rewards in a game, there is no real reason to even
experience the game and confront the challenges of the game when it amounts to nothing. It
ruins player motivation completely. Hence, the game becomes boring very quickly and ruins the
engagement of the player. Boredom would ultimately take away from the immersion, social
interaction, and escapism from reality that some games provide. In closing, all these points
justify the reason why video games are so favorable to everyone and without them, I think video
games may become irrelevant.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Psychology of Video Games: Why We Love Them - COGconnected (ORAL
PRESENTATION)
The Psychology of Video Games: Are Video Games Good or Bad For Players? - Celia
Hodent (MEDIA PIECE 1)
The Emotion Bomb Inside Video Games | OpenMind Magazine (MEDIA PIECE 2)
https://youtu.be/MYJBRWT7JGU?si=gK0MPX-bf0sGp5Ax (MEDIA PIECE 3)

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