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    It’s official: You can virtually power wash your way to a better mood – An Oxford University study showed that playing the eponymous game Powerwash Simulator (PWS) showed a small improvement in the moods of more than 70% of its participants.


    It’s official: You can virtually power wash your way to a better mood – An Oxford University study showed that playing the eponymous game Powerwash Simulator (PWS) showed a small improvement in the moods of more than 70% of its participants.

    https://newatlas.com/mental-health/power-wash-video-game-improved-moods/

    Bytes Europe

    View 14 Comments

    14 Comments

    1. mvea on

      I’ve linked to the news release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

      https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3659464

      From the linked article:

      It’s official: You can virtually power wash your way to a better mood

      We officially have proof that video games are good for your mood – well, at least one in particular. An Oxford University study showed that playing the eponymous game Powerwash Simulator (PWS) showed a small improvement in the moods of more than 70% of its participants.

      Independent researchers from the Oxford Internet Institute collaborated with UK-based game studio FuturLab to measure this by developing a custom edition of its popular title in 2022, which included a few tweaks to survey players’ moods. By gathering data from 8,695 players across 67,328 play sessions, they recorded an ‘affective uplift’ during play among 72% of participants, with the bulk of it occurring during the first 15 minutes.

    2. MemberOfInternet1 on

      Hahaha, I really wanna try this game now. I’m disappointed that no other games were included though.

      >”This study was not an experiment, nor did we employ methods required for rigorous causal inference from observational data, and therefore our results regarding the causal effects of video game play on mood are tentative at best,” the team notes in the study [paper](https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3659464). “Without a control condition, we have nothing to compare our results to: we cannot say if the changes in mood observed during PWS play would have occurred with other games, non-game activities, or indeed no activity at all. “

    8. AllanfromWales1 on

      So if I’m feeling bored or stressed out and decide to play a video game to help me relax, I feel better for doing so?

    10. Nickcha on

      Yeah you know why? Because humans actually want to work at something that gives a visible, tangible result and games in general are subsidizers for that, games that simulate actual work, oh wonder, are even better at subsidizing that feeling.
      Over the last about 200-300 years modern humanity just forgot about that fact.
      Probably the same goes for people that play competitive games and ONLY win, though that’s pretty much impossible and therefore difficult to find and compare for a study.
      Wouldn’t be surprised at all if farming simulator, animal crossing, house flipper and lawn mower simulator and all similar games come to the same results as this one.

    11. Zephyr104 on

      Sounds like bought and paid for advertising from big power wash sim

      I am curious how the proposal for this study was put together. We’ll buy a video game and observe people playing it sounds kinda wild to me.

    14. withwhichwhat on

      I bet the mood improvement would be even more if the washer fluid continued getting restocked in the store after you’re done with the campaign and just doing all the DLCs.