Console Games For Older Adults – Welcome to the Not Old Better Show. I’m Paul Vogelzang and today’s show is brought to you by NORD VPN and Inside Tracker.
I think you will enjoy today’s show as we are specifically talking about sports, video games. When you think of “gamer,” you don’t think of a 65-year-old man or woman spending the afternoon on a Wii, PS 2, or X Box, or Nintendo Switch. But think again – 21% of people who play video games are over 50 years old. What’s more, some of those former “athletes” seem to reap significant health benefits as a result.
Console Games For Older Adults
Here are the social, cognitive and physical benefits that video games and virtual reality (VR) can provide to seniors.
Video Games Provide Entertainment For All Ages
“They love it,” says our “guest today, Andy Karl of The Virginian in Fairfax, Virginia.” Andrew Karl, The Virginian’s executive director, serves as chief advisor and founder of the nation’s only graduate concentration in senior living administration. Georgetown University Program in Aging and Health. In 2004, he coined the term “Nana” technology and consulted on technology for older adults with companies including APPLE, Nintendo, GTX Corporation, and Vigorous Mind.
Andy Carl tells us that part of their enjoyment comes from the fact that the game is not competitive – just great fun for the players. “We encourage everyone to be happy for each other,” she said, “and it helps everyone have more fun because they’re happy for everyone.” The installation of the new, innovative system, “OB for Seniors,” is part of Virginian’s ‘high-touch, high-tech’ state-of-the-art extended memory care program. Virginians will be among the first senior living communities in the nation to use technology demonstrated by senior staff to improve cognitive stimulation and motor skills, encouraging seniors to get active and participate in activities. OB for Seniors is an award-winning interactive gaming system that turns any physical space into an immersive and highly entertaining experience for seniors.
We’ll be talking about that and more on the show today, so please join me in welcoming Andy Carl to The Not Old Better Show.
My thanks to NORD VPN and Inside Tracker for sponsoring today’s event. Please support our sponsors. My thanks to Andy Carl and his team for making this a great title. My thanks to you, my wonderful Not Old Better Show viewers. Please stay safe, stay well and let’s talk better. Good show not old. Thank you, everyone.
Memory Games And Brain Games For Seniors
The Not Old – Good Show is a podcast that focuses on hot issues and topics of interest to those 50+ and their families. When you make a purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
Trish Martinelli, 52, a federal employee, has a daily afternoon meeting with her virtual video game team. Michael Zick, 66, a digital marketing consultant, takes a break from playing Forge of Empires, an empire-building strategy game. Isn’t the age of Martinelli and the sick video game over? Under no circumstances; In fact, they are part of a growing trend.
According to an AARP survey, 44% of adults over 50 played video games at least once a month in 2019 — the average was five hours a week — compared to 38% in 2016, 10 million older gamers. The AARP survey includes players of all types of computer or video games, and the majority play puzzle and logic games like Sudoku or Words With Friends. But Alison Bryant, senior vice president of AARP research, says a 2020 survey by MRI-Simmons found that about a quarter of gamers play multiplayer games using a video system, and a third of that group identify as moderate or heavy gamers.
Older people are used to discovering video games through their children or grandchildren. Now, as Bryant says, it’s “about their generation and their peers.” Children who grew up playing video games in the 1970s and 1980s, when video games first became popular, are transitioning into adulthood.
A Brief Look Into Video Games For Older Adults
Profit and prosper with the best expert advice on investments, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more – straight to your email.
For non-gamers, the classic image of a video gamer is a teenager lying on the couch in front of a TV screen, pressing buttons on controllers as he kills another villain. However, many video games can now be played on computers, laptops, tablets and phones, and the variety of games is endless. They can be more social than people think.
There are other benefits as well. “Our study and many [others] have found that if older adults play cognitively challenging video games, they can improve cognitive abilities,” says Jason Elaire, assistant professor of psychology at North Carolina State University. He also runs a lab called “Gains Through Gaming”.
In a 2012 study, participants aged 60 to 77 were tested for the first time to measure, among other things, spatial ability, memory and attention. One group played the popular interactive fantasy video game World of Warcraft for 14 hours over two weeks. Others did not. When both groups were retested two weeks later, the athletes who scored best on the baseline cognitive function showed no improvement, but those who scored the worst “saw the most improvement,” Allaire says. “I want to emphasize that playing video games is an easy and fun way to be intellectually stimulated, but it’s not a cure-all,” he adds. It’s just another tool in the toolkit.
Healthy Gaming Habits For Kids, Teens And Adults
A later study, in 2017, recruited 33 people aged 55 to 75, who were randomly assigned to play the classic video game Super Mario 64 for 30 minutes a day for six months, not to learn piano or the same amount of time. Do a specific task. According to Gregory West, associate professor of psychology at the University of Montreal and co-author of the study, MRI of the brain only showed increased gray matter volume in the athletes after the study, which decreases with age. The increased gray matter is in the hippocampus, which affects spatial and episodic memory, as well as in the cerebellum, which affects motor control and balance, he says.
MRIs found improved brain function in the pianists, while atrophy was found in those who did not, West said. Not enough is known about how video games affect brain health long-term, but, he adds, “if we keep our hippocampus healthy, it’s beneficial.”
One problem is teaching people how to play games or use video console controllers. Many participants in West’s experiment had trouble learning the movements required to manipulate the Nintendo Wii console’s controllers or move the character around. Although only two people dropped out of the group who played piano using a keyboard connected to a computer, nearly 50% of the video gamers hadn’t quit after six months, West said.
Researchers and companies are trying to make video games more user-friendly. West says he and his colleagues are developing virtual environment tools that stimulate the hippocampus, similar to Super Mario. Bryant adds that Microsoft created a more accessible controller for those with limited mobility.
What Gaming System Is Best For Older Adults?
As long as it requires multi-tasking, spatial manipulation and memory, the branding game is not important. For starters, Candy Crush and Animal Crossing are very easy to learn and play. Shooting games like Call of Duty don’t promote good brain function the way games that require you to navigate or build do, West says. The key is to learn new games or play different levels of the same game.
Some senior players have made a name for themselves, such as 84-year-old Shirley Curry, who has amassed hundreds of thousands of YouTube viewers and plays the fantasy video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim that follows her.
You don’t need to make video games a big part of your life. Martinelli, from Northern Virginia, is involved in a game called June’s Journey. Set in the 1920s, Joe is a crime-solving detective. Martinelli says she plays for 20 minutes in the morning—she’s learned to set a timer so the hours don’t waste—and in the afternoon she meets a group she can play in a game called Cafe. She enjoys occasionally playing World of Warcraft with her grown son, who lives across the country. For Martinelli and others, video games have become another way to stay connected.
Zick, who lives in San Diego, says he belongs to the Forge of Empire “guild” that works together to cooperate, supply trade, and attack other guilds. The forum includes players from around the world, but he has met a few in person. Most are young players, he says, but a fair number are older, including what he calls “cracking deacons.”
Survey: Millennials Spend More Time Gaming Than Gen Z
“It definitely helps me stay sharp. You’re always thinking ahead, calculating the odds,” says Sikh. The Forge of Empires begins in the Stone Age and each level is a different era. “I am now of the age of Mars,
Group games for older adults, xbox games for older adults, memory games for older adults, brain games for older adults, switch games for older adults, best games for older adults, party games for older adults, iphone games for older adults, board games for older adults, fun games for older adults, outdoor games for older adults, games for older adults
