MIND GAMES: The Psychology of Board Games

What is the mind? For the ancient Greeks, the idea of the mind was synonymous with the concept of “soul.” Plato believed the psyche was immortal and became wiser and more perceptive after death. More recently, Freud and Jung refined the idea of seele (soul) as a subset of the overall psyche, that which governs thought and behavior — in short, personality. As a game designer and armchair psychologist, I am fascinated by what makes games tick. But even more, I love to discover what makes players tick. Games are products of the human mind, and the mind is the arena on which the contest is played. All the aspects of cognition — perception, thinking, judgment, language, memory, and more — play into the game experience.

- Bayard Catron

Human psychology is inextricably linked with almost every type of game

The psychological connection starts from the beginning, as the game inventor determines which concept will hold a player’s interest and the “psychology of fun.” What is fun and, indeed, what fun is. As with humor, the essence of fun is slippery, subjective, unpredictable, and deeply personal.

A game designer must balance skill level as well. Players want to be challenged but also feel smart. Although a simple trivia game, Trivial Pursuit became a household name by sneaking in questions that often sounded tough but were easy. “What river delta in southwestern Vietnam...” This is an easy question thinly disguised as a hard question. How many Vietnamese river deltas do you know? Anyone who has seen a film set during the Vietnam war knows the answer is the Mekong, but there’s still a hit of dopamine delivered to the brain when you get it right. In a time when fewer people were playing board games, the game turned something trivial into something almost essential in its day.