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Long maligned as antisocial escapism for sulky nerds and introverts, video games could be a way to feel happy, at least temporarily, according to the University of Oxford in England.
Well, one game at least. A study of gamers found that after playing PowerWash Simulator, seven out of 10 gamers reported being in a better mood than they were before they picked up a controller.
“We find that playing [the] popular commercial video game [PowerWash Simulator] is linked with a small improvement in mood,” the researchers said in findings published in the journal Games: Research and Practice.
“People feel good playing video games,” according to the University of Oxford’s Nick Ballou, who claimed what the team found “corroborates what qualitative research and reports from video game players around the world have long suggested”.


While the research focused on a single game, it assessed almost 8,700 gamers in 39 countries and was based on data from them playing in their natural environment rather than in a laboratory.
“At present, short-term changes in video game players’ moods are poorly understood,” said Matti Vuorre, a professor at Tilburg University in the Netherlands and a research associate at the Oxford Internet Institute, who said the team “wanted to know how real play in natural contexts might predict player mood on short timescales”.
Futurlab, the developer of PowerWash Simulator, provided the team with a “research edition” of the game, which Oxford said is “nearly identical” to the commercially available PowerWash Simulator played around the world.
The research version of the game has almost the same content as the main game, although the multiplayer and non-English-language support options have been disabled.

A new character in the research edition allows researchers to contact the player – they get in touch with them throughout the study and occasionally ask questions about the experience.
The Oxford study followed the publication in August of a paper by a team in Japan, home to some of the world’s biggest video game companies, in which scientists said they “found that game-console ownership, along with increased game play, improved mental well-being”.
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Health

Playing PowerWash Simulator left 7 out of 10 gamers feeling happier after play than before, a study of 8,700 gamers in 39 countries finds


Playing PowerWash Simulator left 7 out of 10 gamers feeling happier after play than before, a study of 8,700 gamers in 39 countries finds.


Mental health

Nintendo