Intergenerational Gameplay: Evaluating Social Interaction between Younger and Older Players

摘要

In this paper, we compared the digital gameplay of three user groups comprising of younger and older adults. Players were paired together with the game objective of cooperatively nurturing and maintaining a set of virtual garden plants using a novel form of silhouette interaction. Questionnaire and observations revealed marked differences in the communicative behavior of the age groups, with higher verbal communication amongst the older pairs, but lower gameplay competency. Variations were identified in the paired interaction of the younger and older players, highlighting the challenge of designing games to encourage intergenerational bonding.