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Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Gaming in their golden years: why millions of seniors are playing video games
default Michelle Statham's preferred game is Call of Duty. It's fast and frenetic, involving military and espionage campaigns inspired by real history. She typically spends six hours a day livestreaming to Twitch, chatting to her more than 110,000 followers from her home in Washington state. She boasts about how she'll beat opponents, and says 'bless your heart' while hurtling over rooftops to avoid clusterstrikes of enemy fire. When she's hit, she 'respawns' – or comes back to life at a checkpoint – and jumps right back into the fray. The military shooter game has a predominantly young male user base, but Statham's Twitch handle is TacticalGramma – a nod to the 60-year-old's two grandkids. Her lifelong gaming hobby has become an income stream (she prefers to keep her earnings private, but says she has raised 'thousands' for charity), as well as a way to have fun, stay sharp and connect socially. 'A lot of people are surprised that someone my age is playing video games,' Statham admits. She finds the gameplay exhilarating. 'When I get really good long sniper shots in, or down someone out of a helicopter, that's pretty fun,' she says. Related: The thing about 'ageing gracefully': whatever you call it, I'll do it my way Statham juggles in-game multitasking with live-chatting to her multigenerational streaming audience. Younger followers have taught her slang, like the gen Z shibboleth 'skibidi'. 'I've learned some things I don't want to learn,' she says, laughing. When she tires, she plays privately off-stream to unwind. She also exercises daily, going to the gym with her daughter as part of the 75 Hard fitness challenge, to ensure gaming doesn't displace physical activity. Statham is one of the 57 million Americans over 50 who game, a cohort that represents 28% of roughly 205 million total US gamers, shows recent data from the Entertainment Software Association. According to the ESA, nearly half of Americans in their 60s and 70s play some form of PC, mobile or console video game every week, as do 36% of people in their 80s. And as more gamers like Statham enter their golden years, older adults are becoming more visible in the gamer mainstream – sometimes to the confusion of their peers on multiplayer platforms. 'Age is like having a sign around your neck saying: 'I'm old and I can't do this,'' says Will, 72, a Missouri-based retired navy veteran who prefers to keep his last name private, but streams his favorite games, like hunting simulator theHunter: Call of the Wild and air combat game Metalstorm, to 1.4 million YouTube subscribers under the username GrndpaGaming. 'That's not the case with me and other up-and-coming older gamers that are out there,' says Will. 'Someone my age can keep up with technology.' Some research suggests older adults may experience benefits from gaming, though effects depend on the type of game. There are games created to help boost memory and attention, such as those by the science-based company BrainHQ, which developed a game called Double Decision often used by researchers to test and improve people's visual processing, and the Lumosity mobile gaming app, which features a popular brain training game called Train of Thought. More generally, puzzle games like Tetris and Monument Valley, which require players to remember patterns, sequences and spatial layouts, have been shown to help players of any age improve visual memory and cognitive processing. Fitness games that incorporate physical movement, like Ring Fit Adventure or Hot Squat, may improve balance better than conventional rehabilitation in MS patients. But what about first-person shooter games? Dr Gregory West, an associate professor in psychology at the University of Montreal, ran a study on participants of all ages in 2018. He found those tasked with hours of playing first-person shooters like Call of Duty experienced a reduction in grey matter in the hippocampal region of the brain. Those who played games involving the exploration of 3D open worlds, like Super Mario 64 or The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, showed improvement in the same area. 'A reduced volume in the hippocampus is associated with a risk for neuropsychiatric illness across the lifespan,' explains West. 'During ageing, older adults with less activity and grey matter in the hippocampus are at increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.' But that doesn't mean older gamers should necessarily stop playing first-person shooters. 'It really is a mixed bag when we consider the impact of these games on the ageing brain,' admits West. For one, West's study didn't focus on how gaming affects older brains specifically, and he notes that older folks who are successful competitive gamers likely have 'pretty good cognitive abilities' to begin with. Then, there are also social benefits that come with gaming on multiplayer platforms, where first-person shooters are popular. 'Older adults, through playing video games online with other people and communicating through microphones, are receiving real social stimulation, and I think that positive benefit cannot be ignored even in the face of a possible risk for Alzheimer's disease,' he says. 'As long as you keep your brain active and functioning, you're not going to sit there and just deteriorate away,' says Will. Someone my age can keep up with technology Will, 72 Even amid percussive gunfire, the chats of combat games can be genuinely sweet. 'People always say: 'I love you, Gramps. Keep on doing what you're doing'... things like that, that really tug at your heart,' says Will. Gaming can help people with a variety of ailments, says Dr Kris Alexander, a leading authority in video game design and associate professor of media production at Toronto Metropolitan University who helped launch GameRx, an online resource hub for information about wellness and gaming. One 2017 study found that 'if you play Tetris within 48 hours of a traumatic experience, you can reduce PTSD', he tells me. 