Hi, I’m Bob De Schutter. I’m the C. Michael Armstrong professor of applied design at Miami University where I am associated with the College of Education, Health and Society, the Armstrong Institute for Interactive Media Studies, and the Scripps Gerontology Center. On Twitter I am @bobdeschutter. 1 The question I am dealing with during thistalkis how should wedesign games for older adults, what would such a gerontoludicframework look like? 2 Now this is a response to what I call the “Challenge of 2050”. In essence,our society is ageing rapidly, and by 2050 the amount of 60+ year olds on this planet will be approximately twice the amount it is today. Of course, thiswill lead to a lot of issues as our contracting retirement funds and a smaller workforce will not be able to support that many older adults that might rely on very expensive healthcare. In fact, 3 there has been a lot of drama about this issue. And to some extent thedrama is justified, because an ageing society is quite a wicked problem Ona macro-level, there are huge ramifications to our ageing society, and those consequences are spread across social, political, medical, economical and other domains. Of course, society starts with the individual. To change the world, you start with yourself, right? 4 So here is a To Do List thatwe need the check off by 2050 so we can all stay healthy. Stay at work, physically active, with a sense of purpose, with a lot of friends, without partying and no stress… I try to do that every new year, but so far my motivation has failedme. So that brings us to games… 5 We all know how motivating games are and how they can improve the lives of older adults... • Fitness -3D cameras and embodied controllers allow seniors to be physically active and fit • Brain Training -Games can lead to better reaction times and dual attention skills • Social (Online) -And the internet will have them play together and not be lonely anymore Of course, there are some problems that occur when older adults are introduced to new technologies... 6 Thisis not how you start a vacuum cleaner. So, to get older adults to use new technology, we need to do some research first, to make sure we are making a product that they will like and be able to figure out. 7 And we as academicshave been doing that. I did a scrape of Google Scholar looking for articles on games, gaming, play, older adults, seniors and the elderly. I manually looked at the results and ended with these numbers. 108 in 4 years! Wow, if we produce a similar amount of articles for the second part of the 2010s, we are looking at a 1162% increase in comparison to the 2000s. Now looking at allthe research out there, I noticed how it had largely justifiedits reason for existing on two principles… 8 Reason number 1: How can we make games that are useful for older adults? A look at the cognitive, physicaland social benefits of games. Think all the brain training and exercise games. Basically, let’s make games that will keep people productivelonger, that will keep people healthier longer, right? Nothing wrong with that, and it is good way to get grant money for research and development. Reasonnumber 2: How can me make games thatare easy enough to use for older adults? A look at the usability factors as well as the learning curves of games. Well duh, if the games are too complicated or difficult to play, then nobody will play them and nobody will benefit from all these very useful games that we are making. Again, nothing wrong there, and it is very necessary and relevant research. 9 But I would argue that this is quite a limited point of view. For a start, games are much more than a motivator devoid of any real purpose or meaning. Let me show you a short clips from the Game Developers Conference this year. 10