Desirable characteristics of games for older adults

A narrative video game for adults with subjective and objective cognitive impairment. Design and preliminary results on user-interaction and efficacy

“…We studied the user interaction, and report preliminary results on the efficacy of the game regarding training memory, executive functions, and efficacy expectations. In line with previous findings (Mol et al, 2021;Schwind & Henze, 2018), the older adults in our study preferred simple designs and rejected infantilized and hyper-realistic appearances for both backgrounds and avatars. In addition, our participants explicitly rejected violent video games, coinciding with the results of previous studies (Blocker et al, 2014;McKai & Maki, 2010) and the little interest such games arouse in older adults (Cota et al, 2015).…”

“…Belchior et al (2012) found a greater engagement of older adults in games where skill level adjustment and various levels of difficulty were available. Even though the aesthetic preferences of older adults are probably not homogeneous, some studies have suggested lower preference for excessively childish (Vette et al, 2018), infantilized and hyper-realistic graphical designs (Mol et al, 2021). Schwind and Henze (2018) found that older adults preferred faces with more detail and less stylization and a more traditional gender appearance for their avatars.…”