Playing Video Games Can Be Good For Your Mood

Study by University of Oxford in collaboration with PowerWash Simulator reveals playing video games can be good for your mood

Oxford Internet Institute carried out the first of its kind study, to understand more about the short-term effects of playing video games.

FuturLab and Oxford Internet Institute, part of the University of Oxford, is excited to reveal the results of a new international study that shows positive mood changes during video game play – with data collected from players of PowerWash Simulator who opted to take part in the study via a research edition of the game.

The study looked at player data from 67,328 gaming sessions from 8,695 players in 39 countries, analysing their mood before and during gameplay. Across 162,325 in-game mood reports from players of PowerWash Simulator, the average player reported a more positive mood during play than at the start of each session. Researchers predict 72% of players experience this uplift in mood during the play session based on statistical modeling of player data.

Link to study: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3659464

About the study

The study analysed data from players in 39 countries, including the US, UK, Canada and Germany and found that PowerWash Simulator’s players’ moods rapidly increased during gameplay. Players consistently reported a higher mood after the first fifteen minutes of the play session compared to the start of each session.

The researchers collaborated with PowerWash Simulator’s developer, FuturLab, to develop a research edition of the game that recorded gameplay events, game status records, participant demographics and responses to psychological survey items. This latest analysis is based on a dataset the team previously published in the journal Scientific Data last year.

Lead author Assistant Professor Matti Vuorre, Tilburg University and Research Associate, Oxford Internet Institute said: “At present short-term changes in video game players’ moods are poorly understood. Gameplay research frequently relies on artificial stimuli, with games created or modified by academic researchers, typically played in a lab environment rather than a natural context. Instead, we wanted to know how real play in natural contexts might predict player mood on short timescales.”

Commenting on the findings, second author Nick Ballou, Postdoctoral Researcher, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford said, “By investigating player experiences during natural play of a popular and commercially available game, we found strong evidence for a small positive change in mood over the course of a play session.  Our current study corroborates what qualitative research and reports from video game players around the world have long suggested: People feel good playing video games”.

They also looked at differences in mood uplift between the population of similar PWS players. The Oxford team statistically modelled between-person differences in mood shifts in the population of PWS players. They found that nearly three-quarters of players (72.1%) were likely to experience an uplift in their mood during PowerWash Simulator play.

James Butlin, Lead Programmer at FuturLab Ltd said: “Working with the team at Oxford Internet Institute was incredibly insightful! They were very supportive throughout and actively engaged with our challenge of designing a user experience that could deliver the study questions with minimal impact on the gameplay.”

Unlike other studies in this field, the Oxford study is the first of its kind to examine changes in mood during play sessions in a minute-by-minute resolution. The research edition was nearly identical to the main game, with the addition of in-game pop-ups asking players to report their mood, delivered by a newly created character called ‘The Researchers’ making them part of the game lore, ensuring minimal disruption to the player experience.

Senior author Professor Andrew Przybylski, Oxford Internet Institute adds: “We believe our findings are most consistent with the notion that gaming – for most people – is a recovery activity that helps to manage day-to-day stresses and mood fluctuations, without necessarily having substantial long-term impacts.

“The fact that we studied only one game – and one that is not likely representative of today’s most commonly played games – suggests caution in generalizing from our findings to other games.  Future work should consider the use of randomised controlled trials to evaluate the effect of playing PowerWash Simulator or other games compared to other leisure activities or therapeutic interventions.

Ultimately better understanding the multiverse of play, including temporal patterns, social experiences, in-game behaviours and events, players’ personalities, its antecedents and consequences warrants continued research efforts coordinated across and beyond academia.”

The paper ‘Affective Uplift During Video Game Play: A Naturalistic Case Study’ by Matti Vuorre, Nick Ballou, Thomas Hakman, Kristoffer Magnusson and Andrew K. Przybylski is published open access in the journal Games: Research and Practice.

About the Research  

The work by Matti Vuorre and Andrew. K. Przybylski was supported by the Huo Family Foundation which had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the article.  The study was approved by the University of Oxford Central University Research Ethics Committee.  (SSH_OII_CIA_21_011).

About FuturLab

FuturLab is an award-winning game studio based in Brighton, UK. We have developed and published remarkable games on PC and console since 2003. Our best known titles include: Velocity 2X, Tiny Trax, Mini-Mech Mayhem, Peaky Blinders: Mastermind and, most recently, PowerWash Simulator. We believe that healthy and happy teams create the best games, which is why we promote a positive working environment with many benefits and zero crunch.

futurlab.co.uk

About the OII  

The Oxford Internet Institute (OII) is a multidisciplinary research and teaching department of the University of Oxford, dedicated to the social science of the Internet. Drawing from many different disciplines, the OII works to understand how individual and collective behaviour online shapes our social, economic and political world. Since its founding in 2001, research from the OII has had a significant impact on policy debate, formulation and implementation around the globe, as well as a secondary impact on people’s wellbeing, safety and understanding. Drawing on many different disciplines, the OII takes a combined approach to tackling society’s big questions, with the aim of positively shaping the development of the digital world for the public good. https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/

About the University of Oxford Oxford University has been placed number one in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for the seventh year running, and ​number two in the QS World Rankings 2022. At the heart of this success are the twin-pillars of our ground-breaking research and innovation and our distinctive educational offer. Oxford is world-famous for research and teaching excellence and home to some of the most talented people from across the globe.