Gaming when you’re grey
05 January 2010
Happy new year to all – and I start the new year with a question. How game are you?
Only Wednesday and already the Christmas break has receded into the aging recesses of my consciousness. But this aging mind was assaulted by something new over the holiday period, something I have resisted for many years. But pester power (dished out by my 11 year old son) finally won the day and I gave in - to computer games. For someone who has managed to waste many hours playing solitaire and minesweeper in the past, I always viewed more sophisticated computer games as a forbidden fruit. Something to be enjoyed by a younger generation with more time on their hands. But after I got over the humiliation of being patronised by my son (apparently I did quite well for an old man), I actually quite enjoyed it. The skills involved for FIFA 2010 evaded me but the Mario Kart was good and I am now, apparently, world champion at the javelin.
The reason I mention this is not because I think anyone is in the slightest bit interested in my holiday activities (you will not be surprised to know that I don’t Twitter), but because it ties in with a press release that I read this morning. It appears that ‘old people’ are warming to the idea of computer gaming and it is therefore a market that is growing in more directions than traditionally thought. In particular Nintendo’s Wii has appeal to all ages as it appears to offer the benefits of allowing players to have all the health benefits of a full game of tennis in their own lounge, even if the reality is slightly less energetic. There was a report earlier this week on the BBC web site (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8437444.stm) about a French nursing home that had converted its residents into Wii fans.
Beyond physical fitness it is probably no surprise that, according to the research by myvouchercodes.co.uk, mental fitness was the number one priority, with ‘brain trainers’ being the top games – the Nintendo DS being the favoured console. So this is a very real market for new equipment and games platforms that goes beyond people like me, who are really only piggy-backing on the younger generation. What is more is that there is an increasing desire to have gaming functionality on as many electronic devices as possible – if we could play FIFA 2010 on our microwave we might be more successful in encouraging our son to tackle basic cooking!
And beyond spreading the joys of the games themselves, some of the technology is leading edge and is transferable to potential applications such as medical, military and automotive.
So despite my personal reluctance to embrace the gaming world – really based on no more than a lack of desire to spend my leisure time as well as my work time on a computer – I have to admit the game is far from up!
My intention is to continue this theme next week when I hope to report on the hottest new products at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
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