Abstract
Digital games have become an important part of the technoscape, not only for youngsters, but for players of all ages. Older adults are a large, currently still largely untapped market for innovative game research and development. However, the current discourse on games and ageing can largely be categorized into two themes. The first theme refers to digital games framed as a way for older adults to improve certain skills. The useful, pragmatic qualities, rather than the fun, hedonic aspects of games are emphasized. The second theme identifies the various age-related constraints that prevent older adults from playing. It focuses on the cognitive and physical limitations of older adults. Underlying both themes is a reductionist perspective on ageing as merely a process of decline and debilitation. In this article, we present a “gerontoludic” manifesto. Firstly, games should not be marketed solely as having the purpose of dealing with or mitigating age-related decline and focus on positive aspects of older age (adagio 1: growth over decline). Secondly, age-related adjustments should never interfere with the actual gameplay of the game (adagio 2: playfulness over usefulness). Finally, game researchers and game industry should put more efforts in understanding what differentiates elderly players, rather than seeing them as united in their age-related impairments (adagio 3: heterogeneity over unification). As this manifesto is a first step that needs further abutment by a wider community, we welcome debate and additions from game designers and researchers to further this manifesto and to move beyond ageism in games.
Highlights
113 While the examples above are academic ones, it should be noted that the game industry has used the same rhetoric of usefulness and accessibility in the few attempts that have been made to target ageing players
The PEW Internet & American Life Project found that 23 percent of those 65 years old and over reported playing games in 2008 (Lenhart, Jones, and McGill 2008); the Entertainment Software Association estimated that 27 percent of US gamers were over 50 in 2015 (ESA 2015); and the Interactive Software Federation of Europe lists that 28percent of males and 27 percent of females between the ages of 55 and 64 are avid gamers (Bosmans and Maskell 2012)
It is safe to say that older adults are a large, attractive, yet currently still largely untapped market for innovative game research and development
Summary
113 While the examples above are academic ones, it should be noted that the game industry has used the same rhetoric of usefulness and accessibility in the few attempts that have been made to target ageing players. The academic literature does offer some exceptions that do not follow the themes above – for example studies on how older adults actively play digital games, studies on the differences between actively playing older and younger cohorts, a study on gender differences among older players, and a discourse analysis of the field (Brown 2012; De Schutter, Brown, and Vanden Abeele 2014; Levy et al 2012; Mosberg Iversen 2014).
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