Games companies have put loads of attention recently into convincing so-called minority demographics to plonk out cash for interactive entertainment, but while there's been a real push towards attracting the female market and the casual gamer market, little research has gone into seeking the finances of "grey" gamers. According to the BBC's 2005 State of Play survey of UK gamers, 18% of 54-65 year olds play games. While that number's dwarfed by the volume of younger folks who plug in, it's still a pretty decent proportion of the population. Still, we know very little about the gaming experiences of this age group. To address the gap in knowledge, researchers from University of London, Birkbeck College, University of London, the IT-University of Copenhagen, the London Knowledge Lab and others in the independent education research sector have launched Project60+ to examine:
the role games play in the lives of people over the age of 60. The aim of the study is to develop a better understanding of how game players over 60 are using games, particularly video games.
Researcher Siobhan Thomas is one of the team. She explained the driving force behind the research to me this morning:
Basically the project began because my gut instinct is that the over 55 games audience is being overlooked. The nice side affect of this work is that it will hopefully dismantle the stereotypes held about individuals over 60--and gamers!
There are two ways people over 60 can contribute to this research: fill in the online survey, and email anecdotal stories about gaming - for example, what you play and how you got started.
Videogames are only one aspect of the project. They're interested in hearing from people who play offline games as well.
Grey gamers can seek out like-minded others here, here and here.