'There are studies that show that if you place burn victims in virtual reality in spaces where they're surrounded by cold elements, you can reduce their pain.' Alexander believes gaming can be good for seniors; over a video call, he shows me the custom arcade cabinet he's built to house every game he's ever owned. 'For my retirement,' he tells me. 'Absolutely, when I get older, I'm going to be playing video games.' However, common conditions like joint pain and vision decline can hinder senior gamers. As that demographic grows, so may demand for accessibility tools. And because the senior player base is relatively small, Alexander acknowledges that the high-budget gaming companies behind blockbuster titles like Call of Duty and Skyrim are unlikely to account for such needs. In 2010, Will required surgery implanting a steel plate in his skull; since then, if he sits in a chair 'for more than 20 or 30 minutes, everything from the shoulders down to the fingertips goes numb', he says. Now, he uses a hand-shaped gaming keypad called the Azeron Cyborg II, which allows users with limited hand mobility or strength to position PC keys so they're easy and comfortable to reach. Other adaptive controllers, including voice-control technology, pedals designed for control by foot or mouth, and 3D printable controller modifications for consoles like the Xbox and Playstation, are all making gaming increasingly accessible across playing formats. Will hopes that other seniors who see him stream will be inspired to get into gaming. 'If I can do it at my age with this handicap, you can, too,' he says. After all, you're never too old to respawn. default Solve the daily Crossword
The Star
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
They're not your grandfather's video games. But your grandfathers are playing them
In a divided America, there's one thing that most Americans have in common: playing video games. A new survey from the Entertainment Software Association found that nearly two-thirds of Americans ages 5 to 90 play video games an hour or more per week. And the players include older Americans: nearly half of Baby Boomers surveyed and 36% of the Silent Generation. "The average age of the video game player today is 36 years old, and each year it ticks up a bit," said Stanley Pierre-Louis, ESA president and CEO. "One of the things we've seen over time is the continued growth of those who play games and those who stick with games." The survey defines video games as anything online involving gamification, said Pierre-Louis, meaning that video games in the survey include puzzle games such as Wordle and mobile apps such as Candy Crush or Bejeweled . The growth is in part due to shifts in behavior because of the Covid pandemic – raising questions about the effect of the increase on mental and physical health. "One of the things we've seen since the pandemic is people consuming more media, especially on their phones," said Beth Hoffman, assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Public Health. "It makes sense that, similar to what we're seeing in terms of more people spending time on social media, they are also playing video games and doing puzzles." In some cases, the health benefits are clear. Research has shown benefits to senior citizens from doing mental exercises, and games such as Wordle , crosswords or Sudoko are easy sources of brain stimulation. Even the newly appointed Pope, 69-year-old Pope Leo XIV, plays Words with Friends, according to interviews with his brother, said Pierre-Louis. "It just shows the scope of games – that everyone plays and there is a game for everyone," he said. "We have to think of video games and who plays in a much broader way than traditional norms would dictate." The top two reasons that survey respondents in the Baby Boomer (those born from 1946-1964, as defined by Pew Research Center) and Silent Generation (born 1928-1945) listed for playing games are passing time and relaxing (77%) and keeping their minds sharp (65%). Of those generations, 73% report playing puzzle games, while 55% play skill and chance games and 20% play arcade and other games. Often, seniors start out with digital adaptations of real-life games, and then sometimes move on to other video games. "You may have started playing bridge online, but then you discovered Candy Crush," said Pierre-Louis. "The on-ramp may be something that you are very familiar with." Those game preferences contrast with younger generations. Generation Z (born 1997-2010) chooses shooter games as its top choice, whereas Generation Alpha (born 2011-2024) prefers arcade games. As for how they play, more than three-quarters of all generations report playing video games on mobile devices, with Generation X the highest at 87%. For other platforms, there are stark differences across generations. Nearly 70% of Generation Alpha report playing games on a console, versus just 7% of Boomers and the Silent Generation. The population most likely to play more than an hour per week of video games is boys in Generation Alpha (88%), followed by Generation Z boys (85%) and Generation Alpha girls (78%). Excessive video game play is linked to numerous health concerns, such as a sedentary lifestyle, perception of violence, sleep deprivation and depression. But there can also be upsides to game play, especially when those games have a social component. "There's positives here that we can think about how to accentuate, and negatives to think about how we can minimize those," said Hoffman. The report noted that most people who play video games regularly have some social component to them, be it Words with Friends or Fortnite with friends. In the report, 82% of parents who play video games said that they play them with their children, and 52% said they