Retirees are starting to get in on the “game.”
While millennials think they have the gaming market cornered, it would behoove them to remember it was the gray-haired grandpas who jammed into video arcades at the beginning of the digital entertainment era.
Struggling with loneliness and boredom, some senior video gamers have found community, activity and fun as they explore worlds of fantasy. They also help charge mental acuity in older folks, reported Melma Magazine.
One senior, David, realized he had a little too much time on his hands when he finally retired from the IT industry at 65. In an attempt to keep his mind and hand-eye coordination sharp, he remembered playing video games back in his day – which was Space Invaders.
“I had an online friend who I knew was a serious gamer — she’d even reviewed games for a magazine for a time — and I asked her to recommend a game and teach me how to play it,” he told Melma. “We settled on Star Wars: The Old Republic or SWTOR. We’d play together every night, and she helped me get over the learning curve of how to play an online RPG.”
Six years later, David is as skilled as any youngster and even dove headfirst into Gen Z’s game of choice, Fortnite for a few months, but realized he “could never devote enough time to it to become good enough to beat the kids and pros I was playing against.”
He typically plays on weekend afternoons if there’s nothing else going on in his house, which is often. “If I’m really into a game, I’ll play during weekdays as well.” And while Star Wars: The Old Republic is still his favorite — “It’s like comfort food; I’ve played all factions, characters and expansions, sometimes several times” — he also enjoys trying new games (e.g., World of Warcraft, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt).
Obviously, it’s probably inevitable that younger generations who have grown up with video games will wheel a cart full of controllers and game systems into retirement homes. But Boomers like David are becoming more and more aware of the mental and increasingly communal benefits of video games, too.
