When I play games I get bored very easily, and I mean very easily. While I have an expansive game catalog, it is extremely rare for me to play most of these games even halfway. Filling a pool with all of the critically acclaimed RPGs I have dropped would still leave a pile of extras to relax on. So, when I booted up Powerwash Simulator at 11 pm I figured I would play for 10 minutes and uninstall the game. After those 10 minutes passed, it was 3 am and I still wanted to clean off the rest of the Stegoslide. The next morning I kicked myself, wondering: how could this happen?
Other games that I get really into are usually competitive. I have lots of hours in Valorant and Smash Bros Melee, but it seems weird to compare these games to a game about cleaning. Before, I hadn’t really thought about why I liked playing some games and hated others. But after getting so pulled into a game I thought I would hate, I decided to give it some thought. For the other games I play, the feeling of getting better and mastering mechanics is what gives me the most satisfaction. Winning or losing has always mattered less to me than pulling off a technical combo or good play. On the other hand, playing Powerwash Simulator didn’t make me better at spraying water. When the only real mechanic is pointing at dirt and clicking, mastering the game only takes a few minutes. So, I looked online for answers.
As I read about different reasons proposed for why people play games, I started to notice myself falling into an archetype. While the names varied in the articles I read, the theme seemed to focus on mastery and competency. But, as I was reading, I was reminded of one draw of gaming I had forgotten about, “flow.” I don’t know why it slipped my mind, but it did. A common feature of the games I normally play and Powerwash Simulator was “getting in the zone.” This feeling, also called flow, is where time falls away and your body seems to act on its own. In more poetic terms, Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi (the guy who coined the word “flow”) describes flow as the state when “the ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz.” For me, flow is the most important thing, and only certain games really let me get in the zone. Powerwash Simulator, a game where you only spray pressurized water on dirt, is one of those games.