did so at least weekly. Of all players, 55% said that they play video games with others weekly. The majority of game players surveyed from Generation Z and Millennials (born 1981-1996) said that they had met friends through video games who they would not have met otherwise. Parents in the report also compared video games to other forms of online entertainment, with 70% saying that they preferred their children spend time playing video games than on social media. Still, said Hoffman, it is worthwhile to question the value of socializing through video games if it is replacing in-person socialisation – a group of 10-year-olds playing Fortnite with each other online, for example, rather than playing at a neighbourhood park. And with video games now a fact of life in both young and old generations, more study is needed to develop best practices. "It will be an important area of future research to look at what matters when we are looking at recommendations," she said. "Is it total time? Is it certain times per day? If people are playing video games before bed, is that associated with less sleep? It's interesting to tease out some of these nuances." – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/Tribune News Service
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
ESA Announces 2025 Recipients of the Interactive Entertainment Impact Awards
Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del), Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) and the Foundation to Eradicate Duchenne recognized as champions of the video game industry WASHINGTON, June 5, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) today announced the 2025 recipients of the Interactive Entertainment Impact Awards: Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del), Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) and the Foundation to Eradicate Duchenne (FED). Established in 2024, the awards celebrate champions of the video game industry and their efforts to enable and leverage the positive impact video games have on society. "The work of this year's awardees highlights the multifaceted value of video games that includes driving economic and workforce development and enhancing the lives of people with disabilities," said ESA President and CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis. "Our recipients understand the unique and powerful ways video games positively impact society, not just as America's favorite pastime, but as a force for connection and innovation across the country." Driving innovation and growthThe leadership of Senators Blunt Rochester and Tillis reflects a deep understanding of the industry's potential to drive innovation and economic growth. They have helped shape a policy landscape where video games can thrive by protecting creative rights, promoting emerging technologies and expanding access to education, career pathways and community connection. "I am grateful to the Entertainment Software Association for honoring me with the Interactive Entertainment Impact Award," said Sen. Blunt Rochester. "We know that video games serve an economic, social and cultural value for millions of Americans, while also being a source of entertainment and joy. I'm proud to be a champion for emerging technologies, innovation and the power of play." "As chairman of the intellectual property subcommittee, I've championed strong, predictable IP rights for the entire time I've been in the U.S. Senate," said Sen. Tillis. "I firmly believe it is key to driving creative industries. I am proud to support America's thriving video game industry and thank the Entertainment Software Association for its leadership in protecting IP rights and securing America's position as the leader in innovation." Promoting accessibility and connectivity For years, the Foundation to Eradicate Duchenne (FED) has been a dedicated advocate for the video game industry, sharing powerful firsthand experience of how video games serve as a valuable lifeline for people with disabilities. FED's support helps ensure that lawmakers understand how individuals with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy benefit from sharing in the joy, challenge and connection that video games offer. "When our son James was diagnosed with Duchenne in 2000, we never imagined he'd one day be working on Capitol Hill. As a teen, he shared how video games were an equalizing force in his life – offering connection and joy when playing physical sports wasn't possible," said Joel Wood, president, Foundation to Eradicate Duchenne. "Interactive entertainment has had a profoundly positive impact on James and so many others. We are humbled and grateful for this honor and are pleased to support the ESA's work to embrace accessibility and promote the idea that play is for everyone." Recognizing the power of playThe ESA's Interactive Entertainment Impact Awards were founded in 2024 as a way to celebrate champions of the video game industry and their work to enable and leverage the positive impact game play has on society. According to the ESA's 2025 Essential Facts Report, nearly two-thirds of Americans regularly play video games, and the benefits are not only wide-reaching but profound for individuals and the economy. In the U.S. alone, consumer spending on video games and related products has more than tripled in size over the past decade, growing from $28.4 billion in 2014 to $59.3 billion in 2024. The U.S. video game industry also generated and supported more than $101 billion in total economic impact and contributed $66 billion to U.S. GDP, as reported in the ESA's 2024 Economic Impact Report. About the ESAFounded in 1994, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has served as the voice and advocate for the U.S. video game industry for more than 30 years. Its members are the innovators, creators, publishers and business leaders that are reimagining entertainment and transforming how we interact, learn, connect and play. The ESA works to expand and protect the dynamic marketplace for video games through innovative and engaging initiatives that showcase the positive impact of video games on people, culture and the economy to secure a vibrant future for the industry for decades to come. For more information, visit the ESA's website or follow the ESA on X @theESA or Instagram @theesaofficial. View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Entertainment Software Association Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
