THE boffins at Oxford University have been studying the effects of PowerWash Simulator on the brain, and they’re more positive than you think.
A new genre of games gained traction in the early 2010s, known as simulators, where players perform virtual mundane tasks.
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Farming Simulator, Euro Truck Simulator, and Microsoft Flight Simulator are some of the most popular and give you the opportunity to try out the jobs for yourself.
One of the more recent entries in the genre is PowerWash Simulator, where you play as a person who pressure washes increasingly complex and unimaginably dirty structures.
Gameplay is slow-paced as you painstakingly clean away every speck of dirt, and desperately search each area for hidden grime.
It’s a simple concept done well, and players have said that the repetitive gameplay is the perfect way to relax.
Now there is the data to back it up, as a study by Oxford University and Futurlab reveals that 72% of PowerWash Simulator players reported an improvement in their mood while playing.
The study was conducted using data from 8,695 players across 39 countries, including the UK, US and Canada.
Players self-reported their mood when they booted up the game and again after 15 minutes of playing, over 67k gaming sessions.
People consistently reported an uptick in mood, even after such a short time playing.
The study aims to look into the possibility of using video games as part of mental health therapy.
However, senior author and professor Andrew Przybylski of the Oxford Internet Institute says that these results shouldn’t be applied to all video games.
The study only applies to PowerWash Simulator and Przybylski says that people should exercise “caution in generalising our findings to other games.”
Previous studies on the effects of video games on mood have mostly been conducted in a controlled environment, so this study gives a better understanding of the effects in a normal setting.
The researchers want to extend the experiment across other games, and also check the effects of games on mood compared to other leisure activities and therapeutic interventions.
It’s just the first step into the everyday effects of video games on mental health, but it shows a strong positive correlation.
So next time you’re feeling down, try booting up PowerWash Simulator and spraying down that Helter Skelter.
If you want to read more about games, check out our EA Sports FC 25 review.
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