Exergaming for Elderly Persons: Analyzing Player Experience and Performance

Abstract

Although research results suggest that playing physically exerting games has a positive impact on senior citizens’ overall well-being, commercially available products are rarely designed with senior users in mind. In this paper, we present an evaluation including Nintendo Wii Fit balance games and our own interaction prototype SilverBalance aimed to examine the accessibility and overall feasibility of the Nintendo Balance Board as input device among elderly players. In this context, we compared the gaming performance of active senior citizens and members of a full-care nursing home who require extensive care and are dependent on assistive devices when walking. While the results show that age-related impairments do have an impact on the use of video games among frail elderly in terms of player performance, they also suggest that the individual enjoyment of engaging in games is not affected by age and may therefore represent a promising opportunity for future game design efforts.