The Star
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
How AI helps push Candy Crush players through its most difficult puzzles
LOS ANGELES: Players swiping their way through more than 18,700 levels of Candy Crush Saga might be surprised to learn they're solving puzzles designed with an assist from artificial intelligence. The app that helped make gamers out of anyone with a smartphone uses AI to help developers create levels to serve a captive audience constantly looking for more sweets to squash. King, the Swedish video game developer behind Candy Crush, also uses AI to update older levels to help ensure players don't feel bored, stuck or frustrated as they spend time with the game. Todd Green, general manager of the Candy Crush franchise, said using AI in that way helps free up developers' time to create new puzzle boards. It would be "extremely difficult," he said, for designers to update and reconfigure more than 18,000 levels without AI taking a first pass. Within the video game industry, discussions around the use of AI in game development run the gamut. Some game makers see AI as a tool that can assist with menial tasks, allowing designers and artists to focus on bigger projects. AI, they say, can help build richer worlds by creating more interactive non-player characters, for example. But there are also those who strongly oppose the use of AI, or who see the tech as a threat to their livelihoods – be it as video game actors and performers, or as workers who help make games. Concerns over AI led game performers with the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to go on strike in late July. "We're not putting chatbots into the game. We're not putting AI-powered design experiences into the game for players directly to play with,' Green said, adding that the tech is not being used to replace game workers. "Instead, we're trying to deploy AI on existing problems that we have in order to make the work of the teams faster or more accurate, and more accurate more quickly.' In the United States, consumer spending on video game content increased to US$51.3bil (RM220.44bil) in 2024, up from US$49.8bil (RM213.99bil) in 2023, with mobile games accounting for about half of all video game content spending, according to data from the Entertainment Software Association trade group. Mobile is now the leading game platform among players aged 8 and older, the ESA says. Candy Crush – first launched on Facebook in 2012 – is constantly updating. King recently released its 300th client version of the game. Gaming giant Activision Blizzard acquired King in 2016 for US$5.9bil. The free-to-play game is in a unique position, said Joost Van Dreunen, author of One Up: Creativity, Competition, And The Global Business Of Video Games. Candy Crush is more than a decade old, boasts millions of users and caters to a "ravenous set of players," he said. Demand is so high for new content that it makes sense to use AI to offset the work it takes to create so many levels, Van Dreunen added. "To supply that at scale, you absolutely can rely on a sort of artificial intelligence or generative AI to create the next set of forms,' he said. "The thing about Candy Crush is that every level is technically a single board that you have to solve or clear before you can advance. With AI and the existing library of human-made boards, it makes total sense to then accelerate and expand the efforts to just create more inventory. People play more levels.' King uses AI to target two separate areas: developing new levels and going back to older levels, in some cases, puzzles that are several years old, and reworking them to ensure they're still worth playing. On new levels designed for people who have played the game for a long time, the company wants to ensure the puzzles are fun "on first contact.' "That's hard for us to do, because we don't get the benefit of having many players test or play through the levels and give us feedback. We have to sort of try and pitch it right at first,' he said. "There's a really important group for us in between people who maybe played before and perhaps took a break for a while, and then coming back because they saw or heard of or were curious about what might be new.' Green said King uses AI as a behind-the-scenes assistant in the design "loop' of the game, rather than as a tool that immediately puts something new in front of players. "Doing that for 1,000 levels all at once is very difficult by hand,' he said. "So the most important thing to understand here is that we are using AI as like a custom design.' For most players, Green said, the fun in solving the puzzles lies in the "up and down.' Levels aren't designed in order of difficulty. An easy level can follow a few difficult levels – or vice versa – to give the game a sense of variety. Leveraging AI means that instead of the team working on several hundred levels each week, they could potentially improve thousands of levels per week because they're able to automate the drafting of the improved levels, he added. "We talk to players all the time,' he said. "We also get the quantitative feedback. We can see how players respond to the levels... How easy are the levels? Do they get sort of stuck, or are they progressing in the way that we hope?' To determine whether gamers and playing through the way the designers intended, King looks at several factors, including pass rate – how many times a player passes a level out of every 100 attempts – and how often a board is "reshuffled,' or refreshed with all candies rearranged. Some metrics are also intangible, like whether a level is simply fun. "It's also, to some extent, obviously subjective,' Green said. "It's different for different people.' – AP
