Gaming with Grandmas and Grandpas
I play video games with seniors in retirement facilities a few times a week. I try to show them new games and new tech but we seem to always go back to playing Wii bowling…
Wii bowling is the king of gaming in senior facilities.
I have tried too show off all sorts of video games with older indivudals: Halo, Overwatch, Forza, Mario, Smashbros, Zelda, Donkey Kong, Kinect Fitness, Fruit Ninja, Angry Birds, Chess… and so many more But it seems we always return to Wii Sports Bowling on the Nintendo Wii system.
Wii Sports Bowling seems to be the perfect game for seniors. Many video games focus on the speed and accuracy of the player. The best shot or the quickest reaction time will win the game. In Wii bowling this is not the case. The game mimics the actual activity of bowling, including the swinging of the arm with the nifty Wii-mote motion controls. The game was released in November 2006, so at the writing of this it is just about 12 years old. Any reader has probably played it more than a few times. The Wii game system was the hot item about a decade ago where you could not find it on the shelves of stores. Because of the active controls and family friendly games these Wii systems became a staple of retirement and nursing home communities. Seniors started to play because of the novelty of “playing bowling on the TV”, and many seniors still play it, some play every day.
How did Wii Bowling infiltrate gaming for seniors
The popularity of Wii was widespread in the mid-to-late 20-oughts. The Wii was released in 2006, and the Wii sport game was known as a “pack-in” game. Meaning every system shipped with the Wii Sport game included. Even seniors could not avoid the media around the release. It was right before Christmas and the mania around Wii was very apparent and in the news constantly. The system was small and it was more about the fun of play and seem to cater to families instead of gamers.
A year earlier the Xbox 360 was released and the Playstation released their console against the Wii. The Wii hardware was certainly not as powerful as the other consoles.
It was however smaller and much cheaper, and seemed to focus on the ease of use and the gaming as a family aspect. This appealed to any senior community. Seniors could play a game with their grandchildren, and many seniors probably trained to the point of beating those children.
The navigation and controls are as easy as flicking your wrist. Once a senior is empowered to start the console and launch the game, they show their friends and this process spreads through aging communites. This power and accessability needs to be used for good!
How can we leverage games for research?
^ That is the question. There are few ways I have thought about using Wii bowling to help research.
- Use it as a recruiting tool.
- Aging research usually need to recruit participants for thier studies. Fun activities a good way to get people in the door, and will put them at ease with the researcher and open to what their are pitching
- Activity tracking.
- Use the data from the wii bowling as a activity proxy. Count the time played and even the wrist movement with an accelerometer.
- Pair the Wii bowling with other technology
- The wii is technology and even though the aging community is thought to be stereotypically adverse to new tech this is not always true. Relate to computer or other device to the Wii, so aging people will be able to navigate and troubleshoot tech.
- Mimic the game design of Wii for research aims.
- Mimic the game desing and naviation in an app or game that is specific for research aims. While not necessarily aiming for people that have Wii bowling experience, this design is shown to be learned and adopted by seniors.
What is next?
I do not know what the next hot, senior center game will be. If there is ever a “killer” app for the VR/AR/XR platforms… this might be the future of retirment home activity rooms. Only time will tell.
This is a picture of a nursing home I volunteered at, Wii bowling was the “social event of the week”
