Research shows that playing the game 'Power Wash Simulator' for 15 minutes can boost your mood
A study has found that playing the game '
Affective Uplift During Video Game Play: A Naturalistic Case Study | Games: Research and Practice
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3659464
New study reveals positive mood changes during video game play | University of Oxford
https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2024-09-25-new-study-reveals-positive-mood-changes-during-video-game-play
'PowerWash Simulator' is a simple game in which you move around in a 3D space from a first-person perspective and clean off dirt from buildings and ornaments. On Steam, users have tagged it as 'casual,' 'relaxing,' and 'comfortable.'
PowerWash Simulator Launch Trailer - YouTube
Matti Vuore of the Oxford Internet Institute and his team worked with FuturLab, the developer of Powerwash Simulator, to create a 'special version' of the game that added a character called a 'researcher' to the game. By surveying players through this character, they were able to evaluate the experience in a 'natural way that does not interrupt the play experience as much as possible,' unlike laboratory studies.
In the special version, players were asked to rate their current mood immediately after starting the game or while playing the game, and they could earn rewards for every 12 questions they answered. This version was available for free to anyone who owns the regular version of Powerwash Simulator, and data was ultimately collected from 8,695 players across 39 countries.
The survey found that nearly three-quarters (72.1%) of Powerwash Simulator players were likely to have experienced a mood boost while playing, and these players consistently reported feeling a boost after the first 15 minutes of playing.
Additionally, it has been shown that once mood is elevated, it may stabilize for several hours without returning to pre-play mood.
'Although the estimates of mood elevation associated with playing Powerwash Simulator are small, they are large enough to potentially be subjectively noticeable. The game may function not only as a mood enhancer but also as a mood stabilizer, although it is unclear whether the mood elevation persists after the game is finished. Our study supports the idea that playing games can make people feel better,' the authors write.
'The causal effect of game play and mood is tentative at best, and we do not know whether the changes in mood observed while playing Powerwash Simulator would occur with other games, non-gaming activities, or no activity at all. It is also possible that mood improved simply because participants started killing time,' they wrote. 'Future studies should consider using randomized controlled trials to compare with other activities, therapeutic interventions, or games other than Powerwash Simulator.'
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