Time of India
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
How Candy Crush uses AI to keep players coming back to its puzzles
By Sarah Parvini Players swiping their way through more than 18,700 levels of Candy Crush Saga might be surprised to learn they're solving puzzles designed with an assist from artificial intelligence . The app that helped make gamers out of anyone with a smartphone uses AI to help developers create levels to serve a captive audience constantly looking for more sweets to squash. King, the Swedish video game developer behind Candy Crush , also uses AI to update older levels to help ensure players don't feel bored, stuck or frustrated as they spend time with the game. Todd Green, general manager of the Candy Crush franchise, said using AI in that way helps free up developers' time to create new puzzle boards. It would be "extremely difficult," he said, for designers to update and reconfigure more than 18,000 levels without AI taking a first pass. Within the video game industry, discussions around the use of AI in game development run the gamut. Some game makers see AI as a tool that can assist with menial tasks, allowing designers and artists to focus on bigger projects. AI, they say, can help build richer worlds by creating more interactive non-player characters, for example. But there are also those who strongly oppose the use of AI, or who see the tech as a threat to their livelihoods - be it as video game actors and performers, or as workers who help make games. Concerns over AI led game performers with the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to go on strike in late July. "We're not putting chatbots into the game. We're not putting AI-powered design experiences into the game for players directly to play with," Green said, adding that the tech is not being used to replace game workers. "Instead, we're trying to deploy AI on existing problems that we have in order to make the work of the teams faster or more accurate, and more accurate more quickly." In the United States, consumer spending on video game content increased to $51.3 billion in 2024, up from $49.8 billion in 2023, with mobile games accounting for about half of all video game content spending, according to data from the Entertainment Software Association trade group. Mobile is now the leading game platform among players aged 8 and older, the ESA says. Candy Crush - first launched on Facebook in 2012 - is constantly updating. King recently released its 300th client version of the game. Gaming giant Activision Blizzard acquired King in 2016 for $5.9 billion. The free-to-play game is in a unique position, said Joost Van Dreunen, author of "One Up: Creativity, Competition, and the Global Business of Video Games." Candy Crush is more than a decade old, boasts millions of users and caters to a "ravenous set of players," he said. Demand is so high for new content that it makes sense to use AI to offset the work it takes to create so many levels, Van Dreunen added. "To supply that at scale, you absolutely can rely on a sort of artificial intelligence or generative AI to create the next set of forms," he said. "The thing about Candy Crush is that every level is technically a single board that you have to solve or clear before you can advance. With AI and the existing library of human-made boards, it makes total sense to then accelerate and expand the efforts to just create more inventory. People play more levels." King uses AI to target two separate areas: developing new levels and going back to older levels, in some cases, puzzles that are several years old, and reworking them to ensure they're still worth playing. On new levels designed for people who have played the game for a long time, the company wants to ensure the puzzles are fun "on first contact." "That's hard for us to do, because we don't get the benefit of having many players test or play through the levels and give us feedback. We have to sort of try and pitch it right at first," he said. "There's a really important group for us in between people who maybe played before and perhaps took a break for a while, and then coming back because they saw or heard of or were curious about what might be new." Green said King uses AI as a behind-the-scenes assistant in the design "loop" of the game, rather than as a tool that immediately puts something new in front of players. "Doing that for 1,000 levels all at once is very difficult by hand," he said. "So the most important thing to understand here is that we are using AI as like a custom design." For most players, Green said, the fun in solving the puzzles lies in the "up and down." Levels aren't designed in order of difficulty. An easy level can follow a few difficult levels - or vice versa - to give the game a sense of variety. Leveraging AI means that instead of the team working on several hundred levels each week, they could potentially improve thousands of levels per week because they're able to automate the drafting of the improved levels, he added. "We talk to players all the time," he said. "We also get the quantitative feedback. We can see how players respond to the levels... How easy are the levels? Do they get sort of stuck, or are they progressing in the way that we hope?" To determine whether gamers and playing through the way the designers intended, King looks at several factors, including pass rate - how many times a player passes a level out of every 100 attempts - and how often a board is "reshuffled," or refreshed with all candies rearranged. Some metrics are also intangible, like whether a level is simply fun. "It's also, to some extent, obviously subjective," Green said. "It's different for different people."
