Serious Games are Fun and Productive for Seniors

As Baby Boomers start to retire, we've got a brave new world of gamers coming online. In 2009 we think of gamers as being age 14-40, but the innovators of the computer world are members of the Boomer population! Think Balmer, Allen, Jobs who were born in 1955. Sun, Oracle, and Digital Equipment and Linux and IBM with the original bug lady, ... this generation is very computer literate. And if the games are there for them, they will have the time to play!

Older people may have less fear of computers than one would think, but have long regarded video gaming as no better than television in terms of wasting your time.

That can change with "serious games" and health enhancing games for the brain and exercise.

When mental health is involved -- and skills such as attention and focus are the object, the category of "serious games" even clearly recreational games can be serious too.

The fact that it’s interactive and also competitive really draws non-mainstream gamers in and helps ADD and ADHD survivors focus...be they young or old.

The Nintendo WII is a step into this territory that melds gaming with purpose in a recreational genre.

Other companies are sure to follow...