A Study on Use of Digital Games by Older Adults

• Main Authors: HSU,YI-CHEN, 徐以臻
• Other Authors: WANG,LING-LING
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/uma7my

碩士 === 亞洲大學 === 資訊傳播學系 === 105 === Population aging is a global trend in the 21st century. As the advent of aging society and the advances of digital technologies, we target the older people and investigate the impact of digital games on their physical and mental health. In this study, semi-structured in-depth interviews are used to collect data. The persons aged 55 years or over are recruited from a snowball sampling technique and interviewed individually. The 20 interviewees are between 55 and 82 years old. Their educational levels cover from elementary school diploma to doctorate. The interviews are between 30 and 90 minutes. The interview questions include: personal background information, experience in digital games, impact of digital games on physical and mental health, needs of games for older adults and so on. After the interviews, analyzation and summarization are made according to the interview data, and the following findings are obtained. The older adults have high self-control skills in playing games; they usually do not indulge in games for a long time and spend money to play games. Their game replacement rate is low. They are interested in those games which are easy to play, challenging, and entertaining, and can be played alone. Some respondents recon that digital games designed specifically for the older people are needed; others think that many games appropriate for young people are also suitable for older adults as long as their interfaces are age-friendly. The results of this study will provide a reference for game developers to design and produce games.