A survey of video game preferences in adults: Building better games for older adults

As the average North American gets older, there is an increasing need to develop better rehabilitation and wellness software for the aging. Although the use of computerized entertainment is becoming more prevalent with older adults, knowledge of their preferences and usage habits is still limited. In order to understand how preferences might change over a lifespan, we conducted a survey of older and younger adults (N = 426). The goal of this analysis was to determine in what ways the electronic preferences and activities of older adults differed from younger cohorts. Our results showed that older adult respondents generally indicated a preference for games that were easy to learn and play, but also challenging, with puzzle & strategy games being the most popular. Older adults also indicated that they played games alone rather than with friends. Finally, although younger adults used a wider variety of electronic devices, most older adults reported regularly using at least one device capable of accessing video games such as a desktop computer. These results broaden our knowledge of older adults' preferences and usage patterns for computerized entertainment, as compared to a younger cohort. These survey results can serve as a resource for game designers.