Nintendo’s Wii is not exactly breaking news anymore, but I still find it interesting. I’ve never played it myself--the last video game system I owned was the original gray Nintendo in the 1980s--but every account I see of it seems to be about how it’s bridging generational gaps and energizing a group that has never played video games: the elderly.
Amy Kraft posted about this over on her blog
Media Macaroni back in May, about how the Wii has given a common activity to her daughter and parents, an equation not usually considered with video games. Equally engaging is when the seniors go at it alone with no kids in sight, and virtual bowling tournaments seem to be the preferred activity in that regard. Here’s a great
little story from the Pittsburgh Post-Gizette. That’s from April, and more recently, in August, a similar story turned up in Kiplinger’s Retirement Report of all places. That story, which is by Jeff Bertolucci, is apparently not available online, but it recounts several personal anecdotes about seniors in Murietta, California who enjoyed bowling but, no longer at top physical form, had given it up until the Wii came along. The article details their first video bowling tournament, the enthusiasm it generated, the sore muscles afterwards, and the expectation for continuation in the future. Time for Dance Dance Revolution to make a foxtrot version?
As an addendum, here’s another quick article, with some links of its own, about the health benefits of video games for the kids. I remember Nintendo’s Power Pad coming out when I was a kid (in 1988), with all the similar talk it generated. I think video games and health will be in a perpetual love-hate relationship, but platforms like the Wii’s are continually moving us in a more symbiotic direction.
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